Ohio Republicans plan to appeal ruling that private school voucher program is unconstitutional
Ohio Republican leaders announced their plan Monday to pursue an appeal of a Franklin County decision ruling that the state’s private school voucher program is unconstitutional.
In a media briefing with Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman and others on Monday, state Attorney General Dave Yost said his office plans to appeal the recent decision in which a Franklin County judge ruled that Ohio’s private school voucher system known as EdChoice is unconstitutional.
“Private schools participating in EdChoice receive substantially more state funding per student than public schools,” Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page wrote in her decision. “Where EdChoice participating private schools are inexplicably receiving double the per-pupil state funding than public schools, it is difficult to say that EdChoice is simply a scholarship that follows and/or benefits the students as opposed to a system that benefits private schools.”
Yost said they do not agree with the decision.
“That’s why they make appeals courts, and we’ll be making our merits appeal Wednesday, explaining in some detail why we believe the trial court erred,” he said.
Yost said the briefing was to clarify the legal status of the private school voucher program, especially as a new school year approaches.
“EdChoice is the law of the land; it is funded, it is operational, it is available for Ohio parents,” Yost said. “I want to urge all Ohioans to carefully consider what’s in the best interest of your child.”
The lawsuit argued that the Ohio legislature’s current funding of the private school program is taking away from public schools in Ohio, where 90% of students in the state are educated.
The court case questioned the constitutionality of the vouchers, saying the Ohio Constitution’s edict for the state to fund a “thorough and efficient” system of schools was being violated with the continued and increasing funding of the program.
Page said in her ruling that while the General Assembly has “exceedingly broad powers” when it comes to the state’s “common school system,” those powers weren’t unlimited.
In 2024, private school vouchers received almost $1 billion in state funding after the legislature raised eligibility for the program to include nearly every student in any income bracket.
Claims that the private school vouchers were creating “segregation” within education were rejected by the judge.
Though she acknowledged that “it seems inevitable that some Ohio students might be excluded from the EdChoice program,” Page also rejected a lawsuit claim that the state’s varied per-pupil funding between public and private schools created “disparities” in education.
The judge allowed the voucher program to continue, as she anticipated appeals to the ruling, also saying the decision “may cause significant changes to school funding in Ohio.”
During Monday’s press briefing, Rabbi Eric “Yitz” Frank, president of School Choice Ohio, said more than 160,000 students are using one of the state’s various voucher programs, and that closing down the programs would have a “terrible impact” on the state and the education system.
“The lawyers can argue all they want, but at the end of the day, there’s hundreds of thousands of families that are depending on Attorney General Yost being successful in his arguments,” Frank said.
A representative for Indiana-based EdChoice Legal Advocates was also present at the media briefing, expressing his confidence that the appeal will be successful.
“What’s most important is that Ohio parents retain the opportunity to choose the educational program that works best for them and their children,” said Tom Fischer, vice president and director of litigation for the organization.
Ohio Republicans hold 6 of 7 Ohio Supreme Court seats.
Huffman took time during the press conference to defend school choice, against which he and other voucher supporters at the briefing said legal challenges have been attempted for the better part of three decades.
He claimed a vast majority of Ohioans “like what I do about this,” and neither side will change their mind as another case and its appeal goes forward.
Huffman claimed that the Ohio Constitution allows what’s being done with education funding.
“The Ohio Constitution is unique,” Huffman said. “It’s the only state constitution in the United States that requires the funding of religious education by the state.”
Huffman was referring to a clause of the constitution that states “religion, morality and knowledge, however, being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship and to encourage schools and the means of instruction.”
The coalition of school district boards of education and public school advocates who joined in the lawsuit pushed back on Monday, arguing that Huffman left out parts of that constitutional clause.
The document also states “no person shall be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship or maintain any form of worship, against his consent: and no preference shall be given, by law, to any religious society; nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted,” they noted.
“To put it politely, Mr. Huffman was mistaken in stating that the Ohio Constitution ‘compels’ the legislature to fund religious schools and education,” said Bill Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding, part of the Vouchers Hurt Ohio coalition who led the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Vouchers Hurt Ohio said the group also plans to appeal on one of the counts on which Page ruled against them, regarding the differences in per-pupil funding between public schools and private school vouchers.
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