PARENTS WORRY OHIO COULD CUT VOUCHERS
Cincinnati Enquirer - By Denise Smith Amos [1/17/2009]

"Cincinnati-area Catholics and other parents are worried about Ohio's Ed Choice program, which subsidizes private-school tuition for children who attend or live near low-rated public schools.

Local parents in recent weeks received fliers urging them to attend Ed Choice meetings and sign up their children.

"We need your help to keep the program alive," one flier states. "It is possible that the Ed Choice voucher program could be eliminated from Ohio's budget."

State officials won't predict the program's future, citing cuts looming in other parts of the budget.

Gov. Ted Strickland once tried to end vouchers, but his office is mum about his intentions.

"It's not set in stone with seven coats of varnish on it," said Scott Blake, an Ohio Education Department spokesman. "As you know, with school funding, there are no 100-percent guarantees."

The uncertainty won't stop Rebecca Leist, a Cheviot mother planning to switch her first-grade daughter from overcrowded Cheviot Elementary to St. Martin of Tours, she said.

"I'm sitting here crossing my fingers, hoping it's going to work," Leist said of the vouchers.

"At least I'll know for at least one year that it's valid. I'll pray for it every year after, because I don't want to have to keep switching schools."

Open enrollment for Ed Choice begins Feb. 2 and ends April 17.

To be eligible, a student must already attend a public school that for two of the past three years was in Academic Watch or Academic Emergency, the lowest state ratings. Or students can be kindergartners, first-graders or charter school students who live in a neighborhood assigned to such a school.

For the current school year, 10,456 students receive vouchers, Blake said, though Ed Choice can accommodate 14,000 students.

Voucher proponents worry that what doesn't get used will get cut.

"I think people in general are skeptical of government programs because they don't have a great track record for consistency or funding," said Tammy Reasoner, a Catholic parent who also works for Purcell Marian, a Catholic high school.

So far Ohio has increased voucher amounts each year. Next school year, up to $4,500 will pay for elementary tuition and $5,300 for high school tuition.

If schools charge less, they're reimbursed the lesser amount.

In Greater Cincinnati, most Catholic elementary schools charge thousands of dollars less than the voucher amount, but the high schools charge $2,000 or more above it.

If all 352 Catholic high school students and 2,456 Catholic elementary students using vouchers now return next year, the schools could make nearly $13 million from the program.

But given the elementary tuitions are about half the voucher amount, the total may be closer to $8 million or more.

It's not all profit, said Brother Joe Kamis, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Greater Cincinnati's schools. Many Catholic schools hired tutors, intervention specialists, counselors and others to help the newcomers catch up.

"The voucher program has been very helpful to us," he said. "But every student with vouchers we take in ... costs us."

The governor for now isn't answering questions about Ed Choice's future.

Spokesman Keith Dailey said it may come up in his State of the State address Jan. 28, or in his budget proposal planned for early February.

Strickland in 2006 considered eliminating Ed Choice but ran into opposition from the then-Republican controlled state legislature.

Now the House is controlled by Democrats by a slim margin.

"It requires a legislative change to fund (Ed Choice) for less than 14,000 students," Dailey said.

"

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