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School-voucher enrollment begins
By Denise Dick
youngstowN
Parents of students in nine city schools, three in Warren and one in East Liverpool can apply to send their children to private schools using school vouchers.
The vouchers are state-funded and pay the tuition costs, but state support follows the student.
School Choice Ohio, an organization that promotes the vouchers, reports that there are more than 84,000 children who are eligible for the Educational Choice Scholarship Program for 2011-12. The program, however, can accept only 14,000.
The enrollment period began this week and runs through April 15.
Students who attend any of the 197 schools that have been rated in academic watch or academic emergency for two of the past three years are eligible.
The city schools whose students are eligible are Chaney and East high; P. Ross Berry and Volney Rogers middle; Paul C. Bunn, Taft, William Holmes McGuffey and Williamson elementary schools; and University Project Learning Center.
Karen W. Ingraham, Youngstown schools spokeswoman, said the school district saw 515 students exercise the EdChoice voucher option in fiscal year 2010 for a total of $2.7 million in lost state support. For fiscal year 2011, the numbers increased to 695 students and $3.6 million the city schools didn’t receive.
“We encourage parents to act quickly and enroll their children in this transformational program,” said Chad Aldis, executive director of School Choice Ohio, in a news release. “Given the high demand for the EdChoice Scholarship Program over the past several years, we anticipate that the enrollment cap will be met this year, unless there is a legislative improvement to the program that allows more children to participate.”
Westgate Middle School is the East Liverpool school that serves students in kindergarten through sixth grade. In Warren, students attending Jefferson, McGuffey and Willard Avenue kindergarten through eighth-grade schools are eligible for the vouchers.
Aaron Schwab, a Warren City Schools spokesman, said that as of October, 120 city-school students were using EdChoice vouchers to attend private schools. That number decreased in January to 93. The total lost from the district for the 93 students is $484,848, Schwab said.
Parents must apply for the vouchers. They are worth up to $5,000 per year. Even those students who currently participate in the EdChoice program must apply for the vouchers again for next school year.
Applications must be accepted at the private school of the parents’ choice. After the child is accepted, the private school must submit the application to the Ohio Department of Education.
Patrick Gallaway, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education, said first priority is given to students who are renewing.
If there are slots left, priority is given to new applicants who are low income using a lottery system.
What’s left of new applications is open to students who aren’t low income using a lottery system.