Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > December > 22 > Entry
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
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Comments
By JB
January 1, 2007 12:44 PM | Link to this
Thank you Rick! I am paying tax dollars and paying for my child to go to private school. Since the money that I pay to fund education is not going to Dayton Public, the state puts it where they choose. It could be pork projects, etc… So why not give that money to me to send my children to the school of my choice?By Rick
December 31, 2006 1:26 PM | Link to this
I want my tax dollars to fund education and to allow choice. Keith, if a child tries a private school and it doesn’t work out, would you condemn them to no education? What about the fact that the child’s parents are taxpayers?By JB
December 31, 2006 1:04 PM | Link to this
Aaahhh!!! Does anyone else see the unfairness of this bill and the previous bills passed concerning school vouchers and who is eligible? As Scott’s article states, DPS do not have a system where students are assigned to their neighborhood schools and it is an open choice system. You could live in an area, where your neighborhood school is on the failing school list, but not necessarily go to that school (even though it is in your own backyard). So, because DPS will not tell you directly which school your child will attend, you have a choice of three schools and your child attends the school where there is room for him or her. The law makers apparently were not educated on that little piece of information. That is one way that DPS got around that law. You can’t pin them down on exactly where your child would attend school. Second, if you live in the City of Dayton, and decided to send your child to a private school you also (under this current law) are not eligible for voucher money. To be eligible, your child has to be in that failing school (if they happen to land in a failing school), that is on the list, for at least one year. To “possibly” be eligible for voucher money, you have to literally take your child out of the private school that they are currently in, enroll them into one of the “failing schools” (which I found out that DPS will be more than happy to do, without a warning or word that it is a failing school that you are about to enroll your child in),and once that is done, they have to attend that failing school for one year, and then they might be eligible for the school voucher money. Is this insanity or what!! This law helps some of Dayton’s children, while it discriminates against Dayton’s other children. We need voucher money for all children in Dayton, not just a select few.By Keith
December 25, 2006 7:24 PM | Link to this
It needs to be that kids who leave public schools must stay at the other schools from then on. The idea they can come back at the inoportune times, like when they’re failing at the other school, or the teacher is uncertified and incompetent, or the principal is in lala land is wrong. You leave; you’re gone along with your money. And the public schools should be able to send their special needs kids to the charter and private and parochial schools for those high cost services…By JB
December 25, 2006 2:29 PM | Link to this
More Money thrown at the public schools! How much would be enough? More than the millions or more? If public schools had some “competition”, like giving the parents a choice as to where to send their kids to school, then more effort would be put forth to improve the quality of education in the Dayton Public Schools. It’s not hard to understand this concept. Continuing to throw money into the public schools has proven over the years not to work. Dayton Public Schools are in their third year of needing academic improvement. Help parents by giving them a choice to send their kids to the schools of their choice…voucher money for EVERYONE, not just a select few!By Rick
December 25, 2006 1:30 PM | Link to this
Caroline, don’t focus on students who use vouchers and then get kicked out of private schools. You are right, for those the problem is the parents and students themselves. On the other hand, there are Dayton student who use vouchers and do not get kicked out, but rather succeed. We should celebrate when a Dayton student succeeds in a school where drugs and violence are not prevalent.By lou
December 23, 2006 8:51 AM | Link to this
I want my tax dollars to go to public schools. If the public schools had the money that they were suppose to have maybe thay would be performing better. The voucher system should be unconstitutional. At the very least we, the citizens paying for them, should be able to vote on them.By Caroline
December 22, 2006 7:07 PM | Link to this
Just what we need, more vouchers. We already have students returning to DPS after being kicked out of private school. When will we stop blaming the schools and start putting some responsibility on the parents and the students?By keith
December 22, 2006 10:08 AM | Link to this
It’s ironic that the republicans who have worked so hard to destroy public education and the image thereof are passing bills left and right on their way out the door to do more damage. I love the part in the bill where poorly performing charters would have to close!!! Duhhhh. Wasn’t that the original idea; no. The original was that the charter schools would all be saviors for education and they weren’t but noone wanted to touch that third rail and point out how bad they were doing and even how they were effecting such poor performances with uncertified staff and things that wouldn’t be allowed in a normal public school in Ohio. If they closed the charters and privates that don’t perform better than the public schools they surplant, most would have been closed by now. But that’s not the political goal, federal and state together.