Solon Politician Rips State's EdChoice Voucher Program

COLUMBUS, OH — State Rep. Phil Robinson, a Democrat from Solon, urged state officials to take action to fix the EdChoice voucher program before the Feb. 1 application period. Robinson was joined in his criticism by House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes, a Democrat from Akron.

The state's EdChoice program offers vouchers to private schools for families who live in districts with under-performing public schools, as designated by the state. The program nearly doubled in size this year and now includes schools in districts like Solon, which have historically performed well on state education metrics.

This year, Solon's Parkside Elementary was added to the state's EdChoice-qualified list. The addition comes despite Parkside's performance index score, 114.9, the fifth highest score in the state. A Solon Schools spokesperson said Parkside's third grade class has historically been the highest performing grade in the entire Solon district.

“The intent of the EdChoice program is a noble one — for lower-income and working class families to be able to afford education alternatives in struggling school districts. But as we have seen, the original intent has been corrupted with a broken Ohio State Report Card system and an unconstitutional funding system that disadvantages students in rural, urban and suburban districts and exacerbates inequality among all Ohio districts,”Robinson said.

Robinson and Sykes proposed the following fixes for the EdChoice program:

• Make sure vouchers are going to families in economic need
• Eligibility must be based on a one-year minimum being spent in an Ohio public school
• School data used to determine EdChoice eligibility should not be older than three years
• Money should not be taken from public schools to fund the EdChoice program
• Public schools who have lost funding to the program should be reimbursed
• Restrict EdChoice vouchers for schools who received grades of A's, B's and the vast majority of C's

“This problem cannot be fixed entirely overnight, but we do need to move quickly to make immediate, short-term improvements before February 1," Robinson said.

Robinson previously blasted the EdChoice program in December.

"There are clearly problems with the [EdChoice] expansion if school districts like Solon have a school that qualifies for EdChoice. Solon City School District is in the thriving community of Solon and is consistently a top rated district in Ohio and the nation, receiving an A grade on the state report card," Robinson said at the time.

Ohio lawmakers returned from their holiday break on Tuesday.