High-performing students in low-performing schools face conflict with EdChoice program

By MELINDA GRAY

WARREN — Eighth-grader Kim Collier ranks at the top of her class at Willard Elementary School here.

Yet she is trying to persuade her parents to let her leave the Warren City Schools to attend a charter school or private school.

Kim’s parents are now struggling with the decision: Keep the straight-A student in the school that is ranked one of the worst in the state or move her to where there will be more high-achieving students.

Standing outside of the school on a recent morning, Richard Collier said he and his wife, Barbra, are deeply conflicted about which path to take for Kim and her younger sister, Abby, who is in the second grade at Willard.

“If Kim can make a difference here, I would be more for her staying. But if it’s going to have a detrimental effect on her, then should we move her?” Richard asked.

This year, the Colliers and all Willard families will have access to EdChoice, a state program that allows parents to remove their children from Willard and send them to charter schools because Willard students performed so poorly on standardized tests for the last two years.

EdChoice also is available to parents of children at two other Warren City kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools — McGuffey and Jefferson.

EdChoice, created by the Ohio Department of Education, allows parents whose children attend schools that have been on academic watch or academic emergency for two of the last three years to send their children to private or charter schools with the state paying the tuition.

The program will award scholarships to eligible students from the eligible schools in Warren. The funds for these vouchers will come from tax dollars that would have gone to the Warren schools. The current scholarship amount is $4,250 for kindergarten through eighth-grade students and $5,000 for ninth- through 12-graders.

Collier is aware of the most recent achievement scores at Willard and is not happy. For a school to meet state requirements, it must have at least 75 percent of its students show proficiency in math, writing, and reading.

At Willard, not one grade of students met that standard.

“I’m not saying that the students aren’t capable, and I’m not saying that the teachers aren’t capable. But again, everything starts at the home,” he said. “If the homes aren’t functioning properly … then the kids certainly aren’t.”

Collier said he is not sure that using EdChoice will give his kids an advantage, but Kim and Barbra are convinced it will.

Read the full story and related stories on charter schools and the EdChoice program Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.