Feb 26 2020

SB 89 Could Prevent Disaster For Ohio Public Schools

Without legislative action, Ohio public schools face a funding crisis as expanded eligibility for private school vouchers could drain local school districts of state funding necessary to operate.

The latest data from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission clearly shows that House-passed changes to the EdChoice voucher program (contained in amendments to Senate Bill 89) would offer a needed reprieve to children in public school districts across the state when compared to the status quo if nothing changes.

Lawmakers are currently debating two solutions to the voucher crisis, but the House plan, contained in Senate Bill 89, is preferred by most education groups.

That’s because Senate Bill 89 eliminates the performance-based EdChoice voucher which awards students a private school voucher if their local school building fails on even a single state report card measure. Recent changes to state report cards have driven a huge increase in the number of districts slated to lose students and funding as early as next year.

If left unchecked, 1,227 buildings – more than 1/3 of all Ohio public school buildings – would qualify for a voucher next year, potentially increasing the amount of money spent on the state’s 5 voucher programs to $500 million or more a year.

A bar graph that shows the drastic increase in spending on Ohio's 5 school voucher programs that siphon tax dollars from public schools to find private schools. — Bar graph illustrating how the historical cost of Ohio’s voucher programs has skyrocketed.

Senate Bill 89 would reduce that expansion in buildings losing funding and students to vouchers by significantly limiting eligibility for any new vouchers based on school building “performance” (as measured by state report cards).

Senate Bill 89 retains the state’s other, income-based version of the EdChoice voucher, which would be limited to families earning up to 300 percent of poverty. Under the plan, the state would begin directly funding vouchers, eliminating the transfer of taxpayer dollars meant for kids in local public schools to private schools.

Here is how it plays out for a few key State Senators who would need to vote to agree to House changes to Senate Bill 89 for it to become law:

Buildings At Risk of Voucher Funding Losses: Status Quo vs Senate Bill 89

The Problem			The Proposal
Senator	2019-20 school year	2020-21, if nothing changes (current law)	If SB89 passes, 2020-21
Dolan	8	24	3
Hottinger	12	59	0
Kunze	4	32	2
Obhof	7	31	3
Peterson	18	62	6

*Please note that a school district is counted as part of the Senate District if the Senator represents 10% or more of the school district.

Click to view complete data

The impacts on many vulnerable lawmakers in an election year are stark.

If Senate Bill 89 were to become law, Franklin County Senator Stephanie Kunze would see the number of voucher-eligible buildings set to lose students and funding to private schools in the 2020-2021 school year go from 32 to just two. Similarly, Cuyahoga County’s Sen. Matt Dolan would see eligible buildings plunge from 24 to 3.

Even members of Senate leadership would see major benefits from the passage of Senate Bill 89.

State Sen. Jay Hottinger, in line to have 59 voucher-designated buildings in his senate district next year, would see that number drop to zero under Senate Bill 89, while State Sen. Bob Peterson would see his district’s 62 voucher-eligible buildings drop to 6. Even Senate President Larry Obhof would see his buildings drop from 31 to 3.

Statewide, under Senate Bill 89, the number of eligible buildings would drop from potentially 1,227 next school year to just 343.

An attached spreadsheet shows how Senate Bill 89 would address the voucher explosion in all Senate districts.

The analysis is clear: Senate Bill 89 is needed to address the immediate voucher crisis facing Ohio public school districts

Feb 05 2020

Voucher Proponents Sue Ohio Over 60-Day Delay

Pro-voucher forces have sued the state over a meager 60-day deal to delay the initial sign-up period for taxpayer-funded vouchers to send students to private schools.

Lawmakers moved the deadline from Feb. 1 to April 1.

This recent lawsuit on behalf of families seeking vouchers and religious private schools was spurred by a meager 60-day delay which allows lawmakers to address significant problems with a program that has skyrocketed in taxpayer cost over the last few years.

First of all, let us be extremely clear. The Ohio Constitution guarantees zero right for families opting to send their students to private schools to receive a taxpayer subsidy to do so.

However, there is a constitutional provision requiring that the state establish a system of common, public schools – a system that has yet to be fixed.

60 days vs. 10,200 days

Ohio’s school funding formula produces drastically different outcomes in poor districts versus wealthy districts. The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered four times that our system be fixed because the state relies too much on property taxes to equitably pay for the education of Ohio’s 1.7 million students.

