(The Center Square– In a filing Monday, Columbus City Schools urged a state appeals court to uphold a judge’s ruling that taxpayer funded vouchers for private school tuition are unconstitutional.
There is no “legitimate government interest” in the state funding private education, said the brief filed in Ohio’s 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. It also said the state underfunds public schools, which forces districts to impose local taxes to make up the difference.
“The state then diverts more taxpayer dollars to private entities,” the brief states, referring to the private school vouchers. “This is nothing more than punishing the constitutionally protected choice of public school education by inequitably funding the schools of those who choose that option.”
If the state respects school choice, it should adequately fund those who choose public schools over private, just as it does those who choose private schools, the brief said.
A Franklin County judge last year ruled in favor of public schools that challenged the state’s $1 billion voucher program for private school tuition.
The state appealed, with Monday the deadline for filing briefs.
After oral arguments and a ruling by the 10th circuit, the case will likely make its way to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page in a 42-page ruling, struck down the private school voucher program.
“The state may not fund private schools at the expense of public schools or in a manner that undermines its obligation to public education,” the judge wrote.
The program remains in place pending appeal.
In addition to Columbus, 100 other public school districts have joined the case challenging state-funded vouchers.
Private schools, unlike public schools, can reject students for admission based on behavioral or academic problems or disabilities, the Ohio School Board association and other groups wrote in a brief opposing the vouchers.
“Private schools who can select their students also have the ability and incentive to admit the highest achieving, lowest cost students, pulling those students away from public schools,” the group wrote.
However, The Buckeye Institute in its brief argued that more money does not always equate to better schools.
“Ohio’s school choice program is designed to give parents the resources they need to educate their children in a way that best fits their children’s needs,” said Greg R. Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute. “It recognizes that education is not, and never has been, one-size-fits-all.”
Other supporters of Ohio’s voucher program said in court briefs that it was launched to help parents of disabled children in Akron whose children were zoned to attend a public school where “fighting and drug use are rampant.”
Vouchers provide aid to students not to schools and have been upheld by state and federal courts, the voucher supporters wrote.
