HOUSE BILL 11
Summary of House Bill 11
|
SPONSOR(S)
Rep. Riordan McClain (District 87) Rep. Marilyn John (District 76) TARGETS All Ohio K-12 Schools Support for Public Schools All K-12 Students and Families DESCRIPTION Creates a universal voucher program by providing K-12 students with an annual Education Savings Account to pay for nonpublic schools |
COMMITTEE
House Primary and Secondary Education Committee INTRODUCED February 15, 2023 TESTIMONY Read Testimony | Watch Testimony BILL General Info | As-Written | Analysis |
What does House Bill 11 do?
House Bill 11, "Backpack Scholarship Program", expands public funding of private education by directing the Ohio State Treasurer to create publicly funded Education Savings Accounts for K-12 students to be used for private school education.
HB 11 replaces 3 voucher programs:
Details:
Education Savings Account
Student eligibility for an ESA
ESA may be used for:
Re-Application for ESA
Participating Nonpublic Schools
Homeschooling
State Treasurer
HB 11 replaces 3 voucher programs:
- EdChoice
- EdChoice Expansion
- Cleveland Scholarship
Details:
- Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, the Ohio State Treasurer will create and administer an annual publicly funded Education Savings Account (ESA) for K-12 students to use for enrollment in private schools; families must apply for the ESA by March every year
- Extends public funds to chartered nonpublic schools and non-chartered nonpublic schools that do not seek accreditation because of religious beliefs
- Prohibits the state from regulating the curriculum of the non-chartered nonpublic schools using public funds
- Repeals the Ed Choice and Cleveland Scholarship Programs on July 1, 2024
- Program must be advertised on a public website and linked to the Ohio Department of Education website
Education Savings Account
- Funded with state operating funds
- Provides $5,500 for qualifying students in grades K-8
- Provides $7,500 for qualifying students in grades 9-12
- ESA amount must increase by the same percentage as the statutory statewide average base cost per pupil
- Application period open March 1 for following school year
- Funds will be disbursed to ESAs on January 15 and July 15 beginning in 2025
Student eligibility for an ESA
- Student is enrolling in grades K-12 in a participating school
- Student receives a scholarship under the autism scholarship program or the Jon Peterson special needs program
- Student who received a scholarship under the EdChoice program
- Student is re-applying for an annual ESA
ESA may be used for:
- Tuition and fees at participating schools, including chartered nonpublic and nonchartered nonpublic schools
- Curriculum, textbooks, instructional materials, and supplies
- Tuition and fees for a nonpublic online learning program
- Tutoring or intervention services provided by an individual or educational facility (with some exceptions)
- Educational services (including occupational, behavioral, physical, speech-language, and audiology therapies)
- Fees for nationally standardized assessments, advanced placement exams, college or university admission exams, workforce programs, and after-school or summer educational programs
Re-Application for ESA
- If the student does not re-apply, the state treasurer must transfer the remaining ESA balance to the Department of Education by June 13 of the school year, funds will be transferred to the student's new school district, community school, STEM school.
- If the student does not re-enroll in a school district, community school, or STEM school in the subsequent school year, the department must transfer the funds to the student's resident district.
- If the student graduates during the year, the parent may allocate up to 50% of the balance towards a sibling's ESA for the subsequent school year; all other funds will transfer to the general revenue fund
Participating Nonpublic Schools
- Schools must notify state treasurer no later than February 15 each year of their decision to participate in the following school year
- School must report "aggregate results of the measures and assessments" of their student body to the State Treasurer for publishing
- Schools will be given maximum freedom to provide for the educational needs of their students; the State Treasure will not regulate the educational or instructional program of the schools
- Program does not affect the State Board of Education's authority to adopt minimum education or operation standards
- Schools will not charge any student whose family income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines beyond the amounts allocated via this scholarship program
- Students beginning the school year using voucher funds at a nonpublic school, but later transfer to a different nonpublic school or a public school in their community, must notify the state treasurer of their transfer; the state treasurer must reallocate the voucher funds to the Department of Education, to be disbursed to the student's current school
Homeschooling
- Program changes standards for those providing instruction in core subject area to a homeschooling student from a "qualified person" to the student's parent
- Requires students who enroll in a public school following any period of home education be placed in the appropriate grade level based on the policies of the student’s resident school district
State Treasurer
- Develops process to solicit and contract with ESA vendors
- Develops student application process by March 1, 2024
- Receives and processes student applications and creates ESAs for students
- Disburses funds to ESA vendors and students
- Provides similar ESA to students who are eligible under the autism scholarship program or the Jon Peterson special needs scholarship program
- Creates a voluntary list of nonpublic schools and vendors of educational goods and services who have opted-in to participating in the scholarship program
- Determines penalties for any fraudulent activity
- Collaborates with stakeholders and state agencies to promote the program to the parents of eligible students
- Publishes and manages a website for the program and participating schools
What is our position on House Bill 11?
