Voucher opposition is expanding

HB59 as introduced by the Governor and passed out of the House finance committee on a party line vote, would create a statewide voucher program, based solely on household income. Eligibility would only be limited to those with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line ($46,100 for a family of 4). Initially only covering kindergarten, it expands to first grade the following year.

This expansion would occur even in the highest performing school districts at a time when so many are still reeling from massive budget cuts the legislature is not keen to restore. Furthermore, once a student qualifies for a voucher they will forever qualify regardless of family income.

Previous attempts to expend vouchers statewide (via HB136) met with huge community resistance across at least 400 of Ohio's 60+ school districts (see the list below). Similar opposition is now growing to this provision in the budget. The following districts have all passed a resolution opposing the voucher expansion in HB59

Adena local	Millecreek West Unity
Allen East Local	Monroeville Local
Anthony Wayne Local	Morgan Local
Athens City	Muskingum Valley ESC
Austintown Local	Oak Hill Union Local
Barnesville EX Vill	Oakwood City
Bath Local	Old Fort Local
Bellbrook-Sugarcreek	National Trail Local
Berea City	New Lexington City
Big Walnut Local	New Richmond
Bluffton EX Vill	Noble Local
Brown Local	Northern Local
Chillicothe City	Northwood Local
Columbiana Ex Vill	Ripley Union Lewis Huntington
Coshocton City	Ross Local
Crestview Local	Ross-Pike ESC
Cuyahoga Falls	St. Clairsville-Richland City
Fairbanks	Sheffield-Sheffield Lake
Fairfield Union	South Central Ohio ESC
Felicity-Franklin Local	Southern Local
Firelands Local	Southington Local
Galion City	Springfield City
Gallipolis City	Tuscarawas Vlley Local
Goshen Local	Tuslaw Local
Graham	Urbana City
Grand Valley Local	Vanlue Local
Granville EX Vill	Vantage Career Center
Green Local (Franklin Furnace)	Van Wert City
Indian Valley Local	Washington-Nile
Keystone Local	Waverly
Lancaster City	Wayne County Career Center
Licking County ESC	Wellston City
Lincolnview Local	West Muskingum
Louisville City	Wheelersburg
Lynchburg-Clay Local	Williamsburg Local
Madeira City	Yellow Springs EV
Mathews Local	Zane Trace Local

A copy of the resolution can be found here, and reads as follows:

WHEREAS, Governor Kasich’s biennial budget (HB 59) proposes to expand the EdChoice Scholarship Program through two new options that will significantly increase the number of publicly-funded vouchers for students to attend private or parochial schools; and

WHEREAS, one of the programs provides private or parochial school tuition vouchers to any entering kindergarten student of a family with a household income less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, to be used at the parent’s choice of participating private or parochial school; and

WHEREAS, the following year, such vouchers would be expanded to include students in both kindergarten and first grade, totaling $25 million over the biennium; and

WHEREAS, such vouchers would be granted without regard to the academic performance or quality of the public school that the student is assigned to attend; and

WHEREAS, the second voucher expansion proposed by the Governor in HB 59 expands eligibility for the EdChoice voucher program to Kindergarten through 3rd grade students enrolled in buildings that received a “D” or “F” in the new K-3 Literacy component of the New Report Card in 2 of the 3 most recent report cards; and

WHEREAS, the operation of the proposed programs would effectively reduce funds from the already financially beleaguered local public school districts, resulting in fewer resources for the education of remaining students;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT, AND IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the ____________ Board of Education does hereby express its opposition to these provisions in HB 59; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the _________ Board of Education expresses its opposition to any legislation that seeks to transfer public dollars to support private education; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Treasurer be directed to spread this resolution upon the minutes of the Board of Education and that copies of the resolution be forwarded to the Governor and members of the Ohio General Assembly.

Below is a list of the districts that opposed HB136

HB136 Voucher Expansion Opposition

HB136 is dead, but will return

HB136 is dead. But a watered down version is likely to reappear in the form of another bill, or tucked quietly inside a bigger bill dealing with the new school funding formula. That was the message delivered by it's sponsor Rep Matt Huffman at a news conference yesterday.

