William Phillis, founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy, reports on the evolution of vouchers. Initially, they were sold as a way to “save poor kids from failing schools.” but now they are a subsidy for upper-income families.
Darrel Rowland, ABC6 (WSYX6) and Fox28 News tweets about vouchers
Darrel Rowland, a former Columbus Dispatch reporter, public affairs editor and senior editor, gleaning data from Howard Fleeter’s June 2023 Policy Brief on Vouchers in Ohio, in a series of Tweets, sheds light on the trend in income level of voucher users. The data show that the percentage of low-income EdChoice voucher users has dropped from 32% in 2014 to 15% in 2023. The State Budget for fiscal years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 will ratchet-up EdChoice voucher expansion. In the future, EdChoice voucher users will be mostly in the higher income brackets. Low-income students were exploited by voucher advocates to get the voucher foot-in-the-door. Universal vouchers will result in higher private school tuition, which will eliminate voucher participation for nearly all low income students….
School-funding numbers cruncher extraordinaire Howard Fleeter looks at Ohio’s vouchers Two main findings:
1. Originally intended to help students at low-performing public schools ‘escape,’ vouchers are now benefiting a growing number of students already attending private schools
2. Percentage of low-income students assisted through these programs has significantly declined while more students in wealthy families are accessing vouchers Fleeter, consultant for public schools groups, concludes that recent GOP legislative changes “reflect a pronounced “change in the focus of Ohio’s voucher programs from one of expanding opportunity to one where the state simply pays for vouchers for students whose families have already demonstrated that they have the means to afford private school”
In FY 2014, 35% of one (Cleveland-style) voucher program’s recipients were from low-income backgrounds, but by FY 2023, this number had decreased to 7%. For another (EdChoice), the percentage of low-income students receiving vouchers dropped from 32% in FY 2014 to 15% in FY 2023
Learn about EdChoice Vouchers: An Existential Threat to Public Schools
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VOUCHERS HURT OHIO
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 |ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://ohiocoalition.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In Ohio, similar to other states, the overwhelming amount of voucher money goes to Catholic schools. Is there a reason to believe that omission of critical info. helps the cause? Or, does perpetuating the public’s misunderstanding hinder the fight against privatization?
In Colorado, the executive director of the state Catholic Conference was formerly with EdChoice and with the Koch network.
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You were expecting maybe something to actually help children? (To be read or enunciated with a bad stereotype of Yiddish accent.)
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DeSantisland, aka Flor-uh-duh, has voted to extend vouchers to every student (thus keeping a DeSantis campaign promise, as he kept his promise to get passed and to sign a bill allowing unpermitted concealed carry). The Flor-uh-duh State Legislature and Gun Club (as some wag here accurately styled it) estimates that the cost of the bill will be $646 million. The Florida Policy Institute puts the actual cost of the bill at $4 billion.
$4 billion siphoned out of the state’s K-12 public education budget and into private religious schools. That’s equivalent to the unit cost of 1.049 billion school lunches per year (which vastly exceeds the number of teachers). Thats equivalent to 74,343.9 average Florida teachers’ salaries.
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cxs:
(which vastly exceeds the number of students)
That’s
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And in other news, a headline from today’s issue of The Independent:
Voters think Trump is a criminal, Biden is too old and DeSantis is a fascist, new poll finds
This resulted from a poll conducted by JL Partners for The Daily Mail that asked people to sum up the candidates in a word. Trump: criminal, Biden: old, DeSantis, Fascist. I’ll take Biden for 100, please.
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Perfect descriptions of the candidates!
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When. your brainwashed to believe you are a Russian spy or Russia interfered for 3 years straight. When holding sham impeachments all day 24/7. When. you raid mar-a-lago, when you have a psycho accusing you of rape where even Anderson Cooper (moron), had to go to commercial break, when you falsely indict a former president on documents that the sheep think are going to get you arrested, of course the stupid will think he’s a criminal lol.
The real criminal is Biden and the real criminal family are the Bidens. Remember 5 million payment from Moscow mayor? remember the 10 million from ukraine? I am going to laugh my ass off when you finally come to your senses and see the truth.
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Thank you so much for clearing this all up, Josh.
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Josh,
Try to vary the sources of your information. You are suffering from a common ailment called TDS —Trump Derangement Syndrome. Symptoms include a belief that no one ever tells the truth except Trump and his lackeys; a belief that all elections are rigged unless Trump wins; a belief that the entire justice system of the US, including the FBI and CIA, are not to be trusted; a belief that Trump is the new Jesus.
With treatment, you can be helped.
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Vouchers hurt public schools.
Yet public schools can’t get their test scores up, or have better performing grades than students that go some private schools. Maybe it’s not so much the public school, but the corrupt institutions that run them.
I remember being a student and hearing from teachers in public school – “I am only here for the money that is the only way this school can get teachers, retirement is 5 years away, I hate these kids, just give them a packet and pass them.”
Then I went to a private school where the teachers had school spirit, loved the kids, and went above and beyond, with no one stealing millions of dollars from the school. Private school’s standards of learning are usually better and all have adapted to new better and efficient ways of teaching and learning.
Myself with children in school now. Never did I consider public school. My 10 years of public school could not amount to my 2 years of private. It was private that got my education up to par after taking pre-algebra in public school for 4 years and passing every year. It was private school that allowed me to graduate without having to worry about what I didn’t have to wear to avoid being beat on at school. It was private school that stopped me from dropping out. Did my Grandparent’s have a voucher…no. They made under 100k both incomes put together. Do I have a voucher to send 3 kids and soon a 4th to private school…no.
Why? Because I am told I make too much. So, when I really don’t make enough for a family of 6 to survive. I shut up work over 80 hours a week at 2 full-time jobs and make do. I refuse to send my kids to public schools, and those that complain about missing money. It’s simple do better. Competition is good and what a free market and free choice looks like. Trying to stop this based off of “it’s means rich kids will go to school free, or we will lose funding” is a poor excuse to stop families who don’t make enough money for (private school, daycare, health insurance, rent, and groceries) and won’t send their children to the school down the street that can’t pass a jump rope if it was never picked up off the ground. Why keep funding failing schools? Is that not failing the future? Would you keep spending your money for a service that promises something and they never produce what you paid for or what was promised?
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