Ohio Moves to Make School Choice Universally Available

The following from https://agudah.org/ohio-moves-to-make-school-choice-universally-available/

Agudath Israel applauds the Ohio Senate for passing the state-operating budget bill (HB 33) and their continued support for Ohio’s students by making school choice universally available.

Rabbi Yitz Frank, executive director of Agudath Israel of Ohio, has issued the following statement regarding the Senate’s proposed changes:

“Senate President Huffman and the Ohio Senate rose to the occasion when it comes to their support of Ohio students and parents by giving them the ability and freedom to pursue the educational options that are best for their family.

These changes build on the strong efforts expanding school choice that have already been proposed by Governor DeWine and Speaker Stephens.

This budget is a home run for Ohio. And while this is a major day for the school choice movement, there is much work to be done to get this student-focused bill enacted. We encourage the House to join their colleagues in the Senate to continue this move forward and to send the Governor a strong school choice budget.”

The Senate’s proposed changes include the largest expansion of educational choice in the state’s history and one of the largest in the country.

Universal school choice eligibility for every Ohio student:

• • Students whose family’s income is at or below 450% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) based on AGI will be eligible to receive the full scholarship amount, and students whose family’s household income is above 450% FPL will be eligible for scholarships decreased on a sliding scale.
  • Retains current scholarship programs and eligibility
  • The scholarship amounts will increase to $6,165 for K-8 and $8,407 for 9-12th grades.
  • Allows families to automatically renew their scholarship

• Increased Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship amounts by approximately 12% and raised the cap on high needs (category 6) students to $30,000
• Qualifies any student with an autism diagnosis for the Autism Scholarship
• Increases funding for auxiliary services approximately $1000 per student) and administrative cost reimbursement ($475 per student to approximately $1400 per student)
• Increases payment in lieu of transportation up to $2,500 and strengthens the rights of students to be transported to their school
• Extends the $1000 ACE scholarship for extracurricular educational activities by another year

The bill now returns to the House for a concurrence vote. The final bill must be signed by Governor DeWine by July 1.