More than 130 school districts are joining in on a lawsuit filed against the state of Ohio over its private school voucher program. The uptick in schools joining the suit comes after the coalition group that filed the lawsuit, Vouchers Hurt Ohio, says the state is engaging in bullying tactics.

The Educational Choice Scholarship (EdChoice) Program allows every child attending a public school in the state to apply for a school voucher that would allow them to go to a participating private or charter school. EdChoice bills itself as a way for parents to have a greater say in their child’s education despite including access to a private education outside of the public school system.

Education advocacy groups led by the public education coalition group, Vouchers Hurt Ohio, filed a lawsuit in 2022 arguing the program is unconstitutional. At the heart of the complaint is that funding would be diverted away from public education as EdChoice school vouchers would be partly or fully funded by taxpayer dollars.

On June 30th, the state legislature passed a new budget that reinforced the state’s voucher program while also fully funding the state’s public schools. Prior to this new budget, money was allocated for public schools based on the number of children enrolled, but if a student left the public school system, portions of the funding would be taken away. Public school advocates argued this loss in funding ultimately impacts the overall public school system and its students.

According to Ohio Republican representative Jay Edwards, this new budget would keep public school funding in place while also funding the EdChoice Voucher Program. Edwards shared, “That money doesn’t get taken from the public schools now, so that’s the great thing about it.”

Sen. Matt Dolan also adds of the new budget, “It provides public education but also gives parents the choice to decide where and how their child is going to be educated.”

Despite this new budget, public school education advocates argued that the school voucher program is unconstitutional and will ultimately hurt students. Over the past couple of months, other school districts have been joining in on this message. When the lawsuit was first filed, 100 school districts signed on to the complaint. Today, over 250 school districts are supporting calls to end the state's EdChoice voucher program.

On its webpage, Vouchers Hurt Ohio maintains, “Ohio’s voucher program began as a ‘pilot program,’ but it has now become a refund and rebate program to reimburse families already committed to placing their children in private schools. The drain on public schools and children has been extremely harmful, growing from $42 million a year in 2008 to $350 million this year.”

When the lawsuit was first filed, William Phillis, the executive director of the Coalition of Equity & Adequacy of School Funding, explained, “We believe that the EdChoice vouchers are unconstitutional. We believe that they harm the students... they harm the taxpayers.”

The President of the Ohio Education Association and member of Vouchers Hurt Ohio, Scott DiMauro, pushed back against the new budget. He explained, “Let’s start with the most essential point: the tax dollars going to the private school vouchers come from the same line item in the budget that funds public schools.”

As more school districts sign on to the lawsuit, Vouchers Hurt Ohio has taken issue with top Republicans including Senate Republican majority leader Matt Huffman and State Auditor Keith Faber for crossing boundaries by asking local school districts how much they have paid in support for the lawsuit against the state.

Vouchers Hurt Ohio says that these emails asking school districts for such information are inappropriate, adding that such questions should have been asked of the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, a public agency that works with state officials to provide public information.

A.J. Calderone, the Superintendent of LaBrae Local Schools in Trumbull County, whose school district is also part of the lawsuit, called the tactics to pull such information from schools behaviors that constituted “harassment and intimidation and bullying.”

Dennis Willard, a spokesman for Vouchers Hurt Ohio, shared that once state legislators started sending out emails to school districts regarding their financial involvement in the lawsuit, their organization saw an uptick in local schools wanting to learn more about the lawsuit and potentially join in. “The two organizations you don’t want knocking on your door or asking you questions are the FBI and an auditor,” Willard said. “So the treasurers did feel pressure, threatened, etc., and they expressed this to us and asked us for guidance.”

Both Senate Republicans and the state auditor have described the coalition’s characterization of what happened as incorrect. Marc Kovac, a spokesman for the Auditor’s Office, defended, “As was previously reported in June, the Auditor had to use his subpoena authority before a number of public schools produced basic information on public spending that are unquestionably public records.”