Ohio doesn’t have enough oversight into EdChoice, the state-funded program giving families vouchers for their kids to go to private K-12 schools, according to two state lawmakers. They have put forward a bill to change that.
Senate Bill 443, introduced last Wednesday by Sen. Bill Blessing (R-Colerain Twp.) and Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid), would establish a dozen new accountability measures.
Among them, private schools getting public dollars would be subject to annual audits, and they would get graded report cards, just like the report cards released by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce each fall. Students would also take state-mandated exams annually.
They've titled it the Take the Dough, We Gotta Know Act.
“I wouldn’t say that this is something that’s going to just greatly curtail the voucher program,” Blessing told reporters Wednesday. “I think it’s just asking, if public schools have to do X, you should have to do X if you’re taking state dollars.”
But the latest effort to draw out data on voucher-eligible K-12 schools is unlikely to go anywhere this year.
“One of the things I would question is whether the senators introducing it are serious about it, since they waited until now to introduce it,” House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) told reporters Wednesday.
And the government shouldn’t get involved with how those schools are run, Huffman said, insinuating bad actors can weed themselves out. “The families are taking their children here. They’re not being forced to do it,” he said.
Blessing acknowledged the likelihood the bill would not move fast or far.
“Frankly, if it goes nowhere this General Assembly, or even next, that isn’t the point,” he said. “We have identified a major problem here, we also have a solution.”
A similar House bill has yet to get any hearings. Nearly $1.1 billion went to private K-12 vouchers in fiscal year 2025.
