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Youngstown Plan makes all city school students EdChoice eligible
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Under the Youngstown Plan, all city school students will be eligible for the educational choice scholarship.
EdChoice enables students who attend a poor-performing school to attend a participating private school instead.
For the upcoming school year, East High School; Harding, Martin Luther King and Williamson elementary schools; and Youngstown Virtual Academy are EdChoice eligible.
The Youngstown Plan, approved by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. John Kasich, however, makes the whole district eligible. Any student, regardless of the academic performance of the school where he or she is enrolled, may apply for the scholarship.
“Currently, this program is determined based on a building’s report card,” Michael Sponhour, director of communication and outreach and the Ohio Department of Education, said in an email. “Youngstown’s worst-performing schools are already eligible for EdChoice. The schools that were not previously eligible will be eligible moving forward.”
Students can begin applying this fall and winter for scholarships for the 2016-17 school year, he said.
Brenda Kimble, school board president, said it’s another way that the new law is trying to dismantle the public school system in the city.
“They’re giving children a choice,” she said. “They probably assume children will take the opportunity to leave the area, and we won’t have a district left. It’s diminishing public education, and I’m against it.”
The number of city school students who have received EdChoice scholarships has been increasing for the past several years. In 2012, 783 students used the scholarship, 897 in 2013, 935 in 2014 and 1,003 this past year.
Private schools in the city that accept the EdChoice scholarship are Akiva Academy, Ursuline and Cardinal Mooney high schools, Valley Christian Schools, the Montesorri School of the Mahoning Valley, and St. Joseph the Provider and St. Christine schools. Other private schools also may accept city school students through the scholarship.
The city school district, however, still is responsible for transporting those students at district expense. If that’s impractical, the district can provide the family with payment in lieu of transportation.
The Youngstown Plan, which dissolves the sitting academic distress commission and establishes a new one that will appoint a CEO to manage and operate the school district, has met criticism from many in the community.
One of the complaints is that the plan was developed secretly and without input from educators, community leaders or elected officials.
Thomas Humphries, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber; Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel; Connie Hathorn, former city schools superintendent; Herb Washington of HLW Fast Track; retired Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Robert Douglas; Laura Meeks, former Eastern Gateway Community College president; Nick Santucci, manager of education and workforce development at the chamber; and Bishop George V. Murry of the Diocese of Youngstown made up the panel.
Another portion of the law allows the CEO to turn poor-performing schools over to a charter operator after a year.
Kimble questions the motivation behind the plan.
“This has nothing to do with the education of our children,” she said. “It has to do with funding, and our children are not for sale.”