Ohio spent nearly a billion dollars on private school scholarship programs for fiscal year 2024, the first full year with near-universal school vouchers.

According to the latest data, Ohio’s five private school scholarship programs had a total scholarship amount of $970.7 million. Data from Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. More than a third of that money ($406.7 million) came from Educational Choice Expansion grants.

“As you see enrollment trends, I think this will have a potentially negative impact on students and on public schools, but in the big picture, when you have nearly a billion dollars of public money going to private schools, that’s not enough to meet the needs of almost 90% of the kids who go to our public schools.” That means billions of dollars in state money,” said Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro.

The $970.7 million figure is higher than expected Nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission $964.5 million It was predicted when it came to scholarship programs.

The five private school scholarship programs are the Autism Scholarship Program, Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program, Cleveland Scholarship, Educational Choice Scholarship, and Educational Choice Expansion Scholarship Program.

Students on the autism spectrum are eligible to receive up to $32,455 in vouchers for the Autism Scholarship Program. Students whose district has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) are eligible for the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship. The Cleveland Scholarship is for all students living within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Students living within the boundaries of a low-performing school district are eligible for Educational Choice scholarships.

Lawmakers created near-universal school vouchers by expanding Educational Choice Expansion to 450% of the poverty line through the state budget last year. That’s for a family of four above the $135,000 income threshold. you must still be eligible to receive at least 10% of the maximum scholarship.

Under the expansion, K-8 students will be able to receive $6,165 in scholarships and high school students will be able to receive $8,407 in state funding.

According to ODEW data, there were 93,159 applications for EdChoice Expansion scholarships and 89,794 were awarded scholarships. The amount of EdChoice-Expansion scholarship payments more than tripled from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2024.

According to ODEW data, there were 44,020 applications for traditional EdChoice scholarships and 42,779 were awarded scholarships; this amount totaled $273.1 million.

Nonpublic school enrollment increased nearly 2% during that time, from 169,807 in fiscal 2023 to 173,156 in fiscal 2024, according to ODEW data.

Enrollment in public schools decreased slightly; There has been a drop of nearly 6,000 students since the 2022-23 school year. 2023-24 academic year.

Many of these new EdChoice Expansion scholarships are for students currently attending private schools, DiMauro said. Ohio’s voucher program began in 1996 with Cleveland Scholarships.

“The purpose of this was to help students who don’t have resources have options outside of public schools,” DiMauro said. “(The EdChoice Expansion) is clearly intended to benefit people who made the decision long ago to send their children to private schools.”

In some casesUniversal vouchers allow private schools to raise tuition, he said.

“Increased revenue comes at the expense of the state,” DiMauro said. “It is private schools that receive more direct financial support through this program, even from families.”

If private schools are going to accept vouchers, DiMauro wishes there was more transparency when it comes to private school fees.

OLSC projects that the total payments for its five scholarship programs will exceed one billion dollars next year.

Aaron Churchill, director of research at Ohio’s Thomas B. Fordham Institute, thinks these scholarship payout numbers are sustainable from year to year.

“I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said. “We can support great public schools. We can provide resources to them. … We can also offer families more options. And I think that’s the direction Ohio is heading.”

Total payments for five scholarship programs in the last five fiscal years, According to ODEW data:

• $610.2 million in fiscal year 2023
• $554.5 million in fiscal year 2022
• $444.5 million in fiscal year 2021
• $394.2 million in fiscal year 2020
• $346.6 million in fiscal year 2019

Remaining scholarships

According to ODEW data, there were 8,626 applications for the Cleveland Scholarship this fiscal year and 8,361 scholarships were awarded; total of $53.6 million.

According to ODEW data, there were 5 thousand 610 applications for the Autism Scholarship and 5 thousand 385 were awarded 141.7 million dollars.

According to ODEW data, there were 9,439 applications for the Jon Peterson Scholarship and the total of 9,082 scholarships was $95.6 million.

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry in X.