Bill Phillis, founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding explains here where the funding comes from for vouchers: public schools pay from their budgets. The cost this year is nearly $350 million, deducted from the public schools that enroll nearly 90% of the state’s children. A study funded by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute showed that vouchers are ineffective and that children who use them fall behind their peers in public schools. Yet the Leislature wants to increase the funding for vouchers. Why invest in failure?
Deductions from school districts to voucher schools increased from $42,355,792 in FY 2008 to $349,304,605 in FY 2021
In 13 years, voucher deductions have increased each year except for FY 2011 to FY 2012 wherein there was a decrease of 9%. The percentage increase during the period from FY 2008 to FY 2020 has fluctuated between 7.2% and 86%. See the table below:
2008 to 2009 34%
2009 to 2010 22.8%
2010 to 2011 13.2%
2011 to 2012 -9%
2012 to 2013 86%
2013 to 2014 15.3%
2014 to 2015 15%
2015 to 2016 12%
2016 to 2017 9.1%
2017 to 2018 11.8%
2018 to 2019 7.20%
2019 to 2020 23.3%
2020 to 2021 0%
If the HB 166 EdChoice voucher expansion goes into effect next year, there will be a dramatic surge in voucher deductions.
The voucher advocates have powerful winds behind their sails. They will surge forward until state officials cave in to their demands—a voucher for every student.
No school district will be spared; hence, it is imperative that every district join the EdChoice voucher lawsuit.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The cost this year is nearly $350 million, deducted from the public schools that enroll nearly 90% of the state’s children.”
The true cost for public school students is much higher than that. Voucher proponents own the Ohio state legislature. The pro-public school faction is a political minority and the (majority) ed reform echo chamber faction so dominates the state no one lifts a finger for the 90% of students who attend public schools.
We’ve utterly abandoned public school students and families. They’re treated as second class citizens. The worse part is while the ed reform echo chamber provides no positive benefit of any kind to public school students in this state, they ALSO utterly dominate public school policy, so we get the worst of both worlds- we get no support for our schools AND we’re subject to every cheap, gimmicky fad ed reformers latch onto and jam into our schools.
Here’s the typical work of the ed reform lobby that so dominates my state no one outside their echo chamber is ever heard:
https://fordhaminstitute.org/ohio/commentary/deal-coronavirus-fallout-diagnostic-and-state-assessments-are-vital
That’s the sum total contribution to public schools this year- pushing still more testing.
No positive agenda or work performed at all for public school students and they so take our schools and students for granted it never occurs to any of them to even offer one.
If you like the idea of paying thousands of public employees to act as professional, full time public school critics then hire ed reformers- that’s all the work you’ll get out of them. Their agenda for public schools and public school students is wholly negative. There is no upside.
I find it annoying when John Kasich appears on broadcasts as the moderate Republican voice. There is nothing moderate about destroying public schools.
retired teacher, I agree. I try to tell my friends that Kasich tried to eliminate unions but was rebuffed by voters. And that he has defunded public schools. They don’t believe it. But he is a “moderate.”
for those who remember, Kasich is posion
Bill Phillis, founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding is the main reason that many in Ohio even know the extent of the legislative scandals. He and other members of the coalition are doing their best to expose the frauds, destructive polices of a legislature determined to defund and destroy public education.