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Email This PageOhio leads the nation in offering meaningful options for parents who want to provide a better education for their children, through three stellar school choice initiatives—the Educational Choice Scholarship Program, the Autism Scholarship Program, and the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program. Read more about Ohio’s programs, and then learn more about the crisis in American education and the different types of programs that have been proposed to provide families with more options.
Programs in Ohio
EdChoice Scholarship Program
Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship program provides scholarships for up to 14,000 students to attend the private schools of their choice. Specifically, students who attend or would attend a public school placed on Academic Watch or Academic Emergency for two of the last three school years qualify for a scholarship to seek other educational opportunities. Parents should apply to a participating private school for admission first, and then apply to the EdChoice scholarship program.
For Kindergarten through eighth graders, the scholarship covers up to $4,500, and for high school students, up to $5,300. The scholarship can be renewed every year as long as the student remains in the district, takes all required statewide tests, and has a good school attendance record.
EdChoice was created in 2005 through Ohio House Bill 66. During the 2007-08 school year, 7,144 students were awarded scholarships totaling $25.5 million.
Autism Scholarship Program
The Autism Scholarship Program offers scholarships to students with autism so they may attend a school better suited to their needs. Students must be enrolled in their public district of residence, have a current multifactor evaluation which states the child is eligible for services under the category of autism, and have an Individual Education Program in order to qualify for a scholarship. Students can receive up to $20,000 and may use the scholarship at a public school outside of their district or at a registered private provider.
The Autism Scholarship Program served 1,000 students during the 2007-08 school year. The program was created in 2003 through Ohio House Bill 95. $15 million was requested by the program office during the 2007-08 school year.
Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program
The Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program is the nation’s second oldest modern school choice program. The program provides scholarships to students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District so parents may send their child to a public school outside the district or to a participating private school of their choice.
In order to qualify, students must be in grades K-8 when applying and live within the bounds of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Scholarships are awarded through a lottery system and preference is given to low-income families living below 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline ($42,400 in 2008). Low-income students receive payment for 90 percent of their tuition bills. All other students receive payment for 75 percent of tuition bills through the program. Scholarships cannot exceed $3,450, and parents must make arrangements to cover any differences in cost.
The Cleveland Scholarship and Tuition Program was enacted by the Ohio General Assembly and included in the state budget by Governor George Voinovich in 1995. In 2002, it was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris. In the 2007-08 school year, 6,273 students received vouchers totaling nearly $18.2 million.
Educational Research In Ohio
Friedman Foundation study of EdChoice (2008)
Promising Start: An Empirical Analysis of How EdChoice Vouchers Affect Public Schools is the first empirical study to examine the effects of Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program. Using publicly available data, it measures the program’s effect on academic outcomes in public schools where students are eligible for vouchers.
Fordham “Fund the Child” (2008)
Fund the Child: Bringing Equity, Autonomy, and Portability to Ohio School Finance notes that despite nearly two decades of blue ribbon commissions, expert analyses, passionate op-eds and speeches, a series of court rulings, reams of legislative changes, and the expenditure of billions more dollars, Ohio still does not have a school funding system that delivers the results the Buckeye State urgently needs.
ASC School Choice Yearbook (2007)
School Choice Yearbook 2007 is designed to serve as a reference guide to school choice with facts, information, polling data, and updated details on each of the school choice programs available throughout the country.
Buckeye Institute– intra-district spending patterns unfair (2007)
Shortchanging Disadvantaged Students: An Analysis of Intra-district Spending Patterns in Ohio is an analysis of legislative efforts to provide supplemental resources for disadvantaged students are well-conceived… the money earmarked for this purpose is not reaching its target. Put simply, state equity efforts are being contravened by the way that districts allocate their funds to individual school buildings.
Fordham Ohioans on schooling opinion surveys (2007)
Ohioans’ Views on Education 2007 is a survey that looks at Ohioan’s opinions on issues of school quality and funding, academic standards, school reforms, proposals to improve how the public schools are run, teacher quality, charter schools and school vouchers.
Creating a World-Class Education System in Ohio is a report intended for Ohio policymakers and all other stakeholders interested in moving Ohio’s K-12 system to world-class levels.
Friedman study on segregation and Cleveland (2006)
Segregation Levels in Cleveland Public Schools and the Cleveland Voucher Program examines the widespread claims that private schools have high segregation levels and that vouchers will lead to greater segregation. This study finds that both assertions are empirically unsupportable. Private schools participating in Cleveland’s voucher program are much less segregated than Cleveland’s public schools. This means that students using the voucher program are gaining access to a more integrated school experience.
LOEO study of Autism Scholarship (2005)
Formative Evaluation of Ohio’s Autism Scholarship Program reviews the first implementation of this scholarship program created to give parents of autistic children the option to seek alternate special education services for their children, rather than those offered by their school district.
BAEO Lies and Distortions (2001)
Lies and Distortions: The Campaign Against School Vouchers argues that organized support organized opponents of tax-supported school vouchers purposely issue inaccurate statements about parental school choice. This study focuses on how these untrue statements adversely affected parental choice in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Florida.
Buckeye Institute overview of CSTP (1998)
Giving Choice a Chance: Cleveland and the Future of School Reform is an examination the country’s first voucher program to include sectarian schools. Despite opposition from teacher’s unions, Ohio found legislative success during a time of failed school choice ballot initiatives.
Across the Country
Please see the Alliance for School Choice website, www.allianceforschoolchoice.org, to see how school choice initiatives are shaping up around the country! Click here and get a free subscription to national school choice news magazines and promotional material.
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