School Choice Ohio Blog

Rounding out a decade of booming growth in education options, school choice moved forward in 2009 with new energy and quality. Among the year’s highlights:

• The number of Ohio students using the state’s three scholarship programs continued to climb. In 2009, more than 20,000 students benefitted from the Autism Scholarship, Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, and EdChoice Scholarship.

• School choice programs survived threats of severe budget cuts in a difficult financial year. Despite some fiscal cuts, these options remain for families searching for the best environment for their children’s education.

• The Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program received international attention. School Choice Ohio staff and other Ohio education leaders met with Japanese education officials looking to emulate Ohio’s school choice programs.

• More and more parents raised their voices for school choice. Active parental school choice ambassadors are organizing EdChoice floats in community parades, hosting community information meetings, inviting legislators to visit their schools, speaking at conferences, and telling the story of school choice across Ohio. 

• High quality, innovative public school choice options in Cleveland garnered well-earned praise. In a school district that struggles to overcome a lot of obstacles and inertia, school choice is a point of light thanks to school leaders for whom “failure is not an option; neither is mediocrity.”

• New state testing and reporting requirements means increased transparency for Ohio’s scholarship programs. Parents and the public will have more information than ever about how students using vouchers achieve and grow academically.

• The Ohio Senate included the creation of a new Special Education Scholarship in their version of the state budget. The proposed scholarship would expand the Autism Scholarship to students with all learning disabilities. It was nixed before becoming law, but families continue to seek alternatives.

And with that, we here at School Choice Ohio wish you a Happy New Year!

- Sarah Pechan

One of the underpinnings of the school choice movement has always been our belief in accountability.  Without a doubt, voucher programs have always had market accountability. If parents are unhappy with the education a private school is providing to their children then they simply leave. A private school failing to meet the educational needs of its students is destined to struggle or fail.

Many people, friend and foe alike, have also suggested additional accountability (or perhaps more accurately, transparency) for school choice programs. They want to know if students using the programs are performing better academically than their cohorts in public schools.

At SCO, we agree that the measurement of academic performance is important. To that end, we have repeatedly pushed to have longitudinal analysis conducted on voucher student test data. After all, all students using an EdChoice Scholarship in Ohio take the state assessment test. Despite high profile studies in Florida, Washington, DC, and Milwaukee, we have not been able to get a similar study done in Ohio. That is soon going to change.

The recently passed state budget included language that will increase public transparency of the scholarship programs and give parents additional information to help them make informed decisions about their children’s education. The new language will require the Ohio Department of Education to:

§         Compile and organize test scores of voucher students on a statewide, school district, and private school basis

§         Post voucher student performance to the website each year (without identifying individual students)

§         Notify all eligible parents how voucher students are performing on the state assessment

§         Provide data on their child’s performance annually to the parents of all voucher students and compare the performance to that of similar students who attend the public school that the child would have been assigned

In this case, a change of language in the budget is a good thing.  Given that parents are the primary consumer when making decisions about their children’s education, it is important that they know how their children are faring.

In addition, we welcome the chance to show policy makers and naysayers what we hear from so many parents….the program works.

– Chad Aldis