Stephen Dyer, who served in the Ohio legislature and is an expert in school finance, writes here that vouchers hurt poor kids and explains why. It is important to bear in mind that no state offers vouchers large enough to pay for a high-quality private school. Most voucher students attend low-quality religious schools. When anyone claims that vouchers enable poor kids to have the same choices as rich kids, they are lying.
He begins:
As has been recently reported in the Columbus Dispatch and other places, a group of public education advocates is looking to sue the state over the EdChoice voucher system — an argument I’ve been making for years.
But in the article, pro-voucher forces make a curious argument — that those seeking to undo the harm voucher do to primarily poor and special need kids are actually trying to hurt those kids.
“It’s an all-time low for government school activists to try to rip low-income and special-needs students out of their schools right now,” said Aaron Baer, president of Citizens for Community Values.
“It’s clear that this special-interest group cares less about what’s best for kids, and more about their own narrow social agenda. Ohio’s EdChoice program is a lifeline to tens of thousands of families. It allows underprivileged and underserved children the opportunity to find an education that best meets their needs.”
First of all, it’s not “government school”; it’s “public school”, which means our school. None other than Thomas Jefferson described it this way in the Land Ordiannce of 1785. “Public school” were Jefferson’s words.
But I digress.
Here’s the problem. Yes. It’s true that poor and special needs students get vouchers and attend private schools using them. However, in order for that to happen, poor and special needs students in the public schools who don’t take the voucher are left with fewer resources for their educations because the vouchers exist.
This is why, for example, as a state legislator I always voted against the special needs voucher that eventually became the Jon Peterson Voucher program. Because it set aside 1/3 of the money the state spent on special needs students to serve 3 percent of the special needs kids. So the voucher program would leave 97 percent of special needs students with only 2/3 of the money they needed.
Let’s look at Parma with its 47% economically disadvanatged and nearly 2/3 minority populations.
Prior to losing voucher money and students, kids in Parma were slated to receive $13,663 per pupil in state and local funding for their educations. However, once all the vouchers were removed from the district, along with the students, kids in Parma only got $13,426. That’s a $236 per pupil loss in total aid, which means there wasn’t enough locally raised revenue to make up for the revenue these kids lost to the state’s voucher programs.
So while some poor and special needs students certainly got vouchers, far more poor and special needs students in Parma got $236 less than they needed because of the vouchers.
In fact, in nearly 3 of 4 Ohio school districts, every poor and special needs student got less overall funding because of the voucher…
So vouchers either directly harm poor and special needs students by cutting their overall education fudning, or force poorer communities to tax themselves at higher rates to make up for the loss of state aid from the state’s voucher programs — in clear violation of the Ohio Supreme Court’s four rulings.
Oh yeah, and in 8 of 10 Ohio school districts where private voucher providers reside, the school district outperforms the private option by an average of 27 percentage points. When privates outperform districts, it’s in 2 of 10 cases and by only 9 percentage points.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Citizens in Ohio should be clear on another thing, too. What the ed reform voucher project ALSO meant for public school students is state lawmakers got absolutely nothing done for public school students and families. They devoted a full year to this, and they’ll spend the following year defending it.
Ed reform failed to deliver anything of value to 90% of students in this state, again.
They serve public school students and families poorly. They perform no useful function at all for our schools and students. The work they do is either completely irrelevant to 90% of students and families, or actively harms them.
And you’re paying hundreds of them in state government to work full time on their ideological agenda which has little or nothing to do with 90% of students.
You read the ed reformer quoted in the article – sneeringly refers to “government schools”. That’s their approach to 90% of students and families in this state- contempt.
We should think about hiring some people who intend to preform some useful or productive work on or for public schools. We’re throwing money away on this crew.
I urge all public school families to go look at the agenda of any of the ed reform lawmakers or state executive branch. Try to find anything that is intended to assist or improve a public school. Your schools and students are missing from the agenda.
We should replace these public employees. They refuse to serve 90% of people in the state because they are ideologically opposed to the schools our children attend.
We can do better. These are desirable jobs. They should not be filled with people who oppose the schools 90% of students and families use. Let’s raise the bar – let’s find people who are committed and enthusiastic about public education and our students. They exist, but we won’t find them by limiting our search to ed reform echo chamber members. We’ve had 20 years of this- have they improved public schools? No? Then send them packing.
such ironic times when so many people who are loudly anti-government can get themselves elected to be part of the government
They still don’t have a public school funding plan. Ed reform leaders in this state spent a solid year on the public payroll jamming thru yet another privatization scheme and once again accomplished absolutely nothing for public schools.
Year after year after year like this.Nothing for our kids. We somehow ended up paying thousands of professional public school critics. I don’t know- is this an actual job? Couldn’t we just hire one or two on a contract basis if we need public school criticism? Surely we don’t need whole state agencies packed with people who contribute absolutely nothing of value other than hurling insults at public schools and promoting private and charter schools. Can’t the billionaires pay them? Why should the public be stuck with them sitting on the payroll?
Privatization has always been about serving the wants of few at the expense of the needs of many. Vouchers are a scheme designed to off load a certain number of students into schools of questionable value while saving public money on the education of mostly poor students. It also simultaneously drains money from public school budgets. In some states wealthy taxpayers also can reduce their taxable income by paying for so-called scholarships while still draining public school budgets and leaving school districts with stranded, fixed costs. Vouchers are a lavish scheme to further erode the common good.
How did it happen that state lawmakers and the DeWine administration accomplished NOTHING on public school funding yet somehow managed to jam through a huge new private school funding scheme? What the heck? 90% of the people in the state got nothing yet the 3% ed reformers prefer got a whole legislative session?
It happened because public school students and families are the dead last priority in ed reform and that is reflected in the state entities they capture and run. There’s no effort expended on or interest in public school students. They don’t serve that population.
As long as money pollutes politics, corporate welfare will be king, and we the people are not a priority.
At last count in Cincinnati, 35 of our 52 public schools were designated Cincinnati Community Learning Centers, each with wraparound programming and a coordinator of these services–dental, medical, social workers, classes for parents, and more. Unfortunately, many of these centers will also become EdChoice schools with vouchers for students to attend state-approved private schools.
But not just any private schools. There is an approved list for each district.
Most of the approved schools for EdChoice in Cincinnati are operated by Catholic or Christian or Jewish organizations. In this respect, the EdChoice program should be viewed as not just as another mmove to privatize education, but a state investment in religious indoctrination. All of the high schools on the approved EdChoice list are Catholic… not much choice there.
The Ed Choice vouchers will not cover the full cost of tuition to the Catholic high schools or most of the other schools. In addition, many of these schools have fees that are over and above the tuition.