COLUMBUS, Ohio — According to state data, approximately 90% of students enrolling in Ohio’s voucher program this year are not low-income, which is a stark contrast to the program’s declared objective
Ohio’s K-12 voucher program has recently made headlines as lawmakers consider cutting millions of dollars in state funding for public schools while increasing funding for state vouchers.
Ohio has five voucher programs that provide state scholarships for students to attend private schools. EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion have the most participants by far.
The EdChoice program was designed to help low-income students in struggling districts, but the EdChoice-Exp program ensured that any Ohio student, regardless of income, received at least a partial scholarship.
The expansion has significantly increased scholarship enrollment, but the majority of recipients are not low-income eligible. See previous coverage of vouchers in the video player above.
According to state data, fewer EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp participants qualified as low-income this school year than last.
Furthermore, according to a report from the General Assembly, 17% of EdChoice-Exp scholarships are awarded to the state’s top earners, who all earn more than $200,000 per year. This means that the third-largest percentage of scholarship participants come from Ohio’s top 8.4% wealthiest households.
Wealthy recipients receive less state money, so payments to top tax bracket participants accounted for only 3% of total voucher payments, or $11 million. Scholarship advocates argue that vouchers serve more than just low-income students.
“This is about more than just financial need. Donovan O’Neil, director of Americans For Prosperity’s Ohio chapter, stated that this is about giving all families more educational options and flexibility.
Scholarship participation skyrocketed after universal vouchers were implemented. However, private school enrollment did not follow the same pattern, indicating that many of the students who accepted universal scholarships could already afford private school.
Many Democratic lawmakers, public school advocates, and teachers’ unions point to state data like this to argue that vouchers no longer benefit low-income students and instead divert funds from public schools.
“Ohio residents deserve to live in a state where everyone can succeed. “That means fully and fairly funding public schools rather than providing vouchers to private or unregulated charter schools,” said State Rep. Anita Somani (D-Dublin).
Vouchers cannot benefit all Ohio students. According to U.S. Census data, eight counties—Carroll, Champaign, Hardin, Holmes, Meigs, Morgan, Noble, and Vinton—have no eligible EdChoice voucher schools, serving approximately 35,000 students.
In comparison, there are only 21,184 low-income EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp students this school year.
“There is a lack of supply of schools that accept these dollars, especially in rural communities,” according to O’Neil. “Maybe the numbers aren’t capturing lower-income families in rural areas simply because the option is not available.”
This school year, nearly 1 million students take advantage of the EdChoice-Exp voucher program. Ohio lawmakers will continue to debate school funding budget choices in the House, followed by the Senate, before implementing them this summer.
