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Ohio spent nearly a billion dollars on private school scholarship programs for the 2024 fiscal year, the first full year with near-universal school vouchers.

The total scholarship amount for Ohio’s five private school scholarship programs was $970.7 million, according to final data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Well more than a third that money ($406.7 million) was from Education Choice Expansion scholarships. 

“I think this does have potentially a negative impact on students, on public schools around the margins, as you see those enrollment trends, but then in the big picture, when you have close to a billion dollars in public money that’s going to private schools, that means a billion dollars in state money that’s not available to meet the needs of the nearly 90% of kids that attend our public schools,” said Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro. 

The $970.7 million number is higher than the estimated $964.5 million the nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission predicted when it came to the scholarship programs. 

The five private school scholarship programs are the Autism Scholarship Program, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program, the Cleveland Scholarship, the Education Choice Scholarship and the Educational Choice Expansion Scholarship Program. 

Students on the autism spectrum are eligible to receive vouchers up to $32,455 for the Autism Scholarship Program. Students who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) from their district are eligible for the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship. The Cleveland Scholarship is for all students living in the boundaries of Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Students living in the boundaries of a low-performing school district are eligible for Education Choice scholarships. 

Lawmakers expanded the Education Choice-Expansion eligibility to 450% of the poverty line last year through the state budget — creating near-universal school vouchers. This means a family of four above the $135,000 income threshold can still be eligible for at least 10% of the maximum scholarship. 

K-8 students can receive a $6,165 scholarship and high schoolers can receive a $8,407 scholarship in state funding under the expansion.

There were 93,159 applicants for the EdChoice Expansion scholarships and 89,794 were awarded scholarships, according to ODEW data. The amount of EdChoice-Expansion scholarship payments more than tripled from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024. 

For the traditional EdChoice scholarships, there were 44,020 applicants and 42,779 were awarded scholarships — totaling $273.1 million, according to ODEW data. 

During this time, nonpublic school enrollment increased about 2%, going from 169,807 in fiscal year 2023 to 173,156 in fiscal year 2024, according to ODEW data. 

Public school enrollment declined slightly — dropping about 6,000 students from the 2022-23 school year to the 2023-24 school year. 

Most of these new EdChoice Expansion scholarships are students who were already attending private schools, DiMauro said. Ohio’s voucher program started with the Cleveland Scholarships back in 1996. 

“This was intended to help students who didn’t have the resources to have options outside of public schools,” DiMauro said. “(The EdChoice Expansion) is clearly intended to benefit people that had long ago made the decision to send their kids to private schools.”

In some cases, the universal vouchers have allowed private schools to increase tuition, he said. 

“The increased revenue comes at the expense of the state,” DiMauro said. “It’s the private schools themselves that are directly being subsidized through this program, even more than families are.” 

If private schools are going to accept vouchers, DiMauro wishes there was more transparency when it comes to private school tuition. 

The OLSC predicts the five scholarship programs’ payment total will exceed a billion dollars next year. 

Aaron Churchill, Ohio’s research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, thinks these scholarship payment figures are sustainable year-to-year.

“I do think we can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said. “We can support great public schools. We can provide the resources for them. … We can also empower families with greater choice. And I think that’s the direction that Ohio is moving.”

Total payments for the five scholarship programs for the past five fiscal years, according to ODEW data: 

$610.2 million in fiscal year 2023 
$554.5 million in fiscal year 2022
$444.5 million in fiscal year 2021
$394.2 million in fiscal year 2020
$346.6 million In fiscal year 2019 

Remaining scholarships

For the Cleveland Scholarship this fiscal year, there were 8,626 applicants and 8,361 scholarships were given — totaling $53.6 million, according to ODEW data. 

There were 5,610 applicants for the Autism Scholarship and 5,385 were awarded for $141.7 million, according to ODEW data. 

For the Jon Peterson Scholarship, there were 9,439 applicants and 9,082 scholarships were awarded, totaling $95.6 million, according to ODEW data. 

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.