27,352 students would be eligible in Columbus

The Columbus Dispatch

12/20/2006

David Conrad

Columbus Superintendent Gene Harris criticized legislative plans to expand a statewide voucher program without public debate or proof that the program was working.

Under the new formula, students from 70 struggling Columbus Public Schools will be eligible to use vouchers to pay for private-school tuition. This year, the first where vouchers were offered statewide, 29 Columbus schools were on the list.

“I certainly had no idea this was going to happen,” Harris said. “You need to make sure a program is effective before it is expanded, and when you are making a change in public policy you should be having the broadest level of public debate.”

Columbus has the most vouchereligible schools and accounts for about 30 percent of the total 235 buildings affected across the state. The next closest school district is Cincinnati, with 28.

Rep. Larry Flowers, of Canal Winchester, and other Republicans stressed that lawmakers are not increasing the number of voucher slots and defended changing the law.

“I feel it’s important that we give parents additional choices for their kids to get the best educational opportunity they can,” he said.

Under current law, students could seek vouchers if they attended or were to start at schools in “academic emergency” or “academic watch” for three straight years. Those ratings are equivalent to an F and D, respectively, on the state rating scale.

The bill, approved by the House 72-21 and the Senate 21-12 yesterday, would include schools in those ratings for two of the past three years.

Gov.-elect Ted Strickland has not supported expanding vouchers or charter schools, and some are saying that Republican lawmakers rushed the change to enact it before he takes office. The bill now heads to Gov. Bob Taft.

Of Franklin County’s 12 state lawmakers, 10 voted in favor of the bill, including House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus.

Beatty said House Bill 79 was as good as she could expect, mainly for what it didn’t do - it didn’t add voucher slots, increase the number of charter schools or require health-care pooling for school employees.

Two other Columbus Democrats, Sen. Ray Miller and Rep. Mike Mitchell, voted against it.

“Until we give the proper priority to funding public education, I’m not going to be supportive of alternative education schemes,” Miller said.

The voucher program, called Educational Choice, provides $4,250 for students up to the eighth grade and $5,000 for high-school students. Every student in 73 Franklin County schools - 70 in Columbus, two in Groveport Madison and one in South-Western - will be eligible under the new rules, including, for the first time, two high schools: Columbus’ East and South.

“I think it’s a great thing,” said Susan Zanner, executive director of School Choice Ohio, an advocacy group for vouchers and charter schools. “In the first year, we saw that parents wanted to be more involved, and I’m just thrilled that lawmakers were receptive to these increases in parent interest.”

Robyn Taylor, president of Columbus Council of PTAs, expressed concern.

“I’m worried about the children that aren’t going to receive these vouchers and will be left at these struggling schools,” she said. “There needs to be more resources allocated to the schools the children are currently attending. Everyone needs to know that this is going to take a communal effort to fix.”

Statewide, 14,000 vouchers are available, but only 3,141 took advantage this year. The change in the formula will make many more students eligible, though. In Columbus Public, about 13,000 students were eligible before, compared with 27,352 under the new rules.

Mark Real, president of the education-advocacy group KidsOhio.org, predicted the private schools would be overwhelmed.

“We found last (time) that many of the private schools in Columbus were only offering a handful of seats,” he said. “It’s too soon to tell, but I think we could be seeing a new problem here.”

Some private schools are excited, though.

“We are sort of holding our breath and aren’t sure what to expect at this point,” said Troy McIntosh, assistant superintendent of Worthington Christian schools. “But we would love to have more involvement in the program. It depends on the grade level, but if we had 15 to 20 students apply next year, there’s a good chance we could take them all.” The schools took three students last year, because of a lack of applicants. Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel contributed to this story.

rmessinger@dispatch.com

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