Ohio spending $5.5M in taxes on private schools' renovations

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio legislators are using over $5.5 million in taxpayer funds to support renovations in some private schools, a decision that has become linked to Ohio’s educational voucher debate. 

Large payments to nonpublic schools are nestled among the one-time strategic community investments portion of the state budget passed over the summer. These grant payments to 11 private schools – some more than $1 million – are allotted to projects like building expansions, window replacements and playground improvements. 

Eight of these 11 schools are private, Christian schools that have students from the EdChoice program, Ohio's controversial scholarship that offers state-funded vouchers to offset the cost of attending a nonpublic school.

John Fortney, the spokesperson for Ohio Senate Republicans, said these one-time payments allow organizations to apply for funding they typically would not qualify for. In total, the state allocated $700 million for various one-time projects.

The Ohio Constitution says state funding cannot go toward religious or private school funds, and nearly $4 million of the grants allotted to nonpublic schools went to private, Christian schools. In response, Fortney points to another portion of the state Constitution:

"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."

Ohio Constitution

When asked to clarify if the General Assembly interpreted that segment as the duty to protect religious schools or as two separate duties -- protecting schools and also protecting religion -- he had a simple answer.

"Yes to both," Fortney said. "Encourage schools. It doesn't say encourage only public schools."

Fortney said legislators are still prioritizing public schools, and said the Ohio General Assembly allotted an additional $1 billion to K-12 public schools in this budget. He also mentioned the EdChoice scholarships, which have previously raised questions about taxpayer money going to private, often religious schools.

"Remember that religious schools and private schools are not in charge of, or in control of, how parents decide to use various educational scholarships," Fortney said.

The EdChoice scholarship program initially limited eligibility to low-income students in low-performing districts. However, it was expanded in 2013, making the program now eligible for any student who agrees to submit income verification outside the Cleveland Municipal School District, which has its own state-funded voucher program.

According to state data, nearly 130,000 Ohio students will attend school on an EdChoice or EdChoice-Expanded scholarship in 2024. Of these students, more than half are new scholarship recipients. Ohio spent over $350 million on EdChoice scholarships in 2023 alone.

This expanded eligibility led to a lawsuit against the state led by Vouchers Hurt Ohio. More than 200 school districts around Ohio have signed in support of the lawsuit, which alleges the voucher program hurts students as more people participate.

"A dollar more for private school vouchers is a dollar less available to pay for public schools," Vouchers Hurt Ohio writes on its website. "If someone applies for a voucher, even if they are a millionaire or a billionaire, they are eligible for a private school voucher."

"Education Choice scholarships empower parents to make decisions that are best for their son or daughter’s education," Fortney said. "Unfortunately, special interest groups have made parents the enemy while forgetting that these moms and dads are taxpayers too."

William Phillis, executive director for the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, points to a recent ruling in South Carolina that vouchers defy the state constitution. According to the Associated Press, nearly 3,000 students each received $1,500 before the ruling prohibited parents from spending funds on tuition or fees.

South Carolina's ruling complicates past precedent. Ohio state education vouchers have been around for nearly 30 years, and Fortney pointed to a Supreme Court case that held up the Cleveland Scholarship's legitimacy in 2003 as proof of vouchers' constitutionality.

However, this argument has already been challenged. In 2022, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page said key differences between the two Ohio programs make the facts and questions of the case "distinguishable" from the Cleveland case, and sent the current lawsuit to trial.

The EdChoice voucher lawsuit is set for trial on Nov. 4, one day before the November election.