Voucher Issue
Excerpts:
Ohio’s House Education committee Wednesday night approved the creation of fifth education voucher program for Ohio, allowing families making up to $95,000 a year to get up to 80 percent of their children’s private school educations funded with taxpayer dollars.
The so-called Parental Choice and Taxpayer Savings (PACT) scholarship, if it becomes law, would make four out of five Ohio households eligible for vouchers, including more than three out of four Cincinnati-area households.
Source: Plan would expand school voucher use. Administrators worry about diverting public funding to private schools By Denise Smith Amos THE ENQUIRER Sept. 23, 2011 C3
==============
The budget approved Thursday by the GOP controlled Ohio House expands the state’s voucher programs and adds an amendment that would let for-profit companies open charter schools.
The move is likely to provide more choices for parents on where to educate their kids.
Hamilton County is home to 22 of Southwest Ohio’s 28 charter schools.
Of the roughly 50,000 school-aged children in the city of Cincinnati, about 10,000 attend private or parochial schools, 6,600 attend charter schools and the rest go to Cincinnati Public Schools.
Ohio is home to about 300 charter schools serving about 90,000 to 100,000 students or around 5 percent of the school-aged population … .
Charter schools are public funded but privately operated.
Chad Aldis, executive director of School Choice Ohio, estimates that between 130,000 to 140,000 of Ohio’s roughly 2 million school children would be eligible under the new plan, compared to about 85,000 now.
Source: Budget expands school voucher programs. House plan also would open charter door to for-profit companies. The Enquirer May 8, 2011 B5 — Jessica Brown
============================
More apply for vouchers than Ohio has available. By Jennifer Smith Richards. The Columbus Dispatch
Enquirer 4/19/11 B2.
For the second year in a row, applicants to Ohio’s private-school voucher program have exceeded the number of available vouchers.
.
The state offers as many as 14,000 vouchers through the Educational Choice Scholarship program. The vouchers allow students in struggling public schools to attend participating private ones at little or no cost.
.
Expanding Ohio’s voucher program is a key part of Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal. He proposes quadrupling the number of vouchers, over time, to 56,000.
=============================================
