Ohio’s Voucher Program Drained $776M From Same Budget Line That Left Public Schools $700M Short

Ohio spent $776 million on private-school vouchers last year while its public schools fell $700 million short of the state’s own funding formula — and both pots of money came from the same budget line item.

That overlap persuaded a state appeals court to declare the EdChoice program unconstitutional on Oct. 15. The Tenth District Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that the program creates “a separate system of non-public schools” financed at the expense of the constitutionally mandated “thorough and efficient system of common schools.”

The ruling is stayed while Attorney General Andy Wilson seeks Ohio Supreme Court review. Vouchers continue flowing to more than 140,000 students. Private schools keep their discretion to accept or reject applicants.

Aaron Rausch, chief of budget and school funding at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, testified that if voucher money weren’t going to private schools, the state could redirect it to public schools. The court found the legislature had “by all meaningful measures, been abandoned” its multi-year plan to fully fund the public-school formula even as voucher spending accelerated.

In fiscal 2024, Ohio allocated roughly $7.1 billion to public schools — about $700 million below the $7.8 billion the formula required. That same year, EdChoice cost $677.6 million. The expansion program alone, made universal in 2023 when lawmakers removed income limits, consumed $492.7 million in fiscal 2025.

The court emphasized a structural asymmetry: private schools receiving public money retain admission policies that let them turn away students with disabilities, behavioral records, or low grades. Public schools must educate every child in their district regardless of cost. When students leave, districts lose per-pupil funding but keep fixed costs — buildings, buses, staff. Some districts have cut high school bus service while still busing voucher students to private schools to avoid state penalties.

Geographic disparity compounds the problem. Of the 154 private schools where at least three-quarters of students use vouchers, 44% sit in just three counties: Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton, home to Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Rural families often have no participating private school within reach.

Most new voucher recipients weren’t leaving public schools. Of roughly 25,700 first-time EdChoice Expansion scholars in fiscal 2025, only 24% had attended an Ohio public school the previous year, according to the Legislative Service Commission. The program now largely subsidizes families already enrolled in private education.

Richmond Heights Local Schools Superintendent Marnisha Brown swore in a court filing that her district outside Cleveland cannot afford to fix a broken elementary boiler, pay competitive teacher salaries, or offer band, art, music, drama or foreign languages. Voters have rejected school levies. The district’s troubles illustrate the strain the court found systemic.

Democratic state Sen. Willis Blackshear Jr. called the ruling “a major step in the right direction.” Troy McIntosh of the Ohio Christian Education Network labeled it “an egregious example of judicial overreach,” citing low public-school proficiency rates. Wilson insists the current system “does not hurt our public schools.”

Ohio’s case mirrors fights in Tennessee and other states over taxpayer-funded private-school choice. For now, parents apply, private schools select, and the Supreme Court decides whether the budget architecture passes constitutional muster.