Ohio’s school funding system is as unconstitutional today as it was more than 10,200 days ago when the DeRolph lawsuit was first filed. Sixty days doesn’t seem very long in comparison.

The delay spurring this recent lawsuit on behalf of families and religious private schools entailed a meager 60-days to address structural problems with a program that has skyrocketed in taxpayer cost over the last few years.

Competing priorities cause 60-day delay

What caused the 60-day delay? State Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, wants to fix education not by investing in the system for 90 percent of Ohio’s students as Ohio’s Constitution demands, but by removing hundreds of millions of dollars from that system and instead handing it out to families that make as much as $100,000 a year or more to subsidize their child’s private school education.

The stated intent of vouchers is to give an out to students in “failing” school districts. Huffman wants to give vouchers even to students who never attended the qualifying public school districts in the first place.

Because of the primary way the vouchers are funded – directly removing state money from traditional public school districts – vouchers leave many districts with substantially less state aid. This loss of funding forces districts to choose between more frequent and larger property tax levies or fewer opportunities for students in districts.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, doesn’t want the program to be based on the report card performance of school districts because everyone in the General Assembly agrees that the current state report card is deeply flawed.

Speaker Householder also does not want the money to be directly deducted from school districts’ state funding amounts. He wants the state to pay for vouchers directly.

A list of Ohio’s different school voucher types

While both sides could not agree on the future course of EdChoice performance-based vouchers before Saturday’s deadline (necessitating the delay), the fact that there are serious divisions among the Ohio Republican Caucuses suggests that changes may be soon to come.

Is a comprehensive fix for our broken school funding in sight?

In the background of this conversation about vouchers lingers the Cupp-Patterson education funding plan. If modified, Cupp-Patterson could provide the long-awaited fix to Ohio’s education finance system for the 90 percent of students attending our state’s public schools.

Speaker Householder has made it very clear that fixing school funding is a top priority for him.

We shall see how this all shakes out.

Vouchers do not produce better outcomes for students

Meanwhile, let us not forget that a pro-voucher group – the Thomas B. Fordham Institute – found a few years ago that “the students who actually left the public schools—at least those on the margin of eligibility—perform worse on statewide tests.”

Recently, I compared how public school districts performed on state tests versus how private schools taking vouchers in those communities performed.

In 8 of 10 cases, public school districts outperformed voucher schools by an average of 27 percentage points.

The 2 of 10 cases where the private school performed better was by a far more modest 9 percentage points (and that’s assuming every voucher provider with a mailing address is actually in that city, which we know is not true, but I wanted to be as generous as possible to the voucher schools).

Ohio is pouring more and more taxpayer money into a program that doesn’t appear to improve outcomes for our students but rather harms them.

Feb 03 2020

Statehouse Preview: Fairness Act Supporters Get Key Hearing

This week, lawmakers will hear from supporters of the House version of the Ohio Fairness Act (HB369). The bill would prohibit discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Hundreds of Ohioans are expected to submit in-person or written testimony on Tuesday in which they will lawmakers to end Ohio’s system of legal discrimination once and for all.

Take one minute to use our advocacy tools to send a letter to your lawmakers in support of the Ohio Fairness Act.

House committees will also hear from sponsors of two new pro-gun proposals this week. House Bill 425, which eliminates the duty to inform law enforcement officials of the presence of a concealed weapon and House Bill 178, which would effectively allow concealed weapons anywhere without a permit will receive sponsor testimony.

New Legislation
Below is one bill that was introduced last week that we’ll be keeping an eye on in the coming months:

SB 262 (Williams) – Charter/Voucher Funding – to require the direct payment of state funding to community schools and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics schools; to require the direct payment of K-12 state scholarships; and to make an appropriation.

>> You can monitor the status of all the bills we are watching here.

Jan 28 2020

Statehouse Preview: Make Or Break Time for Voucher Fix

This week, lawmakers are scrambling to pass legislation to slow down the problem of runaway private school vouchers that are draining millions of dollars from our public schools as a result of misguided policy changes expanding the school choice program. The problem — and a potential legislative fix that is under discussion — are explained well in this article in the Marion Star.

