Appeals court gets briefs on Ohio school voucher program

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(The Center Square) – An Ohio policy group believes student achievement, rather than money, is the basis of the state’s universal school choice program.

That’s the argument The Buckeye Institute is using in a brief to an appellate court deciding the legality of Ohio’s EdChoice program, ruled unconstitutional earlier this year by a Franklin County judge.

The ruling was stayed after the state immediately appealed, and the EdChoice program is currently active.

However, the program that the state annually spends more than $1 billion on  in taxpayer funds now sits in the 10th District Court of Appeals.

The brief filed this week by The Buckeye Institute is its second in the case.

“The argument put forward by the anti-school choice coalition reveals that money is what this case is about,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “Not the education achievements of Ohio’s children. The strict uniformity in funding that the schools demand ignores the fact that there is no correlation between increased funding and improved education.”

Columbus City Schools, the state’s largest school system, is the lead plaintiff in the case that was filed in early 2022. More than 100 public school districts joined the case through the lead group, “Vouchers Hurt Ohio.”

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page struck down the program, which has no income limitations, in late June.

“The state may not fund private schools at the expense of public schools or in a manner that undermines its obligation to public education,” Jaiza wrote in a 42-page ruling.

The Buckeye Institute’s brief, however, says the historic goal of education was never to provide equal funding for education, and the state currently provides a different amount of money to each public school district around the state.

It also said more money does not equal better results, and the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled schools outside the traditional public school system are part of “common schools” in the state.

“The plaintiff’s underlying theme in its appeal is that money equals education and that more money means better education,” said Greg R. Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute. “This trope has long been refuted, both nationally and in Ohio. Ohio’s school choice program is designed to give parents the resources they need to educate their children in a way that best fits their children’s needs. It recognizes that education is not, and never has been, one-size-fits-all.”