Some Northeast Ohio school district leaders who filed suit against Ohio's school voucher system say they are hopeful after a Franklin County judge declared Tuesday the system unconstitutional.
More than 300 schools joined the Vouchers Hurt Ohio Schools lawsuit, which argued that Ohio's system of providing more than $1 billion in funding each year to pay for parents to send their students to private schools was unconstitutional and furthered segregation.
Canton School Board President Scott Russ welcomed the judge's ruling and argued the current system was unfair. He said private schools don't have to "play by the same rules" as public schools.
"They're not subject to any of the state testing. They're not subject to a state report card. They are not subject to public records requests," Russ said.
Meanwhile, public school districts complain they have to deal with added funding burdens from private schools. They're required to pay for busing to private- and charter-school students that live within their boundaries, Russ said. He said the ruling is a step in the right direction. But he expects the litigation to continue for the next three or four years, up through the Ohio Supreme Court.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Jaiza Page noted various schools that have joined onto the lawsuit appear to be struggling to adequately fund education.
"Inadequate funding has caused (Cleveland-Heights University-Heights City School District) to lay off or suspend teachers and other staff members resulting in overcrowded classrooms and insufficient support for special education and English as a second language children," Page wrote, citing information provided by the anti-voucher coalition. "CH-UHCSD cannot afford to repair its many facilities and most of its buildings operate with no air conditioning and inadequate roofs, doors, windows and masonry."
She found that these struggles are the result of the state's school-funding model.
Akron Public Schools Board Of Education voted to join the voucher lawsuit last year. Board Member Barbara Sykes said she hopes the judge’s decision will be a wake-up call for the legislature, which is currently considering the next two-year budget for the state.
"It is everything but a fair school funding system," Sykes said Wednesday. "And we would just hope that the legislators would stop and think about the decisions that they're making that are actually destroying our public schools system."
David Glasner, superintendent of Shaker Heights City School District, which also is a member of the voucher lawsuit, welcomed the judge's decision in a statement Wednesday.
“We are glad that the court has affirmed the importance of public education in Ohio, and we hope this decision is upheld on appeal," Glasner said. "We are grateful for our district’s and our community’s commitment to participate in this important court challenge.”
Legislators have argued that regardless of their support for vouchers, the majority of schools will still receive more money in the next budget than they have received previously.
Still, the statehouse’s next proposed budget cuts the funding schools had been expecting to receive, tweaking the Fair School Funding model put into place several years ago; if that model were to be fully funded, public schools would be receiving hundreds of millions of dollars more per year.
The House and Senate will need to vote on a reconciled budget by the end of the week. According to the latest numbers in the budget model the two chambers will vote on, Canton schools would receive about $3 million less in state funding in the next fiscal year, and $2 million less in the following year, compared to what the district receives this year. Akron would receive more than it currently gets, about $2 million more in the next fiscal year and $5 million more in the following year. Shaker Heights schools would receive slightly more in funding as well.
Eric "Yitz" Frank, president of School Choice Ohio, told the Statehouse News Bureau that his group is confident other judges will see the voucher system differently.
“While we profoundly respect the judicial process, we vehemently disagree with the court’s interpretation of Ohio’s Constitution and believe the EdChoice program remains a constitutionally sound mechanism to empower families,” Frank said. "We are confident of prevailing on appeal and will continue to stand alongside Ohio families who rely on these important programs. We do appreciate Judge Page staying the ruling, allowing EdChoice to continue uninterrupted during the appeals process.”
The versions of the state budget from the Senate, House and the governor all boost funding for private-school vouchers over the next two years. The state spent an estimated $2.037 billion on vouchers during the current and prior fiscal years. That number increases to $2.470 billion over the next two years in the House's budget, $2.440 billion in the Senate's budget, and $2.414 billion in DeWine's budget, Ideastream Public Media has previously reported.
