Ohio will get a big chunk of federal money to support existing charter schools and launch new ones. Republican officials made the announcement at the headquarters of a group that’s championed taxpayer paid vouchers for all Ohio families.
At the offices of the Center for Christian Virtue and flanked by Gov. Mike DeWine and U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Ohio will get nearly $105 million over five years to open new charter schools and expand existing ones determined to be high quality by state officials. It's part of $500 million that the Trump administration will put into grant programs for charter schools this fiscal year.
"This investment is the largest ever for the program. It will support six different grant programs aimed at expanding and replicating high quality charter schools," McMahon said. "And I'm thrilled today to announce that Ohio will be a major beneficiary of this investment."
McMahon said this is President Trump and Republican officials believe this is the avenue to improve American kids’ low academic performance.
"This decline has been evident over more than the past ten years, and we've not arrested and we've not made it better. But now we are clearly on the path to do that. And school choice is our way out of this slump," McMahon said.
"We're going to see over the next five years is a transformation unlike anything we've ever seen," Moreno said. "We are going to see an absolute revolution with AI that's going to affect every sector of our lives. And we have to start at kindergarten all the way up into our higher education institutions."
Critics have long said traditional public schools outperform charter schools. For example, an analysis of the state report cards issued earlier this month by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce from Democratic former state lawmaker Stephen Dyer shows charter schools' overall graduation rate is 69.4%. That's far below the 86.8% graduation rate as reported in the state report cards.
The Center for Christian Virtue was influential in ensuring vouchers for any Ohio family that wants one through the EdChoice expansion in the budget signed in 2023. That budget allocated nearly $977 million for the state's five voucher programs. The current budget allocates $2.4 billion for vouchers. A June 2024 study by education funding expert Howard Fleeter, who does research for Ohio's major public school groups, showed more than half of those getting vouchers for the first time had children who were already attending private schools.
None of this federal money for charter schools will go to non-public non-chartered schools, nearly all of which are religious.
"That's not the case, which is unfortunate, honestly, because parents should have the choice of where to send their kids," said Moreno. "That's what's next on the agenda."
