ProPublica reported last month a story from the Columbus Dispatch that a new law in Ohio, passed by the legislature this summer, will provide public funding for private schools, most of which are Catholic, to expand their campuses.
Historical marker in Cleveland, Ohio (Chris Gent/Flickr Creative Commons)Policy experts note that while many states have sweeping voucher laws, what Ohio is doing is unprecedented, as millions of dollars in grants will flow directly to schools and not go through families’ tax returns. The grants will help schools renovate buildings, build classrooms, improve playgrounds, and more.
Until now, Catholic and other private schools have always relied on fundraising drives, private philanthropy, and the diocese to build or expand. Although “eliminating the taxpayer middleman” is only happening in Ohio right now, other states are watching and may try to copy the Ohio playbook to divert funds away from public schools and into private schools that educate a growing minority of students, given the existence of viable voucher programs in many states.
“This breaks through the myth,” ProPublica quoted David Pepper, a political writer and the former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, as saying. Courts have long given voucher programs a pass, ruling that they don’t violate the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state because a publicly funded voucher technically passes through the conduit of a parent on the way to a religious school.
