Ohio kindergarten students now eligible for income-based scholarship for private school

Special guest blog by Matt Cox, School Choice Ohio

 

The application for Ohio’s new income-based scholarship opens today, July 1. Ohio’s is the newest income-based scholarship, joining Indiana, Louisiana, Washington DC, and Wisconsin.

Last week, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the nation’s newest school choice program into law: a state-sponsored private school scholarship for students starting kindergarten this fall whose family income falls at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines.

The income-based scholarship joins the EdChoice (failing school), Jon Peterson (special needs), Cleveland, and Autism scholarship programs in serving families in every corner of the state.

School Safety and Education Go Hand in Hand

The Ohio mother who was jailed earlier this year for falsifying documents in order to send her kids to a different school is back in the headlines today, this time appearing at an Akron Parole Board hearing. The board will make a recommendation to Gov. John Kasich about whether Kelley Williams-Bolar should be granted clemency, as has been advocated by Kasich. The governor ultimately has the final say in whether she is granted clemency.

But the hearing itself is not the news (we’ve known about it for some time). Instead, it’s the characterization of the motives behind her actions, characterizations that suggest she wanted her kids to go to a different school for reasons other than “school choice.” Below is an excerpt from The Columbus Dispatch’s writeup of the hearing:

Gov. John Kasich and others have made the case about school choice, but Kelley Williams-Bolar told the Ohio Parole Board that her daughters’ safety, not their education, was her only concern.
…
Her attorney, David A. Singleton, said the idea she moved her children to another school so they could get a better education came from school-choice advocates and the media.

First, there is an implication by both Williams-Bolar’s attorney and the newspaper that somehow educational quality and feeling safe in school aren’t inextricably linked. Children perform better in environments where they feel safe, and common sense dictates that additional worries related to safety could distract and detract from the quality of education.

And second, they’re suggesting that “school choice” means giving parents’ choices based on singular reasons only. While we certainly advocate for targeted school choice programs (mainly for low-income children and kids with special needs), there are a multitude of reasons why parents exercise their options: safety is often foremost among them, as are things like class size, structure of curriculum, length of school day, geographic location, and extracurricular opportunities, just to name a few. Of course these are all related to education. To suggest that children who attend unsafe schools are not being shortchanged educationally is to misunderstand the nature of the issues facing our schools today.

We very much stand beside Williams-Bolar in her efforts—she, like far too many parents, deserved more choices for her children, and it’s those lack of options that Gov. Kasich had in mind when he signed into law a large expansion of the state’s flagship EdChoice voucher program.

But we hope those in the media will understand that the safety of her children isn’t an issue separate from ours—it’s in fact a fundamental part of the reasons we do what we do. Whether it’s unsafe schools or something else that impairs a child’s education, parents should be able to choose to send their kids somewhere else.

We hope that Kelley Williams-Bolar and thousands of other parents across the country get that chance.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MAG

It's School Choice Signup Time Around the Country

Things happen fast in Ohio!

The very day after Gov. John Kasich signed into law a state budget that significantly expands school choice options across the Buckeye State, the program was already benefiting from some of the new provisions. Between now and August 15, parents can once again apply to enroll their children in Ohio's EdChoice voucher program—welcome news for families who missed out on receiving a voucher when there were more applicants than available scholarships after the program's original deadline in April.

Not only is the cap on the number of applicants rising, but eligibility requirements have changed to allow more families to apply, too. All parents need to know is that they have an additional month and a half to give their kids a shot at escaping their current, failing schools.

Below is a video from a local news station that details the new application period and how parents can apply:

But while parents have until the middle of next month to apply in Ohio, the clock is ticking even faster in the nation's capital! There are just three more days for families to apply for the newly-reauthorized D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, and we're participating in an event on the final day of signup: this Saturday, July 9, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Anthony's School at 12th and Lawrence St. NE in D.C. Please encourage any families looking to help their kids to fill out an application! We'd be happy to help with the process.

There's so much at stake not just for the families involved, but in terms of how this will shape our broader discourse surrounding school choice and how we should all rally to help families once the politics ends. In that spirit, check out this great op-ed from Kevin P. Chavous that ran in yesterday's Washington Times. Right now we should only have one thing on our minds—helping as many families and children get the best education they can!

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MAG