On the Innovation Ohio blog, Education Policy Fellow, Stephen Dyer explains in four charts how Ohio’s voucher problem got to where it is today and why, even with a short-term fix, it remains out of control.

The most likely scenario for a legislative patch is a bill already passed by the House will be amended in a Senate committee as early as today, and quickly move to the Senate floor. If it passes, the House must then vote to concur with Senate changes. The bill also requires a legislative supermajority in order to take effect immediately rather than in the normal 90 days.

This all needs to happen before Friday in order to prevent another round of funding losses to hit public school districts.

Elsewhere in the Statehouse, House leaders scheduled–and later postponed–a committee hearing featuring testimony on the House version of the Ohio Fairness Act (HB369), prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Ohio still has no anti-discrimination law on the books. The new hearing date is now planned for February 4.

Also this week, two House proposals to weaken Ohio’s gun safety laws (HB425 and HB381) are getting sponsor testimony in committee. See below for schedules.

New legislation

Below are the bills that were introduced last week that we’ll be keeping an eye on in the coming months:

House Bill 475 (K. Smith, Galonski) – Presidential Candidates – to require a candidate for President or Vice-President of the United States to submit copies of the candidate’s five most recent federal income tax returns for publication on the Secretary of State’s official web site.
House Bill 478 (A. Miller, Miranda) – School Vouchers – to make changes regarding the eligibility criteria for the Educational Choice scholarship program.
Senate Bill 260 (S. Huffman) – Abortion Drugs – regarding abortion-inducing drugs.

>> You can monitor the status of all the bills we are watching here.

>> Sign up for our weekly Statehouse Preview newsletter for even more insight on what’s happening on Capitol Square this week.

Jan 16 2020

Ohio’s School Voucher Explosion and 5 Potential Solutions

Well, that was fast.

In late November, we at Innovation Ohio noticed there was a startling increase in the amount of taxpayer money being transferred from school districts to private, mostly religious schools.

In fact, it was an explosion — $47 million since the end of last school year and $57 million between November 2018 and November 2019 – a more than 20%, November-to-November increase.

We also noticed that many school districts losing sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to private schools this school year lost zero dollars to them only two years ago.

Our post led to a series of newspaper and other media reports demonstrating the issue throughout the state. It even forced Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to say that his top legislative priority this year is to fix the voucher issue.

But what is this voucher issue, and why has it exploded so recently?

The answer is simple: the state report card and money.

Let’s take each issue in turn.

Problem 1 – The State’s Report Card

While there are several voucher programs in Ohio (for more detail on them, check out our report from a couple of years ago), the one that’s exploded is the EdChoice voucher transfer program. This program has been around since 2005 and it takes state money originally designated for a traditional, public school district and instead transfers that money to a private, most often religious school.

Which Ohio school districts are eligible for the EdChoice voucher program? Well, it’s complicated.

Generally, the worst-performing districts in the state on the report card, as well as any child who would attend a building that has received bad marks on the state report card would be eligible for the EdChoice voucher program. Thus, a student who would otherwise attend a poor-performing school building in a well-performing school district would be eligible to receive a public subsidy to attend a private, most often religious school.

Ten years ago, the group of schools and districts eligible for EdChoice were mostly concentrated in Ohio’s urban areas, with only about 30 or so of Ohio’s 613 districts losing at least some of their state funding to private, parochial schools.

But then the state started to use Common Core tests — tests that ended up being changed several times over the course of a few years.

Common Core tests were changed several times over the course of only a few years, prompting the legislature to provide a “safe harbor” period allowing school districts to adjust to the evolving changes.

The “safe harbor” was implemented to prevent mass exodus via the voucher program of students headed to private schools on taxpayer subsidies meant for public school districts due to test changes and not actual student performance.

That safe harbor provision ended last school year, yet district and building grades in Ohio have remained artificially low.

A bar chart illustrating how letter grades per school district have declined erratically during the period of time where Common Core was being changed year-to-year (2012-2019) — Letter grades per district have declined erratically during the period of time where Common Core was being changed year-to-year.

As the data trends suggest, poor letter grades on the state’s report card are much more likely today than they were under previous report card iterations.

In addition, as of the 2019 state budget, if districts received failing grades in only one of several report card categories, they’re eligible to lose state funding to vouchers.

