Yost files appeal notice in case questioning EdChoice voucher constitutionality

Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a notice of appeal in a case questioning the constitutionality of Ohio’s Educational Choice Scholarship Program, better known as EdChoice.

The move follows Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page’s June 24 ruling that the state’s private school voucher program is unconstitutional.

“We do not agree with the decision,” Yost said at a news conference, Cleveland.com reported. “That’s why they make appeals courts.”

The judge made the finding in a summary judgment, saying that by creating and expanding the EdChoice Scholarship program, lawmakers did not support “a thorough and efficient system” of schools throughout the Buckeye State.

“Private schools participating in EdChoice receive substantially more state funding per student than public schools,” Page wrote in her decision, the Ohio Capital Journal reported. “Where EdChoice participating private schools are inexplicably receiving double the per-pupil state funding than public schools, it is difficult to say that EdChoice is simply a scholarship that follows and/or benefits the students as opposed to a system that benefits private schools.”

Under the EdChoice program, parents receive vouchers, allowing qualifying students in kindergarten through 12th grade to attend private schools.

Yost filed an appeal with the 10th District Court of Appeals, and a ruling is not expected until at least next year. The judge stayed the decision, allowing the program to continue amid the appeals process.

“EdChoice is the law of the land for the coming school year,” Yost said in a press statement. “Nothing that’s happened legally limits their options.”

The move to appeal drew praise from groups like The Buckeye Institute, which has advocated for education reform in the state.

“As one of Ohio’s earliest school choice leaders, The Buckeye Institute has long stood for putting students first, and we fully support Ohio’s elected leaders in their strong defense of a vital program that serves more than 100,000 students and their families across the state,” Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, said in a statement. “This case is an attack on school choice that is unconscionable and harmful to the students and the families looking for the right education fit for their children.”

Yost; House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima; Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord; Rabbi Eric “Yitz” Frank, president of School Choice Ohio; Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue; Tom Fisher, vice president and director of EdChoice Legal Advocates; and Monica Williams, whose two kids benefit from EdChoice and attend Columbus’ Tree of Life Christian Schools, participated in a press conference discussing the appeal.

“It’s been very impactful,” Williams told WSYX-TV in Columbus. “It’s just been very helpful for my children spiritually, mentally, and physically. Honestly, it’s a great workload, but it challenged them to just kind of continue to press in.”

However, not everyone thinks tax dollars should be going to private schools.

“We don’t have any problem with private schools, in fact, I was on a private school board at one time,” William Phillis, with The Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, told WSYX-TV in Columbus.

“But the difference is that private enterprises ought to be supported privately and not by the taxpayer,” Phillis added. “If my neighbor wanted to, for example, buy a membership for the country club, should I be obligated as a neighbor through taxation to help support his or her membership in a private country club, as opposed to them using the public parks like I would use? I would make a decision to use the public parks.”