A Columbus think tank doesn’t want lawmakers convening for the 136th General Assembly to forget their promise to make “school choice universally available.”
“Ohio lawmakers recently promised to put students first by making school choice universally available,” Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, said in a new policy memo titled “Fulfilling the Promise of Putting Students First.” “That was the right thing to do.
“…Ohio lawmakers should keep the state’s promise to enhance and expand school choice for families,” Lawson concluded. “Students should come first, whether they learn at their local district school, a charter school, or one of Ohio’s many alternative education providers. State leaders should take commonsense steps to secure universal school choice and resist any efforts to undermine its success.”
The scholarships provide “students from designated public schools the opportunity to attend participating private schools.” According to the think tank, lawmakers allowed all families to secure EdChoice scholarships in the last operating budget, “effectively making school choice universal throughout the state.”
The scholarships have been popular, with the number of recipients more than doubling from 50,200 in 2021 to nearly 130,000 in 2024, the Buckeye Institute said.
The group provided lawmakers with six recommendations, which include opposing efforts to roll back EdChoice eligibility or scholarships, include disadvantaged student aid (DPIA) in EdChoice scholarships; reform the transportation system for public charter and private school families; ease charter school access to unused district school buildings; create financing capacity for non-district schools to expand classrooms; and issue state report cards to improve the information available to parents.
The Buckeye Institute said lawmakers should retain universal eligibility and oppose efforts to limit its scope or reduce scholarship amounts to preserve money for public district schools. District schools are funded based on enrollment, and locally collected money stays in the district even if a student does not.
Currently, EdChoice awards $6,166 for grades K–8 and $8,408 for grades 9-12, but the group said that for many disadvantaged households, these amounts do not cover education costs. That’s why the think tank wants state leaders to include the appropriate DPIA in EdChoice scholarships.
Public districts and public charter schools receive additional per-student DPIA resources for every economically disadvantaged student, and the Buckeye Institute said the EdChoice program does not cost school districts state money. However, per the think tank, DPIA funding does not transfer to EdChoice recipients, keeping some families from alternative education options due to costs.
Additionally, despite a legal mandate for districts to transport or offset the costs to parents transporting school choice students, some districts make transporting students to selected schools difficult.
Some public school districts continue to hinder school choice by not allowing charter school operators to buy unused public district school buildings. The group said that districts have even demolished buildings rather than selling them.
Although state law gives charter schools a right of first refusal to buy “unused” buildings, some districts find ways to avoid calling their buildings “unused” under the current definition. Lawmakers should amend the law to thwart “unsportsmanlike gamesmanship” violating the law’s spirit.
The Buckeye Institute recommended that lawmakers create financing models for alternative education providers that make renovating existing structures and adding classroom space easier. Such a model might include a revolving loan program with low- or no-interest loans for classroom expansion and low-cost financing options through state-linked deposit programs.
“Finally, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s annual report cards rating the state’s public schools have replaced easy-to-understand letter grades with an ambiguous star rating system,” according to the memo. The report cards should revert to the letter grade system with straightforward explanations of the scores and the standards used to generate them.”
