COLUMBUS – Students at 261 failing public schools, more than a quarter of them in Columbus, have the opportunity to attend a private school for free next year.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Tax-funded EdChoice vouchers are available to students attending, entering or assigned to the schools across 32 Ohio districts in the 2016-17 school year, according to the Ohio Department of Education. They include 72 elementary, middle and high schools in the Columbus district and one elementary school in the Groveport Madison district.
Students in kindergarten through eighth grade can receive up to $4,650, while high school students can get up to $6,000 each year, to pay for tuition at a participating private school of their choice. As many as 60,000 vouchers are available.
In years past, most of the free money has gone unused.
This school year, 25,894 vouchers were awarded; that was fewer than half of those available, but an increase from about 4,000 the previous school year, state education officials said.
“Despite the program being around for a few years, there are still a lot of families unaware of it,” said Kaleigh Lemaster, executive director of School Choice Ohio, a Columbus-based advocacy group that helps inform families about the voucher program and other education options for their children.
“The program has grown steadily, and we expect that to continue. When people learn about it, they say it’s the best-kept secret.”