Members of the Akron Board of Education agreed Monday to join a coalition of school districts suing the State of Ohio to challenge the constitutionality of a system that allows families to use vouchers to fund private education.
The Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, a 34-year-old organization with more than 250 member school districts, sued the state in January, saying the state constitution forbids Ohio from funding private schools with public funds.
In joining the coalition, Akron Public Schools signed on to the suit and agreed “that the universal voucher program is harmful to the district, its pupils, taxpayers, voters, and staff.”
In March, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Steve Thompson shared a presentation showing more than 2,200 students in the city took advantage of the EdChoice voucher program in 2023. Of those, 268 qualified as low-income students.
In 2024, 2,428 students were using the program.
How the school board voted
Members voted to join the coalition in a 5-1 vote, with Board of Education Vice Chair Carla Jackson voting no and board member Summer Hall abstaining. Jackson, a middle school principal and director of entrepreneurship at Emmanuel Christian Academy, said she thought dollars should follow students and families should be able to decide where their students attend school.
“I’m not gambling with my child’s future,” she said.
Jackson added that other districts that had not joined the suit were able to attract students because of their offerings.
But Thompson said three-quarters of vouchers, which were intended for low-income students in poorly performing schools, were now going to private school students who had never set foot in a public classroom.
“If you get $8,000 off your bill, why wouldn’t you do it?” Thompson asked.
The recent addition of the Upper Arlington school district to the coalition was notable to Board Chair Diana Autry, who said that, in the wealthy district northwest of Columbus, just 24 of 304 families using vouchers are deemed impoverished.
While Autry said she also believes in choice, she said the Ohio Constitution guarantees the right to a public education, and the voucher system challenges that guarantee.
School board member: ‘This is our fight’
Barbara Sykes, a school board member who has advocated for joining the coalition, will join the steering committee. The suit is scheduled to be heard in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in November.
“Our constitution has not been followed by legislators,” Sykes said in urging her fellow board members to agree to join the group. “The constitution says we have a responsibility to adequately fund and educate.”
Sykes likened the situation to a divorce, saying the district should be part of a fight to ensure that its students are protected.
“It is personal,” she said. “That’s what we do in a democracy, that’s how we settle our arguments. … This is our fight.”
In addition to losing the funds for students who are using the vouchers, the district must also pay to transport students to their school of choice if it is within 30 minutes of their home.
The cost to join the coalition, and the lawsuit, is $2 per pupil — or about $40,000. Sykes said at a time when the board is going to ask voters to approve a levy in the fall, it’s responsible to look at “all avenues of saving money and putting money back in the system” — including clawing back some of the funds lost to the voucher system.
