Northeast Ohio Advocates for Catholic Schools

After Governor DeWine introduced an executive budget calling for increasing eligibility for the income-based EdChoice scholarships to 400% of the federal poverty level (up from 250% currently), the Ohio House recently passed a budget raising it further to 450%. The Senate is poised to unveil its budget soon, and the chamber that originated S.B.11 is potentially considering making school choice universally available. Throughout the budget process, school choice opponents have raised alarming rhetoric about the devastating effect providing all families an option could have on Ohio's public school systems (as opposed to its students or families). While legitimate questions abound as to what impact universal school choice might have on existing patterns, policymakers need not be totally in the dark. One part of the state has long experience from which we can learn. The Cleveland Scholarship began in 1996, first with numerous restrictions to scholarship access and growth. Over the year...