In the latest Ohio state budget, there are big giveaways to religious and private schools. The Legislature expanded the state’s voucher programs. Originally, vouchers were supposed to “save poor kids from failing public schools,” but in the new expansion, vouchers are available to high school students who never attended a public school. That is, they subsidize students in religious and private schools. Period.
In the only evaluation of the Ohio voucher program, sponsored by the rightwing Thomas B. Fordham Institute, students who used vouchers fell behind students who stayed in the public schools.
These programs are simply a transfer of public dollars frompublic schools to private schools, with no benefit to students.
Jan Resseger writes here about the latest betrayal of the people of Ohio and the public schools that most children attend, despite the availability of many charters and vouchers.
She begins:
Ohio has five voucher programs. Two of them are for students with autism and other disabilities, and their enrollment depends on the incidence of these conditions and parents’ awareness of the availability of voucher funds to pay for private programs. A third voucher program—the Cleveland Scholarship Program—one of the oldest in the country—is for students in Cleveland.
This blog post will focus on the last two—EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion. They are statewide Ohio school voucher programs designed specifically, according to the Republican lawmakers who have designed and promoted these programs, to enable students to escape so-called “failing” schools. It is important to remember that those same legislators have failed adequately to fund the public schools in Ohio’s poorest school districts, and those same legislators have looked at state takeover as another “solution” (besides expanding vouchers and charter schools) for the students in those districts. Ohio education policy for school districts serving very poor children is defined by punishment, not support.
EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion vouchers rob the public schools of essential dollars needed to educate the majority of Ohio’s students who remain in public schools. And the vouchers are used primarily by students enrolled in religious schools. Through EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion vouchers, the state is sending millions of tax dollars out of the state’s public education budget and out of the coffers of local school districts to fund the religious education of students who would likely never have enrolled in public schools in the first place.
The problem just got worse this summer when the Ohio Legislature passed a two year budget which radically expands both programs. The Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO) recently published an update on its website to inform school treasurers about what just happened. OASBO reports: “HB 166 (the new state budget) expanded the EdChoice Scholarship program in multiple ways.”
Changes in the EdChoice voucher program: Although legislators have always said the purpose of vouchers is to provide an “escape” from so-called failing schools, the new budget provides that high school students are no longer required to have been previously enrolled in a public school to qualify for the voucher. OASBO explains: “Generally, students wishing to claim a voucher under the original EdChoice voucher program must have attended a public school in the previous school year. However, HB 166 codifies in law… (that) students going into grades 9-12 need not first attend a public school. In other words, high school students already attending a private school can obtain a voucher.”
Ohio was one of the leading states in the 19th century “Common school movement,” which created the American public school as a guarantee of free public education for every child. It is now leading the movement to demolish that promise and renounce the state’s proud history. It should go without saying that the state’s Republican leaders have never put a referendum on the ballot to ask the people of Ohio whether they approve of this massive diversion of public funds to religious and private schools. They know it would be rejected.
The Ohio State Constitution, Article 6, Section 2 and 3
Text of Section 2:
School Funds
The General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state; but no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.
Text of Section 3:
Public School System, Boards of Education
Provision shall be made by law for the organization, administration and control of the public school system of the state supported by public funds: provided, that each school district embraced wholly or in part within any city shall have the power by referendum vote to determine for itself the number of members and the organization of the district board of education, and provision shall be made by law for the exercise of this power by such school districts.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But there really is NO CHOICE in the end. Ohio, WAKE UP.
Thanks so much for getting this out there. It was, of course, secreted in the thousands of pages of the budget. It is amazing that the meaning is only now becoming clear. OASBO just put out its memo on August 9.
Other stuff got the oxygen in the budget debates. Actually that was important, as they put a one-year moratorium on the ten additional state takeovers.
Take care and thanks.
It’s a shame and don’t forget the double whammy public school students get when ed reform lobbyists capture yet another legislative session – no one gets anything done for public schools.
Public school students are simply a bargaining chip used to expand charters and vouchers. Their funding is withheld until ed reform gets each and every item on their wish list fulfilled. They are the dead-last priority. The status quo that no one advocates and behalf of nor puts any actual work towards. 90% of students. 10% of interest and effort out of Columbus. Our students aren’t good enough to merit any effort by any of these public employees.
Public school families should consider hiring a couple of state employees who do something on behalf of their kids. 90% of kids. They’re paying for it anyway. No “value add”, as ed reformers might say.
You won’t find those state employees who might help Ohio families, in the SETDA association funded by Gates. They’re promoting digital learning and public-private partnerships. A former SETDA director says they also lobby.
What are Ohio’s lobbying laws for an association of state employees who have private partners?
So far this year state lawmakers have taken care of charter schools and private schools.
Still nothing for the unfashionable public sector schools, the schools that serve the vast, vast majority of students. They offer us nothing except yet another graduation requirement scheme that was written by people who do not support public schools or public school students. Yet- we’re all subject to whatever gimmick or fad is popular this month in the ed reform echo chamber.
