Columbus Dispatch: Proposed voucher fix is necessary first step

“Along with a lot of other policy priorities, fixing Ohio’s school voucher eligibility standards fell by the wayside in this pandemic-stricken year, leaving a lot of families unhappy. We’re glad that the flurry of legislating in the lame duck session includes a substantial fix. The question of what school vouchers should accomplish and who should be eligible for them has been up in the air for years; Ohioans deserve some certainty.

Senate Bill 89 will stabilize the list of schools whose students are eligible for vouchers by making it primarily tied to income rather than school performance. Traditionally, the idea of the EdChoice program was to give a better option to children in poor-performing public schools by giving them vouchers to help pay private school tuition. Schools were put on the list — meaning their students could get vouchers to go elsewhere — if they performed poorly enough under the state’s evaluation system for public schools.”

The full editorial is available here: