News

New Senate Plan For Ohio’s Ed Choice Program

By:
Posted on:

< < Back to

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Ohio lawmakers have been wrestling with how to make changes to the state’s Ed Choice private school voucher plan for more than a year. Too many schools and families have become eligible in recent years as the state has changed its school performance standards. The Senate’s President-elect is proposing a new plan to fix it.

A girl looks the the front of a classroom from her desk
[Dan Konik | Statehouse News Bureau]
Republican Senator Matt Huffman (R-Lima), who was elected last week to lead the Senate next year, says as the metrics for the school report cards have changed, the number of schools from which students can qualify has swollen to over 1200. And some parents who live in wealthier, high performing districts have been eligible for the private school vouchers. So his plan makes two key changes.

“It’s relatively high-poverty schools and it’s not schools in the top 80% of the performance index,” Huffman says.

Families of four that make up to $65,000 total annually would be eligible if they live in a qualifying school district.