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School board against voucher expansion
(by Sue Hoffman - October 13, 2011)
School board against voucher expansion
By SUE HOFFMAN
The Solon School Board approved a resolution Monday opposing Ohio House Bill 136, which significantly expands the use of vouchers.
The resolution will be forwarded to the Ohio School Boards Association, which is lobbying against the bill. Solon school officials said the bill threatens public education and usurps local tax dollars.
HB 136, sponsored by state Rep. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, creates a new statewide program allowing students in kindergarten through 12th grade to use a voucher to attend private schools.
"The bill provides for the expansion of vouchers far beyond what the original legislation intended," Solon School Superintendent Joseph V. Regano said. The original vouchers were issued to students at certain income levels when their public schools were not performing well academically, he said. The idea was to allow the students in poorly performing districts to attend better schools, he said.
"This expansion changes everything," he said. The bill would allow students currently attending a private school to receive a $5,500 credit, which is deducted from the parent school, he said. In Solon, approximately 475 students attend private or parochial schools and the credit would add up to district funds of more than $2 million, he said.
The only qualifier for voucher recipients is that the family's adjusted gross income is less than $95,000, he said.
"That's all we get from the state," Mr. Regano said.
"If you attended a school where the tuition is $4,000, that extra money comes available to you forever in the form of scholarships," he said. The bill allows parents to bank the excess dollars for college. In effect, the state is giving scholarships to one set of students and not another, he said.
The board's resolution says, "The operation of the proposed program would take dollars directly from the already financially beleaguered local public school districts resulting in fewer resources for the education of the remaining students."
Mr. Regano said, "This is a little bit of a repeat of the problem that we had in the spring, with the state usurping local tax dollars that were voted for one purpose and using them for another purpose."
School board President Julie Glavin said, "The bill threatens the very essence of public education as we know it." She said OSBA's legislative staff hopes every school board will pass the resolution opposing the bill and stresses the importance of public outcry and public involvement of citizens.
Mr. Regano said the bill has been voted out of committee but the entire House has not voted on it. "No one believes it will happen prior to the election."
While districts in the state vary, Mr. Regano said that overall, Ohio now ranks seventh in education in the country. "Although there are problems, I think we take for granted what has happened in Ohio and how far we have come."
School board member Dorothy Seibert said the district receives $600 per pupil from the state. She said approximately $5,000 per pupil would come from local taxpayers to pay for vouchers so that students can attend any school.
"In a community that supports their schools so that the schools are rated excellent by the state, I don't think that any local money should go to vouchers," Mrs. Seibert said.
"This is like an extreme Robin Hood bill," board member Marilyn Thomas said, in which the legislature is taking money away from the school districts.
Board member Margo Morrow said the bill provides a major policy change that needs more viewing by the public. She said the state of Ohio is near the top in providing public funding for private institutions. "It's not near the top when it comes to public schools. It's another move toward more money going to private education."
Mrs. Morrow said citizens have told her that they cannot support school levies if the money is not used for Solon schools.
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