Latest news with #EdChoice
The Hill
10-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
The ‘big, beautiful' fight over school choice ends with escape clause for blue states
Republicans quietly passed a first-of-its-kind national school choice program in President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' but celebration among advocates was tempered after the Senate added a provision giving blue states a way out. The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) was on turbulent waters throughout the process, at one taken out of the bill due to the Senate Parliamentarian and leaving backers on the edge of their seats. Its final form lifts the cap on how much the federal government can spend on the issue, but its opt-in feature means school choice programs might not make new advances in the Democratic-led states supporters have long targeted. 'School choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st Century. Every child, regardless of race or wealth or ethnicity, deserves access to an excellent education. This tax credit provision will unleash billions of dollars every single year for scholarships for kids to attend the K-12 school of their choice,' Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a speech before the Senate voted to pass the legislation, which President Trump signed on Friday. The basic premise of ECCA is a tax credit that will go to individuals or corporations who donate to nonprofits that offer educational scholarships to students looking for options outside of traditional public schools. The money from the program can go to certain qualified expenses such as tuition, fees, tutoring and supplies for students at public, private or religious schools. It can also cover transportation, room and board and computer equipment. 'One thing we should certainly not be doing is creating a two-tier education system in America — private schools for the wealthy and well-connected, and severely underfunded public schools for low-income, disabled and working class kids,' said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at a press conference against the reconciliation bill back in June, K-12 Dive reported. 'That is not what this country is supposed to be about.' School choice advocates and Republicans in Senate and House leadership fought hard for the provision, as it would represent the first national school choice program in the country, but in the end some of the language came up short for advocates. 'I will say the House version ended up being better than what passed, and there's still a lot to be done to see if it's improved on down the road,' said Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice. 'I would phrase it this way — not to be a naysayer, which I'm not — I'm excited about it. So we at EdChoice are excited that more families have more options, except, I would say, Congress took a big swing at school choice and hit a single in this program,' Enlow added. The biggest loss for the school choice crowd was an opt-in option that was added in the Senate, which allows states to reject the tax credit. The provision says governors can decide whether to opt in to the program and designate which scholarship groups can participate in it. 'The option is new, and … they're going to have an additional hurdle to go through to ram vouchers into states like Michigan,' said Joshua Cowen, professor of education policy at Michigan State University. 'There's going to be enormous political pressure from these organizations to push governors, whether they're Democrats, whether they're Republicans, to opt into this. So … it doesn't give them the automatic force that they wanted to, their next pivot is going to be to try to put a lot of dollars behind pushing governors to opt into this bill,' he added. That tees up fights in states with divided governments. North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger (R) has said he is going to work to ensure his state participates in the program, setting up a conflict with Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. 'I will write legislation to enable North Carolina to take part in President Trump's School Choice Plan, allowing taxpayers to write off contributions to organizations that fund private school scholarships,' Berger posted on X. There was also a cap added on how much a person can donate with the federal dollar for dollar tax credit, up to $1,700 a year, but the cap overall on how much the program can cost the federal government, which was at $5 billion in the beginning, was lifted entirely. An analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found if 59 million qualified taxpayers choose to take advantage of this tax credit, it could cost the federal government $101 billion per year, although it is highly unlikely that many would take part. Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the plan will initially cost $3 billion to $4 billion a year and go up overtime. 