Huffman said he'll change the funding mechanism so that no voucher will be worth more than the amount of per-pupil state aid that the home district receives. In a high-wealth district, that could be as little as a few hundred dollars.

"The practical effect is that not a lot of students from that district will use them," he acknowledged.

Huffman also said he'll limit the number of available vouchers to 1 percent of the home district's enrollment, which is roughly how many he expected would participate.

Statewide, that would be up to 17,000 students - far fewer than would have been possible in the original version of the bill.

He also will change the eligibility guidelines, tying them to the income levels that qualify children for state health coverage. And he will eliminate a provision that would have allowed families to spend unused voucher money on private high schools or college.

We'd speculate that it is unlikely that this new framework would appear in a bigger bill dealing with the funding formula. With over 300 school districts continuing to oppose this privatization plan in any form, a funding formula bill having its own issues, is not going to be a welcoming place for a contentious piece of legislation to be tucked inside.

Whatever the final form and function of this privatization proposal, it remains a terrible policy to transfer public monies to private schools at the expense of the majority of students. Even more so in light of recent revelations of ODE's inability to perform its basic oversight and accountability functions of private schools already receiving tax dollars.

HB136 The Privatize Public Education Bill

HB 136 pass out of the House Education committee yesterday 12-10, a party line vote with just one Republican voting no. But what is HB 136?

The bill replaces the ʺEd Choiceʺ and "Cleveland Scholarship" voucher programs, and replaces them with a voucher program instead based on family income, and calls it the "Parental Choice and Taxpayer Savings Scholarship Program" or ʺPACTʺ.

So it's a statewide voucher program with the amount of the voucher deducted from a studentʹs school district, with no limit on the number of PACT vouchers that can be awarded. Of course these vouchers can be used at any eligible nonpublic school.

So here we have a bill that allows unlimited amounts of money to be taken from any school district and sent directly to private institutions, effectively gutting public education for the majority of citizens students, The Governor and the Department of Education must have some thoughts on this? Gongwer

Speaker Batchelder, an architect of the Cleveland Voucher Program, said he has yet to review the final version of the measure, which won't be taken up by the full House until at least next week.

"It's had a lot of deliberations" in committee, he said. "It's a very important bill."

Nevertheless, the speaker said he would "have to see if the administration, which is going to come forward with a new plan on primary and secondary (education), whether they're friendly, unfriendly or what."

"I have not talked with the state superintendent either at this point, so I think we have a little more work to do while it's in Rules (Committee)."

Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, said the governor strongly believes in school choice but has not taken a public stance on the measure. ODE also said it has no formal opinion.

How can a bill the effectively provides the means to privatize public education have had a "lot of deliberations" if the Governor, ODE, and State Superintendent not taken any position?

Greg Mild at Plunderbund walks through just one scenario to highlight how destructive this bill would be

If a parent in Dublin finds a private school, enrolls their child, and receives the HB136 funding, the Dublin City School district suffers a net loss of $3,757. Doesn’t sound too bad in isolation, does it? Well, keep going….

Assuming Dublin parents can find private schools to take their children, this could continue until every student has taken their private tuition money out of the Dublin pool and the entire district is privatized. Except that would be impossible because the pool of money can’t sustain the model in the legislation. Honestly, it’s just basic arithmetic at this point.

District funds remaining: $12,089,366
[Divided by] private tuition voucher: $4,626
[Equals] Number of vouchers available for funding: 2,613
Number of total students in Dublin City Schools: 13,910
So, after student number 2,613 has taken their tax money and run, I’m left with two questions for the “financial experts” down at the Statehouse:

Who pays for number 2,614?
Who funds the remaining 11,000+ students?

As Greg notes, HB136 would destroy a public school that is graded excellent with distinction and leave over 10,000 students out in the cold.

Here's the LSC synopsis of HB136, you'll note we haven't even touched upon the education savings accounts aspect to the bill.

HB136 Synopsis