Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Friday, December 22, 2006
Voucher program expands (again)
On Thursay, my colleague Tony Gottschilich helped me out by writing a story about how Ohio’s statewide voucher program, which was approved last year, apparently will be expanded for the second time, making thousands more kids eligible to use tax dollars to pay tuition at private schools.
There is an interesting twist for Dayton. It’s the only city in the state where charter school kids are eligible to receive vouchers. By my count, students at six charters are now eligible to apply for vouchers to attend private schools on the state’s dime.
This is a little hard to explain.
In most districts, voucher eligibility is determined by the academic status of each student’s “home” school, or the public school in their neighborhood to which they would be assigned. So if a student has already opted for a charter school, the state views that student as having already exercised “choice” and if the charter the student picked is a low performer, its basically up to them to find a new charter, go back to the home school or ante up for private school.
Because Dayton is an “open choice” system, students are not assigned to home schools by neighborhood. They list their top three choices and are assigned by lottery. This created a problem for the state. There is no “home” school for some kids who started at charters in kindergarten.
So to solve this, the state took the easy way out. In “open choice” systems like Dayton, charter schools are subject to the same voucher rules as traditional public schools. So under the new rules passed by the legislature this week, students who attend any Dayton charter school that has been rated in the bottom category or “academic emergency” in two of the past three years are eligible to seek a state voucher to pay for private schools next fall.
By my count, this adds these six charter schools to the list of 14 Dayton schools that are eligible:
Colin Powell Leadership Academy
New Choices Community School
Omega School of Excellence
World of Wonder Community School
Academy of Dayton
City Day Community School
Here’s the list of the other voucher-eligible schools in Montgomery County:
Dayton: Allen, Belle Haven, Cornell Heights, Edison, Fairview, Kiser, Meadowdale, Orville Wright and Van Cleve at McGuffey elementary schools; Wilbur Wright Middle School; Belmont, Colonel White, Dunbar and Meadowdale high schools
Jefferson Twp.: Blairwood Elementary School and Jefferson High School
Trotwood: Westbrooke Village
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