Ohio taxpayers directly fund more private than public school districts

With 85% of private school students getting subsidies, Ohio now has created a second, taxpayer-funded private school system. Ohio's Constitution only allows one.

This is nuts.

Ohio now directly funds more private schools than it does public schools¹.

And not by a small amount.

There are 656 private schools getting at least some taxpayer-funded voucher money from the EdChoice, EdChoice Expansion or Cleveland voucher programs.

This year, there are 611 school districts getting taxpayer-funded state aid.

In fact, the state provides taxpayer-funded tuition subsidies for 70 percent or more students in a stunning 613 private schools, which is still more than the number of Ohio public school districts!

Not only that, but nearly 85 percent of all Ohio private school students get a taxpayer-funded tuition subsidy now, up from 14 percent 12 years ago.

And these are just in the three programs I mentioned above. It doesn’t include the John Peterson Special Ed voucher or the Autism voucher. So these numbers are probably even higher.

Not for nothing, but this 12-year increase in taxpayer-funded tuition subsidies has cost taxpayers and public school students (because, again, the money all comes out of the same line item) another at least $770 million².

There are very few private schools in this state that don’t take any vouchers. Here’s the breakdown of private schools by percentage of students getting taxpayer-funded tuition subsidies:

• 100 percent — 153 schools

• 90 percent or more — 437 schools

• 80 percent or more — 578 schools

• 70 percent or more — 613 schools

So 77 percent of all private schools in this state get paid directly by taxpayers to subsidize 80 percent or more of their students; and over half get 90 percent!

Just stunning stuff. And very likely unique among American states.

Did I mention, by the way, that none — and by none, I mean zero — of this money has ever been audited to make sure it’s being spent on kids rather than sweet cars for administrators or something?

One more thing. Here’s what the Ohio Constitution says about the General Assembly’s education role, in case you’re curious:

“The General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as … will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state.”

Emphasis on the word “a” there. “A” = singular.

Directly funding more private schools than public schools when those private schools literally have none of the same accountability, student acceptance standards or quality controls as publics sure seems like the state is funding (at least) two school systems in this state. Not A system, as the Constitution requires.

Do you understand now why I’m more bullish on the efforts to overturn Ohio’s voucher programs than some? These guys in the General Assembly were so arrogant they thought they could do whatever they want and ignore the Constitution.

But what judges can’t ignore is the Constitution and the numbers.

One system.

Not two.

It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

1. Look. I know there are more than 3,600 public school buildings in the state. However, the state does not fund buildings. It funds districts. Districts then decide how many buildings they will open and operate with the state’s money — a process we’re seeing play out tragically in Cleveland right now. This is something that anti-public school folks always ignore: the state of Ohio funds school districts the same way it funds private schools and charter schools. The money all comes out of the same pot. And when you remove money from, say, Cleveland’s funding, it is removed from all Cleveland schools — from the highest performing buildings and the lowest performing buildings. This is why I always compare performance and funding between private schools and charter schools with public school districts. Because funding the other schools harms kids in every building in a public school district (and, by the way, in larger private schools, they do have different buildings too — frequently an upper and lower campus or something). So when I make this statement, I’m looking at which entities get the money. And more private than public ones currently do. I’m excluding charter schools because I believe they’re a third system, but that’s an argument for another day.

2. Again, the state doesn’t finalize voucher funding data until the fall for the previous year. So I have to estimate by using current year enrollment in each voucher program multiplied by last year’s average per pupil funding for each voucher. Per pupil voucher funding always goes up. So this number will be lower than the actual amount taxpayers spend subsidizing private schools.