With Gov. Mike DeWine's signature, Ohio's new budget sets aside $2.44 billion to pay for vouchers for students to attend private schools over the two years, the most the state's ever spent on the program.
The budget calls for $403 million more for the EdChoice Scholarship and related private-school voucher programs compared to the last biennial budget, according to Legislative Service Commission data, a 17% increase. In total, the state's spending on voucher programs has more than doubled since the 2022-2023 state budget; the state expanded access to vouchers dramatically in the 2024-2025 budget.
At the same time, DeWine vetoed a provision from the Republican-dominated Legislature that would have set up a $35.1 million educational savings account program to help parents pay to send their students to nonchartered private schools. Those are private schools that in the past have not had access to Ohio's school voucher system because they've declined to accept certain regulations from the state due to religious beliefs.
The school funding numbers in the state budget are just estimates of how much the state will actually spend. The Ohio Legislature could also still vote to override any of DeWine's vetoes.
Yitz Frank, president of School Choice Ohio, a nonprofit that advocates for expanded school options, supports more money going to school vouchers. He said in an interview last week, before DeWine signed the budget, that School Choice Ohio was disappointed there was no increase put into the budget for the total voucher amount each family can receive. Currently, families making at or below 450% of the poverty line can receive a $6,166 scholarship for students in grades K鈥�8 and a $8,408 scholarship for grades 9-12; families earning above that amount can still get some portion of the total scholarship.
Frank said the state funding vouchers is a matter of fairness to taxpayers.
The dollars that are spent, we believe, needs to follow a child no matter where they go, he said. This fair school funding formula does a pretty good job of driving dollars towards actual students. And so when a student were to leave or choose to go to a non-public school, making sure that state dollars follow them, we think is a really important policy.
He said the state is projecting a significant amount of students going to private schools in the future, hence the increase in state support. The number of students attending private schools has increased since the state expanded support for vouchers, from 168,000 in October 2022 to about 180,000 in October 2024, according to Ohio Department of Education data. One study, however, has suggested the increase in voucher use has mainly been driven by students who already were attending private school.
Of the almost two million students that attend Ohio public, private and charter schools, Ohio Department of Education data shows 90% attend public schools as of 2024, although that number does include charter schools. The total number of students attending public schools in Ohio drops to around 80% when excluding charter schools and including about 50,000 homeschooled students, .
A Franklin County judge ruled June 24 that Ohio's school-voucher system was unconstitutional, although that decision will be appealed, with the judge allowing the voucher system .
More than 300 school districts joined the initial lawsuit that the judge ruled on, including Canton City School District. School Board President Scott Russ welcomed the judge's ruling and argued the current system was unfair. He said private schools don't have to play by the same rules as public schools.
They're not subject to any of the state testing. They're not subject to a state report card. They are not subject to public records requests, Russ said.
