Voucher use has schools focused

By Harold Gwin

Locally, some 7,500 students from three school districts are eligible to apply.

YOUNGSTOWN — Wendy Webb believes that if the school district’s five-year plan for educational improvement is successful, the district can stop the loss of students to the state Educational Choice Scholarship program.

“If we do this right, we can maintain our students,” said the Youngstown superintendent of schools.

Right now, Youngstown has nearly 400 students taking advantage of the voucher program, as it is more widely known. Those children have been accepted for enrollment in area private schools, and the voucher is paying their tuition costs.

Youngstown has about 4,750 current students eligible to apply for vouchers this fall.

The application period opened Monday and runs through April 16.

Ohio is offering 14,000 EdChoice scholarships to eligible students to attend the participating private school of their choice. Statewide, there are some 88,000 students eligible to apply. About 11,500 students are using the vouchers this school year, and they must have their vouchers renewed annually.

Students from schools that have been in academic watch or academic emergency — the lowest categories on the state’s school-rating system — for two of the last three school years can apply. Students who would be assigned to those schools this fall also are eligible, even if they are enrolled in a charter school.

Youngstown has 10 of its schools on that list of academically troubled schools.

Webb said she is confident and excited that the district has a strong five-year strategic plan ready to go that will keep city schoolchildren in the city schools.

“We are focused, and we will remain focused,” she said.

Three Warren city schools are on the list, but the district doesn’t expect to lose a substantial number of students as a result, said Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg.

Warren has about 50 students taking advantage of the voucher program this year, but the three city schools on the voucher list enroll a total of some 2,600 of Warren’s approximately 5,400 students.

Warren’s academic-intervention programs are working and showing student progress, Hellweg said, adding, “We know we have a plan in place and are seeing significant changes.”

She said she is concerned that district parents with children in the affected schools are being targeted for marketing by a school-choice advocacy group out of Columbus urging them to apply for vouchers.

Some parents say they are getting telephone calls congratulating their child for getting an EdChoice Scholarship and advising them on what private schools they can attend, Hellweg said.

No one automatically gets a voucher if the child’s school is on the voucher list, according to state guidelines. Applying is a detailed process in which the private school the child wants to attend must first accept them for enrollment before the Ohio Department of Education can be approached for a voucher.

Hellweg said Warren is contacting parents of the affected schools to alert them to things they should look for when getting those types of calls. The district also is urging those parents to talk with their building principals and counselors before making a decision to move their children, she added, explaining that parents need to make informed choices.

East Liverpool is the only other district in the area with a school on the voucher list. The district has 45 students using vouchers to attend private schools this year, and the elementary school on the list has about 160 enrolled.

To receive a voucher, students must apply to and be accepted by a private school participating in the program. That school will handle the EdChoice application process.

The EdChoice Scholarship amount is currently $4,250 for elementary students (kindergarten through eighth grade) and $5,000 for high-school students (grades 9-12), or the private school’s actual tuition amount, whichever is lower.

Students currently enrolled in private, nonpublic schools or who are home-schooled are not eligible for the program.

An EdChoice Scholarship can be renewed through 12th grade, if the student meets certain criteria.

gwin@vindy.com