Mission (almost) Accomplished

A stunning 91% of Ohio's Private School parents got their private school tuition subsidized by us taxpayers. Not quite the 100% David Brennan wanted, but who's counting?

I think I’ve told you this story before, but back when David Brennan (Ohio’s Voucher and Charter School Godfather) would bellyache about public schools — and especially teachers unions — at the Diamond Grill in Akron, he would say that his goal was to get every kid attending St. Vincent-St. Mary’s in Akron — and eventually all private school tuitions — publicly subsidized.

Ohio Republican legislators and governors — many of whom owe their careers to Brennan, his money and his progeny — have almost realized the now-dead Brennan’s dream.

According to state data from this year, a whopping 91% of parents with enrolled private school students are getting publicly subsidized tuition.

Ninety. One. Percent.

Back when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Cleveland’s voucher program was Constitutional in 2002, that number was 1.9%

Bravo, Mr. Brennan. I guess.

Except for one thing: This has been done at the expense of Ohio’s 1.5 million public school students.

By the end of the currently proposed state budget, Public School students, who make up 84% of Ohio’s total student population, will receive 77.3% of all state K-12 funding. While the 9% of students whose parents receive taxpayer tuition subsidies will eat up 11% of all state K-12 funding¹.

Once again, the “money following the student” bullshit is laid bare by actual facts.

If money were really just “following the student”, then each of the three systems’ share of funding should match their share of population.

Yet the state’s privately run Charter Schools and private school tuition subsidies for mostly wealthy parents make up a larger share of funding than they do population.

At whose expense?

Public School students. And Public School parents, who now have to raise more property taxes to make up for this massive diversion of state funds that has meant they’re receiving 8% less state funding than their population would demand.

I know exactly what David Brennan would say to this, though, from under his great, white hat:

“Perfect! Just as I planned.”

1. And this just includes formula funding for Charter Schools and the Voucher payments. If you include all the additional funding streams for Charter School facilities (and other giveaways), and the administrative cost and auxiliary services reimbursements for private schools, along with transportation funding for both privately run systems, these percentages are even a few percentages higher for Charters and Vouchers and lower for publics. But I wanted to be conservative in my estimate and keep it to just the foundation payments to Charters and the Vouchers only for privates.