'There's potentially a lot more money that could get spent on this national DeVos voucher scheme moving forward, even if it doesn't automatically accomplish the goal of ramming it into blue states like initially sought out, they're going to have to take an additional step, but there's now more, much more money for them to potentially devote to this program,' Cowen said. Moving forward, both advocates and opponents of school choice will be looking to harden their positions, especially as some supportive of this measure are wary of hits made to protections for religious schools. John DeJak, director for the Secretariat of Catholic Education for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the National Catholic Register he was concerned about language that was stripped out of the final version of the bill that guaranteed freedom of operation for religious schools that would accept money from this program. 'There are state level and federal level protections on religious liberty, and so those ideally can be helpful here. The rules and regulation process may affirm that even further as this program will go through Treasury rules, and then we'll really know exactly how it is implemented in the states. And so, we want to wait to see what the rules process looks like on that front,' said Brian Jodice, national press secretary for the American Federation for Children. Opponents will look to fight against states signing up for the program and emphasize concerns that this legislation will hurt public schools. 'The significant disparities in private school access [in] states … What does this mean for rural communities? What does it mean for kids with disabilities?' asked Blair Wriston, senior manager of government affairs at EdTrust. 'We're really disappointed that this provision was included, and we don't think it's going to improve outcomes for the 90 percent of kids in public schools. That should be our focus,' Wriston added.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court ruling puts Ohio school vouchers in limbo
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Advocates for Ohio's School Voucher System said even families with high incomes deserve taxpayer support for private schools. And they'll get it in the new Ohio budget that contains more than $700 million for vouchers that will go to private and parochial schools. GOP deficit hawks list complaints on megabill ahead of vote Last week, a Franklin County judge declared Ed Choice vouchers to be unconstitutional, but the order was delayed pending an appeal. In 2024, the state of Ohio spent nearly $1 billion on private school vouchers, with leaders of School Choice Ohio saying it's money well spent, giving parents and students educational options. 'We've placed children in private schools using Ed Choice,' School Choice Ohio President Eric 'Yitz' Frank said. 'We find options in public schools that work best for them so we are kind of agnostic about where people go to school, but we do believe they should have the ability to take their tax dollars and go to a school of their choice, whether it's a private or a public school.' 'The only difference is who pays for it?' teacher and Cleveland Heights School Board Member Dan Heintz said. 'Ohio went very successfully for a century with great private schools and great public schools, and it's really only been about the last 20 years that the private schools started to expect their neighbors, citizens from around the state to underwrite their decision to send their children to a private school.' How to get your unclaimed Ohio funds before they go to the Cleveland Browns Heintz is part of the Vouchers Hurt Ohio group that is suing the state. Their first victory came in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. 'The 'why not' is the Ohio state constitution, and that's what we saw Judge Page here in Franklin County decide this week when she ruled that Ed Choice vouchers are a violation of the state constitution,' Heintz said. Page ruled that lawmakers are violating the Ohio constitution by creating a second system of schools that receive an unreasonably high level of per-student tax dollars. Critics also point out that vouchers were promised to pull poor students out of underperforming districts, but vouchers often go to affluent families in high-ranking public school districts who never intend to send their children to public schools. Project underway to help relieve I-270/71 congestion on North Side 'There are kids that thrive in really what we would call poor-performing schools and there are kids that struggle in really what we consider to be, objectively, affluent schools and so putting the parents in the driver's seat, we think, will ultimately get better outcomes,' Frank said. And, for now, parochial and private schools will continue to receive public dollars. The vouchers are in the budget signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. The state is poised to appeal the finding in Franklin County Common Pleas Court that the vouchers are unconstitutional. It is expected that the case will go all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, where Republicans hold all but one seat. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Ohio Court Strikes Down State School Voucher Program