OPPOSE
The Ohio Constitution requires the legislature to fund a thorough and efficient public education system that serves the common good. Since the adoption of the Ohio Constitution in 1851, the state legislature has been responsible for ensuring the revenue sources, distribution method, and balance between state and local taxpayers' are fully and equitably funding school districts across Ohio. Decades after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled, in 1997, that Ohio's public school funding method was unconstitutional, inequitable, and overly reliant on property valuation, the Ohio legislature still fails to meet its funding obligation.
Unconstitutional and Jeopardizes Fully Funding Public Education: Operating two different publicly funded systems violates the Ohio Constitution and undermines the success of the public system. Public education was established to serve the common good rather than individual preferences. Instead of moving Ohio closer to a constitutionally funded public education system, HB 11 would divert needed state dollars away from public education to increase funding for private school options. Siphoning more state funds away from public education not only endangers already underfunded public schools, it unnecessarily increases state costs. The proposed program forces Ohio public schools serving the common good to compete for public funding with private schools serving a select few.
Forces Ohioans to Fund Private Education: Removing restrictions for voucher eligibility transfers responsibility of funding private education from the individual to the public, forcing the public to fund private education tuition rather than the individual family attending the school.
Lacks Oversight, Promotes Unaccountability: HB 11 lacks any oversight, regulation, or checks and balances over private education, failing to ensure that public funds are being used for to provide an honest, inclusive, comprehensive education that benefits the common good. While attempting to equalize the public school system and private schools by funding both, HB 11 does not hold private schools to the same regulation and oversight standards as publics. Because of minimal reporting requirements and even less publicly available data, it is extremely difficult for the state to protect the interests of the students attending private schools.
Helps Private Schools Discriminate Against Students: Private schools that participate in ESA's will control which students have access to public funds because they decide which students to admit into their schools. Public funds should not be used by an entity that is able to discriminate.
Funds Schools Not Widely Available Across Ohio: Private schools are not widely available across Ohio and some only cater to specific religious groups. Despite that, HB 11 requires broad public funding regardless if a private school is geographically available for every community or suitable for all students.
Harms and Disadvantages Rural Communities: Private school options are starkly absent in most rural communities. Ironically, HB 11 will force rural communities to redirect needed public funds away from their public schools to fund vouchers for out-of-reach private schools that their students cannot attend.
Voucher Programs Lack Supporting Data or Evidence: There is little publicly available data showing vouchers improve education quality or student outcomes. When public school students use private school vouchers, it rarely reduces costs but does immediately reduce public school funding and enrollment damaging opportunities for the remaining public school students.
Resources:
How to Define Public Schooling in the Age of Choice?
Unconstitutional and Jeopardizes Fully Funding Public Education: Operating two different publicly funded systems violates the Ohio Constitution and undermines the success of the public system. Public education was established to serve the common good rather than individual preferences. Instead of moving Ohio closer to a constitutionally funded public education system, HB 11 would divert needed state dollars away from public education to increase funding for private school options. Siphoning more state funds away from public education not only endangers already underfunded public schools, it unnecessarily increases state costs. The proposed program forces Ohio public schools serving the common good to compete for public funding with private schools serving a select few.
Forces Ohioans to Fund Private Education: Removing restrictions for voucher eligibility transfers responsibility of funding private education from the individual to the public, forcing the public to fund private education tuition rather than the individual family attending the school.
Lacks Oversight, Promotes Unaccountability: HB 11 lacks any oversight, regulation, or checks and balances over private education, failing to ensure that public funds are being used for to provide an honest, inclusive, comprehensive education that benefits the common good. While attempting to equalize the public school system and private schools by funding both, HB 11 does not hold private schools to the same regulation and oversight standards as publics. Because of minimal reporting requirements and even less publicly available data, it is extremely difficult for the state to protect the interests of the students attending private schools.
Helps Private Schools Discriminate Against Students: Private schools that participate in ESA's will control which students have access to public funds because they decide which students to admit into their schools. Public funds should not be used by an entity that is able to discriminate.
Funds Schools Not Widely Available Across Ohio: Private schools are not widely available across Ohio and some only cater to specific religious groups. Despite that, HB 11 requires broad public funding regardless if a private school is geographically available for every community or suitable for all students.
Harms and Disadvantages Rural Communities: Private school options are starkly absent in most rural communities. Ironically, HB 11 will force rural communities to redirect needed public funds away from their public schools to fund vouchers for out-of-reach private schools that their students cannot attend.
Voucher Programs Lack Supporting Data or Evidence: There is little publicly available data showing vouchers improve education quality or student outcomes. When public school students use private school vouchers, it rarely reduces costs but does immediately reduce public school funding and enrollment damaging opportunities for the remaining public school students.