If they aren’t going to contribute anything of value to our students could they at least see their way clear to staying out of our schools? They don’t support our schools or students. Why do they write public school policy? Because our lawmakers are too lazy to do their own work?
Why do their own work when neither the Koch’s want them to (ALEC) nor Fordham’s funders want them to?
Ohio is ruled by the right wing Fordham (funding identified by NonPartisan Education Review) and, the Koch’s ALEC. Kettering’s Republican, Peg Lehner, has one of the anointed crowns on her head. No surprise that an economic think tank ranks Ohio 50th in an index of state dynamism. No surprise that Ohio’s median income has languished over time and ranks lower than that of other states. Ohio is trying to catch up with Mississippi and the Walton’s Arkansas.
? MI is ranked #35 in median income, just below IN & MI. AR & MI are #48&49.
At a ranking of 35, Ohio is 15th from the bottom, well below the median for the 50 states.
The final sentence is not original with me. It is often used as gallows humor and means the politicians (whichever state is identified) will further erode the state’s status.
Now I getcha.
Remember when ed reformers all assured the public that they had to accept privatized charter schools because if they didn’t ed reformers would demand vouchers?
They all lockstep demand vouchers now anyway, so was it true when they said it?
I don’t oppose them advocating for eradicating public schools and replacing the whole system with vouchers, but I think they had a duty to inform the public of this, and I think they now have a duty to expend some effort towards existing public schools while they transition to their ideological “choice!” nirvana. It is unfair to public school students to make them the collateral damage of this project and these experiments. No one hired any of these public employees to do that “work” and as long as they’re accepting a state paycheck perhaps they should do the job they were actually hired to do.
For the Ohio Republican legislature and Republican executive branch, the people who pay their salaries, are very far down the list in who they work for.
As you know in this state they sing a different tune when they’re dropping in to campaign in our schools and use our kids as props- in their districts. They have to. 90% of the people in their district value the public schools ed reformers seek to replace.
Then they’re HUGE supporters of public schools. Until they get back to Columbus. Where they happily march lockstep with the ed reform echo chamber.
Their hope seems to be no one in the cheap seats every figures out this flim-flam.
You cannot PAY these people to focus on public schools. We know that in this state, because we are paying them. Thousands of them, yet each and every session revolves around the ed reform policy demand list.
Public school students? They get yet another graduation check list. The 5th in the last decade. I don’t know- first do no harm? If they can’t support us, and they apparently can’t, maybe they could just stay out of our schools and stick to the zealous pursuit of their privatization mission.
So-called reform is about re-norming the norm. Private charters usher in vouchers. Unless the public stops the bleeding of public money, private contractors will continue to scoop up more turf to wipe out public schools.
Here’s Fordham, a national charter and voucher lobbying group, directing Ohio’s new school report card:
https://fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/commentary/three-key-questions-ohios-school-report-card-committee-should-answer
Can Ohio legislators explain why charter and voucher lobbyists write policy that binds every public school student in the state?
Would it be too much to ask that our schools are directed by people who actually support our schools and students?
It’s bad enough that every legislative session is devoted exclusively to promoting and marketing the schools they prefer, but we’re ALSO subject to their mandates. We get the worst of both worlds- no practical or useful support and every ed reform gimmick and fad that they come up with.
Chiara,
It is simple. When legislators and think tanks are “bought” by the same people, they work together to pay off their debts. And they come to believe they are doing it of their own free will.
Ohio is a pioneer in school choice. (See Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 2002). All of the choice programs in the Buckeye state, meet constitution muster (both federal and state), else they would not be in place.
Why are people shocked, that Ohio would move to expand school choice programs?
I am certain that the main reason that state legislators do not put a referendum on the ballot (in Ohio), is that legislators do not have the power to do so.
In Ohio, only the people (through the process explained below) may obtain a referendum on a statewide ballot. see
https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Legal/Ballot-Initiatives
I too, am certain that if a ballot initiative, (with respect to school choice) were to be placed on the ballot, it would fail in the state of Ohio. Ballot initiatives/referenda have not met with much success in other states.
William,
I take it that you believe the plain language of the Ohio Constitution is meaningless.
The Constitution says clearly “NO” public funds for religious schools but what it really means (according to judges appointed by Republicans) is the opposite: that public funds can be spent in religious schools. Right?
So much for Republicans believing in “fidelity” to the Constitution or originalism.
The fact is, as Ohio proves, that the Constitution is swept aside when it gets in the way.
I do not believe that the prohibition against providing direct financial support to sectarian institutions in Ohio, is “meaningless”. I just believe that by providing the financial aid to families, and then the families turning around and enrolling their children in sectarian schools is a was to “skirt” the prohibition. The prohibition is not meaningless, just moot.
I think it is high time, that opponents of school vouchers, and providing indirect aid to sectarian institutions should demand a closing of this loophole.