Who gets a piece of this pile? Ohio is now one more state in which taxpayer-funded school vouchers have been struck down by a court. On June 24, Judge Jaiza Page of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas granted summary judgements against Ohio's EdChoice program and for a coalition of over 100 public school districts and parents. Ohio's EdChoice program followed a common pattern in the establishment of taxpayer-funded school choice programs. It launched in 2005, with its budget limited and its use targeted to students in low-achieving schools, but it didn't stop there. Ohio's earlier forays into taxpayer-funded vouchers had been challenged before, with Page particularly noting Simmons-Harris v. Goff, a challenge to a voucher program set up for Cleveland schools. The decision issued in May 1999 found that since the program was funded at such a low level that it could not affect the state's ability to meet its constitutional obligation to fund public schools. Additionally, the Goff decision involved a program that handed money directly to families, not to private religious schools. EdChoice launched within those very specific restrictions in place. But the pattern for school choice programs is to start small, then keep expanding. In 2024, the program was expanded to cover all students. According to state government figures, Ohio's taxpayer-funded voucher programs cost almost $1 billion in 2024, a massive increase over their original cost. The court found that changes in the program have carried it past constitutional lines. The defendants appealed to Goff for support, particular against the charge that EdChoice created two separate school systems in Ohio, but Page did not see the decision their way. Though the Defendants argue that Goff hinged on the fact that the school voucher program at issue did not actually create any schools, the Court disagrees with this interpretation. Goff recognized the history and value of private schools but cautioned that their success should not come at the expense of public education, nor should the state be allowed to finance a system of nonpublic schools. In other words, Page finds in Goff a set of restrictions on what a constitutional voucher program may or may not do. To be constitutional, the program should issue the money to the families, but EdChoice currently pays directly to the private schools. Further, Page argues that Goff dealt with private schools that were required to follow anti-discrimination rules. Chartered non-public schools participating in the EdChoice program are not subject to anti-discrimination laws, giving them complete control over whether to enroll a prospective student, and allowing them to turn students away based on their religion, sexual orientation, or disability. In addition, the chartered non-public school, not the student or parent, applies to the state for an EdChoice voucher. By bestowing participating private religious schools with complete control over prospective students' participation, the 'school choice' here is made by the private school, not 'as the result of independent decisions of parents and students.' Page's summary of the defendants' argument is blunt: The idea that EdChoice establishes scholarships, not a system of schools, and that it funds students, not private schools, is mere semantics. The plaintiffs also argued that the voucher program was taking money that should be directed to public schools. The defendants were not helped in their argument by House Speaker Matt Huffman. He declared that continuing to fund the phase in of Ohio's Fair School Funding Plan public school funding fix was 'unsustainable,' as reported by the Ohio Capital Journal. As pointed out by former Ohio House Education Committee Chair Stephen Dyer, the legislature increased education spending by $633 million, with 70% of that increase going to private schools, even though those schools only serve 15% of Ohio's students. As Page summarizes the point, 'the General Assembly chose to expand their system of private school funding by about the same amount as Ohio's public schools lost through the General Assembly's failure to fully fund the FSFP.' Such a system, Page ruled, is a clear violation of Article VI Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution. Page also agreed with the plaintiff's argument that EdChoice violates the constitution by giving public taxpayer dollars to private religious organizations. The plaintiffs offered a Free Exercise defense, arguing that the constitutional language restricts the free exercise of religion as laid out in the First Amendment, but Page finds that there is no Free Exercise issue because 'no religious organization is being singled out and denied a government benefit.' Expect that last point to come up again as the case moves through the appeals process. The Free Exercise argument has served school voucher supporters in several Supreme Court Cases, The Associated Press reports that the state is readying its appeal of the ruling. 'This decision is poorly reasoned and ignores mountains of previous school choice jurisprudence at both (the) state and federal levels,' Troy McIntosh, executive director of the Ohio Christian Education Network, the rapidly expanding education arm of the Center for Christian Virtue, told the AP. Meanwhile, Page writes 'in recognition that this decision may cause significant changes to school funding in Ohio and the high likelihood that the parties will immediately appeal, the judgment in this case shall be stayed.' Ultimately, this case will reestablish what boundaries taxpayer-funded voucher programs must observe in Ohio.