Resources:
How to Define Public Schooling in the Age of Choice?
Ohio Speaks Against Voucher Expansion
Ohio School Boards Association:
“We believe that Ohio should update and fully fund the Fair School Funding formula before engaging in any type of voucher expansion,” said Jennifer Hogue, director of legislative services for OSBA. “Granting state-funded vouchers reduces the level of funding available to support and improve the public school system to meet the needs of the students that have chosen to attend their public school.”
Read more HERE
AJ Calderone, Superintendent of LaBrae Local Schools:
"Is the achievement of students taking the voucher better than their public school counterparts? Will private schools be required to accept all students? Should Ohio taxpayers fund parent choice? If the State diverts hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools via vouchers, what might be the impact on local public schools? What might be the long-term impact on local property taxes?...
LaBrae is a participating district in the Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit. We see vouchers as an existential threat to public schools, which are a foundational institution of our society that play a critical role in fostering individual opportunity and helping to sustain democracy. Moreover, the LaBrae Board of Education believes the lawsuit is integral to protecting public education and Ohio taxpayers."
Read more HERE
Cincinnati Enquirer investigation on EdChoice program results:
Public districts included in the analysis had $410 million deducted and redirected to private schools through the programs since 2018. Ohio's eight largest districts shouldered the heaviest burden, with about $325 million deducted, according to Ohio Department of Education data.
Yet five of the largest districts – Cincinnati, Toledo, Cleveland, Akron and Canton – fared better academically than their local private school rivals, by margins ranging from slight to decisive, according to The Enquirer analysis.
Dayton, Columbus and Youngstown, the remaining three of Ohio's largest districts, had lower test proficiency levels than their surrounding private schools.
In 2019, Black pupils comprised a majority of all students in Ohio's eight largest districts.
But the voucher system has been least successful in educating Black students, testing data shows. About 37% of Black voucher students in Ohio's private schools met or exceeded proficiency, about four percentage points lower than Hispanics and nearly 20 points lower than whites.
Read more HERE
“We believe that Ohio should update and fully fund the Fair School Funding formula before engaging in any type of voucher expansion,” said Jennifer Hogue, director of legislative services for OSBA. “Granting state-funded vouchers reduces the level of funding available to support and improve the public school system to meet the needs of the students that have chosen to attend their public school.”
Read more HERE
AJ Calderone, Superintendent of LaBrae Local Schools:
"Is the achievement of students taking the voucher better than their public school counterparts? Will private schools be required to accept all students? Should Ohio taxpayers fund parent choice? If the State diverts hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools via vouchers, what might be the impact on local public schools? What might be the long-term impact on local property taxes?...
LaBrae is a participating district in the Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit. We see vouchers as an existential threat to public schools, which are a foundational institution of our society that play a critical role in fostering individual opportunity and helping to sustain democracy. Moreover, the LaBrae Board of Education believes the lawsuit is integral to protecting public education and Ohio taxpayers."
Read more HERE
Cincinnati Enquirer investigation on EdChoice program results:
Public districts included in the analysis had $410 million deducted and redirected to private schools through the programs since 2018. Ohio's eight largest districts shouldered the heaviest burden, with about $325 million deducted, according to Ohio Department of Education data.
Yet five of the largest districts – Cincinnati, Toledo, Cleveland, Akron and Canton – fared better academically than their local private school rivals, by margins ranging from slight to decisive, according to The Enquirer analysis.
Dayton, Columbus and Youngstown, the remaining three of Ohio's largest districts, had lower test proficiency levels than their surrounding private schools.
In 2019, Black pupils comprised a majority of all students in Ohio's eight largest districts.
But the voucher system has been least successful in educating Black students, testing data shows. About 37% of Black voucher students in Ohio's private schools met or exceeded proficiency, about four percentage points lower than Hispanics and nearly 20 points lower than whites.
Read more HERE
TAKE ACTION
Opposition Testimony Needed
HOW TO SUBMIT TESTIMONY
**DO NOT SEND TESTIMONY UNTIL THE APPROPRIATE HEARING IS ANNOUNCED**
STEP 1:
PREPARE YOUR TESTIMONY
Read tips for preparing and submitting testimony HERE
STEP 2:
EMAIL TESTIMONY DOCUMENTS TO COMMITTEE
Email a PDF of your testimony & this completed Witness Slip to [email protected]
**IMPORTANT**
Do NOT send your testimony until the appropriate hearing is announced.
You must submit your testimony 24 hours ahead of the scheduled hearing.
Indicate in your email that you are submitting opposition testimony and ask for a confirmation of receipt.
All testimony will be uploaded HERE
STEP 3:
ARRIVE EARLY FOR IN-PERSON TESTIMONY
Arrive at least 1 hour prior to the scheduled hearing
There is convenient parking in the Statehouse Parking Garage
Sign in on the witness roster in the hearing room