Attorneys for Vouchers Hurt Ohio file reply brief in EdChoice lawsuit
Attorneys for Vouchers Hurt Ohio filed a reply brief recently in the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals regarding the EdChoice private voucher lawsuit.
On June 24, 2025, Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page ruled the EdChoice private school voucher program was unconstitutional on three of the five counts that attorneys for Vouchers Hurt Ohio put forth in the case.
The case was appealed to the 10th District Court of Appeals.
Miriam Fair, an attorney with Weston Hurd LLP, and Mark I. Wallach, an attorney with McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman, filed a reply brief last Monday asking the court to reject arguments from the state and intervenors, and to reverse Judge Page's decision on Count 5, which challenges the constitutionality of EdChoice private school vouchers based on the Equal Protection clauses in the Ohio Constitution.
"The state allocates 3-4 times less for public education of (public school students) than it does for their private school counterparts via vouchers," attorneys Fair and Wallach write. "The EdChoice program violates Article 1, Section 2, of Ohio's Constitution; (public school) students ask this Court to reverse the trial court and grant them summary judgment on Count V."
"And the right to choose public education cannot be conditioned on accepting 3-4 times less in per pupil funding for that education. In praising school choice, the legislature cannot punish the choice of public education, the only option it is constitutionally mandated to secure," Fair and Wallach write.
"As of fiscal year 2024, high school students in Richmond Heights receive about $1,530 per year from the state. If that same student enrolls in a private school, the state provides up to $8,408 for the school year," said Nneka Jackson, a Richmond Heights school board member.
"There is a great disparity between what the state spends for private education students and public education students. It really illustrates the state's priorities,' said Dan Heintz, a school board member at Cleveland Heights-University Heights. "The state is giving private schools a $2,000 per pupil bonus for high schoolers because, pro-voucher attorneys attest, private schools charge more for high schoolers. Public schools do not receive a similar bonus for educating high schoolers. To quote our attorneys, "either it costs more to educate high school students, or it doesn't."
You can read the VHO's filing at https://vouchershurtohio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Time-Stamped-1….
The Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding is working with Vouchers Hurt Ohio, a growing coalition of more than 325 public school districts that have come together to sue the state over the unconstitutional and harmful private school voucher program.