The grades earned need only be failing in one of the categories for 2 of 3 years between the 2014-2015, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years.

Yes, you read that correctly.

The years in question are nonconsecutive. That is the state’s policy.

Under the new measurements, there are now more than 1,200 school buildings that will qualify for vouchers next year, and 512 of 613 Ohio school districts will lose state funding to the EdChoice voucher.

As the data trends suggest, poor letter grades on the state’s report card are much more likely today than they were under previous report card iterations.

In addition, as of the 2019 state budget, if districts received failing grades in only one of several report card categories, they’re eligible to lose state funding to vouchers.

The grades earned need only be failing in one of the categories for 2 of 3 years between the 2014-2015, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years.

Yes, you read that correctly. The years in question are nonconsecutive.

That is the state’s policy.

Problem #2 – Way more money diverted to vouchers

In addition to expanding the universe of eligible voucher students, state lawmakers have steadily increased the amount of taxpayer money diverted into the voucher program, away from public schools for each voucher recipient.

Today, for high school students, it is the same amount of money per pupil as the base aid amount the state’s school funding formula provides for a public school student. That amount used to be far less – a key point for why the U.S. Supreme Court determined Ohio’s voucher system to be constitutional in 2002.

Now that voucher funding per pupil is on par with public school funding for high schools (it’s about $1,500 less for elementary school students), more private schools are opening their doors to these public subsidies, further draining funds from our public school districts.

It used to be that, generally, the dollar amount of vouchers were worth less than those students would have received to attend the local public school district.

Now that the voucher transfer is so much more, in many more instances, the amount going to the voucher is actually greater than the amount of funding the state would have sent the district for the same student. Thus, significantly more local revenue is subsidizing the state funding loss – along the lines of what has been happening with charter schools for years.

These changes are forcing districts to go to the ballot for new money levies more frequently and at higher levels.

Through state policymaking, pro-voucher proponents have significantly expanded the universe of potential voucher recipients to encompass nearly 1/3 of all school buildings in the state.

By increasing the funding that follows students who opt to take advantage of the voucher program, the state has hugely expanded the universe of potential schools willing to accept vouchers for these students.

The result? Vouchers have exploded.

A bar chart showing the drastic increase in voucher-eligible school buildings in Ohio over the 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 school years. The number has increased from around 200 in 18-19 to around 1200 in 20-21. — The number of school buildings in Ohio whose students are eligible for the EdChoice voucher program has exploded this year.

Now what?

Many public school advocates are effectively pushing back against the expansion of vouchers.

One event will be held next week in Toledo. I will participate in this event as Innovation Ohio’s Education Policy Fellow.

These and other events have forced the Speaker’s hand.

There are many ways to fix this. Here are a few:

Limit the vouchers to only students who have been enrolled in the school building or district that’s eligible for the voucher for more than 180 days. It’s tough to “fail” a student if that student never attends the district or building
In order to be designated a voucher-eligible school or district, you have to receive failing grades in at least 2 (rather than 1) report card categories for three consecutive years. Additionally, limit it to buildings in districts with overall report card grades of C or below. This is the standard for charter school closure. It shouldn’t be easier to get a voucher than it is to close ECOT.
Reduce the amount of funding for the vouchers to something approaching the ratio of the original program considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Ohio is inviting legal challenges by granting private, mostly religious schools essentially the same base aid amount as a public school student, especially given that the state already pays to bus many of these students to the private school.
Add financial accountability to the taxpayer dollars going to the private, mostly religious schools. One of the real issues with now more than $330 million going to private schools is none of that money is audited. We have no idea how it’s being spent. One of the checks we had on the privately run, publicly funded charter school sector was the public auditing of the money they received, which led to the uncovering of many incidents of taxpayer money being misspent.
Directly fund all EdChoice voucher students from the state. The state already does this through the EdChoice expansion program (where any family of 4 making about $100,000 or less can receive a voucher, regardless of school performance, but that’s another story). Eliminating the deduction will also all but eliminate the local revenue-subsidizing-vouchers problem, and it will reduce the angst many district leaders have when they see on their state funding reports that they are slated to receive a certain level of funding, but get much less because the vouchers take a bunch off the top.

These are just a few of the ways to respond to this crisis that’s hammering many districts.