25-06-2025
- Politics
Ohio plans swift appeal as court declares private school voucher system unconstitutional
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio signaled on Wednesday that it will swiftly appeal a court ruling declaring the state's private school voucher system unconstitutional, a decision celebrated by public school advocates and condemned by a prominent Christian education organization. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement that he is confident the state will ultimately win. He assured Ohio families that the judge's order allows the program to remain operational as the lawsuit is argued, "so parents don't have to panic or worry about other options while the court process plays out.' Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page granted summary judgment Tuesday in a 2022 lawsuit joined by hundreds of public school districts, known collectively as Vouchers Hurt Ohio, as well as some parents, students and a fair school funding group. The plaintiffs had argued that Ohio's 28-year-old school voucher plan, known as EdChoice, has over time created an unconstitutional system of separately funded private schools and led to resegregation of some districts because mostly nonminority students take advantage of the program. Page, a Democrat, agreed that the program violates a provision of the Ohio Constitution requiring 'a thorough and efficient system of common schools," but rejected claims that it violated the equal protection clause. She used her 47-page decision to recount Ohio's history of funding schools, noting that evidence presented in the case spanned from before statehood to the 2023 state budget bill that established a universal voucher program providing tuition to nonpublic schools, including religious ones, to any family in the state. Page notably rejected the widely used 'school choice' legal argument, which says that voucher programs involve spending decisions made by individual parents, not by the state. The judge found that argument failed in this case. She said families aren't the EdChoice program's final decision-makers: 'The ultimate decision to accept prospective students, and by doing so receive EdChoice funds, lies with the private school.' The Ohio Christian Education Network, the rapidly expanding education arm of the Center for Christian Virtue, expressed strong disagreement with the ruling. 'This decision is poorly reasoned and ignores mountains of previous school choice jurisprudence at both (the) state and federal levels,' Troy McIntosh, the network's executive director, said in a statement. 'The fact is that this decision is not only an improper legal decision, but it could result in almost 100,000 Ohio students being tossed out of the school they have chosen to attend." The Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, praised the ruling as a win for the nearly 90% of K-12 students who attend Ohio's public schools. "Although this legal victory is likely the first step in a much longer process through the appeals courts, the ruling Tuesday represents a huge victory for Ohio's public school educators, school communities, and students who have seen critical resources diverted from our public schools for years to fund private school tuition payments for mostly-wealthy families whose children had never attended their local public schools in the first place,' OEA President Scott DiMauro said in a statement.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio plans swift appeal as court declares private school voucher system unconstitutional
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio signaled on Wednesday that it will swiftly appeal a court ruling declaring the state's private school voucher system unconstitutional, a decision celebrated by public school advocates and condemned by a prominent Christian education organization. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement that he is confident the state will ultimately win. He assured Ohio families that the judge's order allows the program to remain operational as the lawsuit is argued, "so parents don't have to panic or worry about other options while the court process plays out.' Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page granted summary judgment Tuesday in a 2022 lawsuit joined by hundreds of public school districts, known collectively as Vouchers Hurt Ohio, as well as some parents, students and a fair school funding group. The plaintiffs had argued that Ohio's 28-year-old school voucher plan, known as EdChoice, has over time created an unconstitutional system of separately funded private schools and led to resegregation of some districts because mostly nonminority students take advantage of the program. Page, a Democrat, agreed that the program violates a provision of the Ohio Constitution requiring 'a thorough and efficient system of common schools," but rejected claims that it violated the equal protection clause. She used her 47-page decision to recount Ohio's history of funding schools, noting that evidence presented in the case spanned from before statehood to the 2023 state budget bill that established a universal voucher program providing tuition to nonpublic schools, including religious ones, to any family in the state. Page notably rejected the widely used 'school choice' legal argument, which says that voucher programs involve spending decisions made by individual parents, not by the state. The judge found that argument failed in this case. She said families aren't the EdChoice program's final decision-makers: 'The ultimate decision to accept prospective students, and by doing so receive EdChoice funds, lies with the private school.' The Ohio Christian Education Network, the rapidly expanding education arm of the Center for Christian Virtue, expressed strong disagreement with the ruling. 'This decision is poorly reasoned and ignores mountains of previous school choice jurisprudence at both (the) state and federal levels,' Troy McIntosh, the network's executive director, said in a statement. 'The fact is that this decision is not only an improper legal decision, but it could result in almost 100,000 Ohio students being tossed out of the school they have chosen to attend." The Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, praised the ruling as a win for the nearly 90% of K-12 students who attend Ohio's public schools. "Although this legal victory is likely the first step in a much longer process through the appeals courts, the ruling Tuesday represents a huge victory for Ohio's public school educators, school communities, and students who have seen critical resources diverted from our public schools for years to fund private school tuition payments for mostly-wealthy families whose children had never attended their local public schools in the first place,' OEA President Scott DiMauro said in a statement.
