Upper Arlington pushed to join school voucher lawsuit

UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio (WCMH) -- A group of parents, community members and advocates are pushing the Upper Arlington school board to join a lawsuit that questions Ohio's school voucher program.  The EdChoice scholarship program gives parents refunds and rebates to send their children to private schools; the lawsuit seeks to eliminate it.  Current numbers show [...]

UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio (WCMH) -- A group of parents, community members and advocates are pushing the Upper Arlington school board to join a lawsuit that questions Ohio's school voucher program. 

The EdChoice scholarship program gives parents refunds and rebates to send their children to private schools; the lawsuit seeks to eliminate it. 

Current numbers show hundreds more families qualified this year and a coalition is claiming many of those families were never going to send their children to public school to begin with.

Upper Arlington saw a more than 2,000 percent increase in families using the Ed Choice Expansion voucher program this year compared with last. The district is not on the "Voucher Hurt Ohio" lawsuit suing the state over the program; however, many who support the lawsuit are trying to change that.

Supporters of the lawsuit said the hope is that if Upper Arlington joins the lawsuit, other high-performing districts will join as well.

"I just feel that a public school district has an obligation to defend public funds flowing to public schools and not to private schools," Susan Miller, whose children attended Upper Arlington schools, said. 

Others with children who will be or have been in the district came to the school board meeting to show support toward the district joining the lawsuit.

"In communities like ours, we're clearly seeing that the people that are taking advantage of it were people who already had their kids in private schools," resident Michaela Burriss said. "Again, respect that choice, but you can pay for it."

Data shows the number of children receiving EdChoice Expansion support in Upper Arlington was 11 in 2023. It went up to 301 this school year. Columbus City Schools, a district on the lawsuit, went from 903 to 1825.

"What that means to me is that resources are being taken away from public school kids, and those are public tax dollars," Burriss said. 

Upper Arlington resident Cathy Pultz supports the voucher program.

"I'm not surprised because I think there's some things going on in our public schools that some parents aren’t comfortable with," Pultz said. "I really don't think that Upper Arlington school board should join the lawsuit. I don't think that our tax dollars should go to pay for a lawsuit that hurts children who are in failing schools."

The lawsuit was not on the agenda at the May 14 school board meeting, although many came out to speak for and against it. 

Upper Arlington Superintendent Robert Hunt issued a statement Tuesday saying:

"I appreciate the diligence of our Board of Education in evaluating the impact of the voucher program. Many of our board members have attended meetings or done research on their own to learn as much as they can about this issue. During our April meeting the Board of Education asked that this be discussed in the Treasurer Finance Committee, which has occurred. It is my understanding that the board intends to have a discussion at a future meeting, likely in June."

The Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in November.