On Oct. 15, an Ohio appeals court declared the state’s private school voucher program unconstitutional for violating the state constitution’s requirement for “a thorough and efficient system of common schools.”
The program, “as presently structured and funded, secures with taxpayer funds a competing system of uncommon schools that is not subject to the same obligations imposed on Ohio’s system of common schools,” Judge David Leland wrote for the 10th District Court of Appeals.
The court also found that EdChoice, Ohio’s school voucher plan of almost 30 years, has hurt public education by allowing private schools to “cherry pick” students, concentrating participating schools in urban areas and disincentivizing voters from approving local school levies.
The plaintiffs in the 2022 lawsuit, which had been rejected by a lower court, included a coalition of hundreds of Ohio school districts called Vouchers Hurt Ohio. The coalition argued that EdChoice had resegregated some school districts since mostly white families use it and created an unconstitutional system of separately funded private schools.
In 2023, Ohio expanded the EdChoice program, making it universal and one of the largest in the country. It remains operational in anticipation of an appeal.
Education Week, Oct. 16