Ohio spent nearly $970 million on private school vouchers last year

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio spent just under $970 million on private school voucher payments last year, according to data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

Among its five private school scholarships, the state spent $962,022,783.24 sending more than 150,000 students to private schools. More than 88,000 of them were under the EdChoice-Expansion scholarship program, which has no income requirements for Ohioans to qualify. 

Ohio offers five state-sponsored scholarships: 

• Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship (JPSN), which provides scholarships for K-12 graders who have an individualized education program
• Autism Scholarship, which funds students with autism who want to attend a special education program other than the one offered at their public school district
• Cleveland Scholarship, which is for Cleveland Municipal School District students who have low-income status and want to attend private school
• Education Choice Scholarship (EdChoice), which gives students in low-performing public school districts the chance to attend private school
• Education Choice Expansion (EdChoice-Exp), which gives any student the chance to attend private school with at least part of their tuition covered by the state, regardless of income.

The three schools that received the most money were Potential Development/Autism, New Story Schools Columbus and Bridgeway Academy, which are all special education schools and each received more than $4.3 million from the state. Potential Development received the most, with $6,123,996.40. 

The fourth and fifth highest awarded schools were Central Catholic High School in Toledo and Harvest Preparatory Academy in Canal Winchester. Together, these two schools received more than $8 million through EdChoice scholarships.

Religious schools like Toledo Central Catholic and Harvest Prep dominated the data. The top 100 schools with the highest enrollment of scholarship students were all private religious schools. Of those 100 schools, only two were not Christian: Yeshiva Derech Hatorah, a Jewish private school, and Sunrise Academy, a private Islamic school.

Looking at the data from the 2023-2024 school year, it seems many families who did not have low income still received state funding, which is a common criticism of the program. A full voucher scholarship is $6,166 for students in grades K-8, and $8,408 for those in high school. However, families who do not have economic need may only receive a partial scholarship.

The 10 schools that received the most funding through EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp vouchers had an average scholarship of $5,490.60 per student. This sum is less than either full scholarship -- and especially as three are high schools, which would receive more funding per student. This indicates the districts that received the most funding had students who did not demonstrate financial need but still received scholarship money with some frequency.

In some cases, the use of vouchers is stark. St. Ignatius High School, for instance, received on average only $4,594.48 per EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp student, just over half of the scholarship a student with full financial need would receive. It had 918 students enrolled who received vouchers, according to state records, 805 of whom received EdChoice-Exp scholarships.

Further, although the number of voucher students enrolled at St. Ignatius saw a sharp increase since 2020, its enrollment numbers did not see the same uptick. In total, the school enrolled 1,459 students in the 2023-2024 school year, which is consistent or even a few dozen students fewer than the last few years before it.

The total numbers come in the context of an ongoing legal battle with the state. Five public schools and the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding are jointly suing Ohio over the voucher program, alleging it is unconstitutional. The group specifically takes issue with the EdChoice scholarships given out regardless of income.

In part, the lawsuit points to federal and state Constitutional protections against religiously affiliated institutions controlling state funds, arguing the state gave millions of taxpayer dollars to religious schools through the voucher program last year. Senate Republicans spokesperson John Fortney said the state gives the funding to parents, not schools, who then can decide where to spend it.

The case was originally scheduled to go to trial on Monday, but was rescheduled on Oct. 3 due to the volume of the case. A new date should be determined next week, according to court documents.