(The Center Square) – Republican officials believe Ohio’s universal school choice will be saved from a recent court decision that declared it unconstitutional.
At a news conference, Attorney General Dave Yost proposed to appeal the recent ruling that was stayed to allow the program to continue through the appeals process.
Yost said the state plans to file its appeal with the 10th District Court of Appeals on Wednesday.
Parents participating in the EdChoice Scholarship Program can continue to use taxpayer funds to attend private schools as a new school year nears.
“EdChoice is the law of the land for the coming school year,” Yost said. “Nothing that’s happened legally limits their options.”
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page struck down the program, which has no income limitations, in late June.
The state’s budget includes more than $1 billion for the program.
“The state may not fund private schools at the expense of public schools or in a manner that undermines its obligation to public education,” Jaiza wrote in a 42-page ruling.
House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, called it unfortunate school districts are using taxpayer dollars to file the lawsuit and said it was a fool’s errand.
He said courts have ruled that voucher programs meet constitutional guidelines, and the Ohio Constitution requires the state to fund religious education.
“It’s the only state constitution in the United States that requires the funding of religious education by the state,” Huffman said. “The constitution says ‘the General Assembly shall fund the means of religious education in the state of Ohio.’”
Vouchers Hurt Ohio, a campaign joined by more than 200 school districts in the state that filed the lawsuit, argued that Huffman’s claim that the state must fund religious schools has been ruled against twice by the Ohio Supreme Court – once in 1872 and again in 1954.
“To put it politely, Mr. Huffman was mistaken in stating that the Ohio Constitution ‘compels’ the Legislature to fund religious schools and education,” Bill Phillis, executive director of the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, said. “He shortchanged the public in his statement today by not citing the first part of the passage he referenced. Mr. Huffman failed to read the part in this same section that states, ‘No person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or maintain any form of worship, against his consent; and no preference shall be given, by law, to any religious society.'”