Your assertion that public funds can be spent in sectarian schools, is incorrect. I do not think that, and the Ohio state constitution forbids it.
Many people, including myself, are opposed to “parochiaid”, whether it is direct, or indirect.
I do not believe that the majority of Ohioans are supportive of school vouchers. No voucher program has ever garnered a majority support in any statewide referendum (as far as I know). There is no reason to believe that if such a referendum were to be held in Ohio, that it would pass.
Ohio was once a leader in the movement to establish common public schools. It is now a leader in the movement to undermine them and hand out public money to private and religious schools.
The authors of the state constitution were not ambiguous. They did not want public money to flow to religious schools in any way, shape, or form.
William,
The Koch-affiliated Manhattan Institute made it clear in the Max Eden article, July 3, 2018, that New Orleans’ parents objected to charters, a decision in which they had no “choice”. Eden writes that the objections were, among others, the “severing of the connection between the schools and the community” and, charters were the “latest iteration in structural racism perpetuated by new generation of oppressors”. Eden then makes the case for Catholic schools. Almost 60% of white Catholics voted for Trump.
I speculate that the anti-tax Koch’s anticipate long term, the electorate’s refusal to spend tax dollars on for-profits (rather they are falsely labeled non-profit or not) and, on religious schools. At that point there will no longer be public education in the U.S.
William, if you are defending tax dollars for contract schools and/or religious schools, you are anti-democracy and therefore un-American. You betray your nation, community and future generations by advocating for the Gates/Walton/Koch oligarchy and whether you do it out of greed or racism, you are reprehensible.
As I read William’s comments, he resents the re-routing of tax dollars to sectarian schools via parents– he calls it skirting the state constitution, and a loophole that it’s high time opponents should demand be closed.
“Almost 60% of white Catholics voted for Trump”– and the exact same % of white Catholics voted for Romney in 2012. (What hurt Dems was that the Hispanic Catholic vote slipped from 75% for Obama to 67% for Clinton). What’s the relevance? White Catholics represent roughly 22million voters [16% of the electorate]. Are we saying that 13million voted Republican to get tax-supported Catholic schools?
However, good news: this article shows a significant shift among white Catholics to Democrats in the 2018 election [Hispanic Catholic Republicans pretty much stayed pat], & a spring 2019 poll shows continued movement in that direction for 2020. https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/trumps-emerging-catholic-problem
Bethree-
William’s clarification was written after my reply comment.
IMO, America today, lives, partially, the political influence (those in leadership roles) not of social justice Catholics voting Democratic but, of Republican Catholics like Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Leonard Leo.
Fordham Institute is conservative so I speculate Paolo DiMaria (Ohio’s state superintendent), Mike Petrilli, Robert Pondiscio and other past and present employees are Republican.
The discussion about race that the nation should have had long ago, would have included religious influence. For example, a report (2000) at Encyclopedia.com states that 98% of Italian Americans are Catholic. I’m very reluctant to accept such a high number as valid. But, absent other information, I am willing to believe that it is a majority religion among Italian Americans.
“In the 1960’s -70’s, the nation’s urban centers became torn by riots and civil protest, Italian Americans felt especially vulnerable. Unlike other ethnic groups, they had remained in urban enclaves . Many interpreted the ensuing clashes in cultural terms, seeing themselves as a minority defending traditional values in the face of new compensatory government programs.”
This topic is not my field of study but, I assume the U.S. as a melting pot has demographic groups reflecting similar experiences and biases. We could review and learn about them in an attempt to identify their influence on policy and laws.
At peril, the nation ignores the influence of leaders who bring the values of patriarchy, authoritarianism, segregation by sex in schools, tribalism, literal interpretations from their books of faith, etc., whatever their source.
Based on policy and effect, education in Ohio has three goals.
(1) To steer enrollment to Catholic schools
(2) To take power from and, to bankrupt black communities
(3) To create opportunities for grifting in a pay to play state
Fordham expected the research it funded to find vouchers had positive outcomes in Ohio. Figlio’s findings were a major disappointment but Ohio still increased the vouchers that benefit Catholic schools. Paul Weyrich, Catholic founder of the religious right, and Koch’s ALEC and Heritage Foundation called for parallel schools (training manual posted at Theocracy Watch). The Koch-affiliated Manhattan Institute posted on July 8, 2018 (Senior Fellow-Max Eden), its rationale for Catholic schools after quoting a black parent who said, charter schools represent the latest iteration in structural racism perpetuated by a new generation of oppressors. ALEC members in Ohio’s legislature are listed at ALEC Exposed.
Local education dollars are vitally important to economic multiplier effect. Currently, a dollar in the black community leaves it in 6 hours. In contrast, a dollar stays 17 days in the white community building the economy. TFA’ers and absent charter owners and operators drain money from a community. The management models of corporations, church hierarchies and charter schools, like those linked to Gulen are not democratic denying communities the right to govern their schools.
Grifting opportunities are obvious based on the number of cases brought against charter operators in Ohio.