Northeast Ohio's mixed support and opposition for EdChoice lawsuit

The EdChoice voucher scholarship program is facing a legal battle against 123 public schools, including some in Cleveland and Akron, to determine whether or not it is constitutional.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio lists Wooster City Schools as the only school district in Wayne, Holmes and Ashland counties to join the lawsuit, but Superintendent Gabe Tudor said that's not the case.

Past oppositionSeveral Wayne County school districts oppose state voucher program expansion

The school district has opposed expanding the voucher program in the past and has supported lobbying efforts to increase public school funding, Tudor said, but it has not voted to join the lawsuit.

"Each year the school board votes on a resolution to support funding for lobbying, but that has not happened this fiscal year," he said.

The Ohio Department of Education does not list Wooster City Schools among the districts that are designated participants in the voucher program.

Private schools like St. Edward in Ashland County, Central Christian, Kingsway Christian and St. Mary Immaculate Conception in Wooster are eligible for the program.

"At Wooster City Schools, we're not against private schools; we have a great relationship with local private schools," Tudor said. "Our concern is that (EdChoice) could remove money from Wooster and other public schools; we want to ensure they are held to the same standard as we are."

In January, 100 school districts filed a lawsuit in Franklin County challenging the constitutionality of the state's voucher system.

Community Legal Aid supports EdChoice lawsuit

Community Legal Aid groups across Ohio, including in Wooster, joined organizations like the League of Women Voters of Ohio and the Ohio Poverty Law Center in supporting the lawsuit.

These organizations wrote and signed an amicus brief in early July providing additional information for the lawsuit in an effort to influence the outcome of the suit.

Sarah Wiley, a staff attorney for Community Legal Aid in Akron, said the scholarship pulls funds from public schools while discriminating against low-income families and people of color.

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"The General Assembly (of Ohio) is responsible for all schools to have adequate funding, but EdChoice takes that money away," Wiley said.

Among the main arguments of the lawsuit and amicus brief is that public schools lose more state money than they receive because of the voucher program.

"The Educational Choice Scholarship Program provides students from designated public schools the opportunity to attend participating private schools," according to the state Department of Education website. "The program also provides low-income students who are entering kindergarten through 12th grade scholarship opportunities."

Wiley said, when students attend private schools via the program, state funding that would have gone to the public schools is reduced.

"The state deducts $5,500 for (kindergarten) through eighth grades and $7,500 per high school student," Wiley said. "This leads to budget cuts and a scramble for new money that hurts already impoverished school districts."

The amicus brief noted that the voucher segregates school districts along racial and economic lines.

The EdChoice program, Wiley said, is used more often by economically well-off families because they have the resources to take their kids to different school districts and extracurriculars.

Rural students, such as in Wayne County, receive vouchers at a lower rate. The Comprehensive Center Network reported in 2020 that 53% of urban families have access to school choice programs compared to 32% in rural communities.

"Black and Hispanic students are very underrepresented in private schools," Wiley said.

White students make up 69% of private school enrollment while Black and Hispanic students make up 10%, she said.

A lawsuit to decide school choice

For the Superintendent of Cleveland Diocese, Frank O'Linn, the lawsuit against EdChoice puts school choice and private school livelihood at stake.

While he acknowledges that the scholarship program needs to be examined and changed, he does not believe it should be struck down.

"Without (the program), it would reduce parent choice and (private) schools would lose students," O'Linn said. "I want to make it clear that the scholarship program exists for private schools, not the other way around."

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O'Linn countered the amicus brief's claim that the program economically and racially segregates communities.

"EdChoice predominantly serves minority students," he said. "Public schools are reflective of the segregated neighborhoods in Ohio; EdChoice helps them get out of those neighborhoods."

O'Linn said it would be discriminatory for state funds not to go toward private schools.

An early June 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that Maine's denial of taxpayer money to religious schools was discriminatory.

"We are part of the education system in Ohio and we believe in the liberty of choice," O'Linn said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: EdChoice lawsuit faces mix of support and opposition in NE Ohio