An Ohio House committee has proposed stripping out some provisions of a Republican-backed bill to require more accountability and transparency from private charter schools that accept students receiving state-funded EdChoice vouchers.
Those vouchers, which supporters call scholarships, are available to any Ohio family that wants them, though the value of the voucher is smaller for families with incomes over 450% of the federal poverty level. That's $135,000 a year for a family of four.
The revised version of that passed the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee requires charter schools with EdChoice students to submit performance data on just those students to the state. It also eliminates a section of the bill requiring schools keep disciplinary records on students and transfer them if the student leaves for a new school. Private schools say those records can expose them to lawsuits.
Other changes to the bill eliminate the requirement that EdChoice students take state and national tests that public school students take, and erases the requirement that they meet state requirements for graduation.
A former Democratic state lawmaker who lobbies for private schools that accept EdChoice students told the House Primary and Secondary Education committee last month that reviewing scores from required tests isn’t the best way to evaluate how public or private schools are performing.
"There are so many things that go into determining what is the best fit for your child that condensing it down to a standardized test result or some type of demographic and then saying, 'this school is effective, this school is not' is not what we should be doing," said Dan Dodd, executive director of the Ohio Alliance of Independent Schools, which includes around 20 schools that participate in the EdChoice voucher program. "I don't think we should do that in any educational context."
Rep. Sean Brennan (D-Parma), a former teacher, said he feels test scores are a way for parents to compare schools.
“There's got to be some, some mechanism of accountability and comparison for students when they're looking for what's the best choice for my child," Brennan said.
But Dodd said parents should visit schools to compare them, and that in some ways, families considering using EdChoice vouchers are looking for information other than test scores.
“I don't think it's appropriate for public schools, and I don't think it's appropriate for private schools. And I think the idea of trying to say we can compare them as if they are the same, they are not the same," Dodd said. "Private education is a service. It is something in which you have competitors, both private versus private and private versus public. And it is the responsibility of parents to go out and find the information from the schools they are considering to make an informed decision as to what is best for their children."
Advocates for private charter schools with EdChoice students are concerned that the bill still requires the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to publish data on income levels of families receiving EdChoice vouchers.
"The publishing of income data in narrow bands for EdChoice scholarship recipients is excessive and will do nothing to increase accountability," said Chad Aldis, vice president of Ohio policy for Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a pro-charter school group. "It's a data point that school choice opponents want to use to make public policy arguments, namely that EdChoice is being used disproportionately by wealthy people."
He notes parents in wealthy districts support public education with their tax dollars, even if they're sending their kids to private schools.
Some of those schools also don't like that the bill still requires they report enrollment procedures and capacity limits on EdChoice students.
Democrats on the committee voted for the bill's changes, but also presented three bills of their own on vouchers. One would require a with 25% of their student body receiving vouchers. Another would accepting students with vouchers similar to the report cards the state publishes on public schools. A third would to families at or below 250% of the federal poverty level.
