Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Ohio’s voucher eligibility rules
I’ve had several calls and e-mails today asking about how to determine if a child is eligible to apply for a voucher, since the state is now planning a second enrollment period from July 21 to Aug. 4.
Changes to the voucher law were passed by the legislature as part of a budget corrections bill in March. Vouchers allow students in consistently low performing schools to use up to $5,000 in state money for private school tuition.
Under the new rules:
• Students attending schools that have been rated in the two lowest state categories — academic watch or academic emergency — would be eligible. This would include Dayton’s Belle Haven, Edison, Fairview, Hickorydale, Cornell Heights and McNary elementary schools, plus Dunbar and Belmont high schools; Jefferson Twp. High School; and Camden Elementary School in Preble County.
• In Dayton, all incoming kindergartners and all students attending charter schools rated in academic watch or emergency also can seek vouchers.
• To seek a voucher, students from low-scoring schools should first gain admission to a private school that accepts vouchers. Then the school must assist them to apply for the voucher.
For more information go to the state’s EdChoice program home page.
UPDATE: 409 students so far have won vouchers to attend private schools in Dayton. Here is the complete list of private schools accepting vouchers and how many voucher students are already planning to attend this fall.
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Voucher spin vs. reality
There’s an interesting contrast in today’s the Dayton Daily News between the political spin and the on-the-street reality on the issue of vouchers. And I enjoyed how one genuine parent voice brought some real clarity to the question of whether Ohio’s statewide voucher program is off to a great start or a disappointing start.
My stories in today’s paper focused on the sparse number of applicants for the statewide voucher program, which launches this fall.
Even after House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, pushed through expanded rules that in March more than doubled the number of eligible kids to 46,000, the final tally was just over 2,500 applicants for 14,000 vouchers.
The first pro-voucher response I got was an email from the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation in Indianapolis. Milton Friedman, the famous economist, first proposed the idea of school vouchers and his foundation is the strongest voice advocating the concept nationwide.
The Friedman folks helpfully sent some talking points out to Ohio’s pro-voucher crowd with a rebuttal to any media suggestion that the 5.5 percent initial participation in the voucher program is a small number. The group ran a list of other programs and showed initial participation was:
- 0.7 percent in Milwaukee
- 0.3 percent for Florida McKay scholarships
- 1.7 percent in Washington, D.C.
- And even smaller in less similar tax credit programs in other states
A short time later, I got an email from The Buckeye Institute in Columbus pointing to an opinion column by its education policy director Matthew Carr, which had taken Friedman’s comparisons and turned Ohio’s low participation into a media conspiracy. Here’s an excerpt:
During the last few weeks, newspapers across the state have been writing up the enrollment tally as “only� or “just� so many takers of the 14,000 vouchers made available by this program. The use of such pejoratives is both misleading and inappropriate.
Still reporting for today’s story, I spoke to Jon Husted, the chief voucher proponent in the legislature. Husted had also clearly read Friedman’s talking points, echoing the same themes. Husted said participation was not bad, although he quickly noted a second enrollment period had been established over the summer. He argued that the program would grow as more parents learned about vouchers and even hinted the program could be HELPED by smaller numbers, saying:
“One of the failures of some charters schools was they grew too fast.”
Finally, though, I reached Jana Moody, a Dayton parent I had talked to over several months who very much wants to apply for a voucher. Moody’s kids already attend private schools. Moody said she made a huge financial sacrifice to send her kids to private schools because she was dissatisfied with the public schools.
Moody helped organize other private school parents who called lawmakers and advocated for expanding the voucher rules so those who already made the tough call to shell out for private schools could also apply. That effort failed despite support from Husted, who said there simply wasn’t support in Columbus for going that far with vouchers.
What was Moody’s view of the 5.5 percent participation in the voucher program?
She said when she heard the news it made her feel sick. She was shocked at how low the number was and was certain all or most of the vouchers would have been used if parents who already made the leap to private schools had been allowed to apply.
Already this morning I’ve received three emails from other local parents echoing her comments.
So is the voucher participation low? As someone who tracked the issue pretty closely for the past year, I thought it would be much higher.
But the program was hampered by several factors:
- First, the rules changed in the middle of the game when lawmakers expanded eligibility in March. So for months, parents had one message about eligibility only to get another message later on.
- Second, the rules are complicated and don’t make it very easy for parents. To apply for a voucher, a student must first apply and be accepted to a private school (which means paying application fees, etc.) and then the SCHOOL must submit the actual voucher application. It’s not a simple process.
- Third, I think Husted and others are probably right that it will take time for people to really understand the program and learn the ropes of applying.
But there’s no doubt 5.5 percent participation and as much as 11,000 unused vouchers has to be a disappointment for those favoring this reform.
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