This article was originally published in Ohio Capital Journal.
For the second year in a row, Ohio spent more than a billion dollars on private school vouchers, this time for the 2026 fiscal year.
The total amount for Ohio’s five private school voucher programs was $1.173 billion, according to data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Nearly half of the money ($532.8 million) was from the Education Choice Expansion vouchers. This is the third full year with near-universal school vouchers.
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“It’s frustrating to see this amount of money going to vouchers when our public schools still are not fully and fairly funded,” said Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
“Right now, they’re funneling a lot of money to private schools and not fully funding our public schools.”
Ohio Education Association President Jeff Wensing also said the state needs to fully fund public schools.
“I think our policymakers … diverting more than $1.1 billion a year, maybe $1.2 to private schools probably isn’t the best decision because of the fact … that these are public tax dollars going to largely unaccountable private schools, and that’s a concern when that happens.”
An Ohio appellate court ruled on Thursday that the EdChoice voucher program is unconstitutional. The program will still be able to exist, as the judges expected the state to appeal.
Interim Ohio Republican Attorney General Andy Wilson said in a statement last Thursday that he would appeal the decision to the the 6-1 Republican-controlled Ohio Supreme Court. Ohio Republican state lawmakers made Ohio Supreme Court races overtly partisan by adding party labels in 2021.
Wensing said that it’s incredibly obvious that it’s an illegal use of taxpayer money.
“The students using the EdChoice vouchers and EdChoice expansion are students already enrolled in private school,” Wensing said. “These families have been paying for their students to go to private schools, mostly wealthy families, and it’s a handout to the wealthy, a handout to the rich.”
The $1.173 billion figure is just under the estimated $1.18 billion the nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission predicted for the voucher programs for fiscal year 2026.
The five private school scholarship programs are the Autism Scholarship Program, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program, the Cleveland Scholarship, the Education Choice Scholarship and the Educational Choice Expansion Scholarship Program.
Lawmakers expanded the Education Choice Expansion eligibility to 450% of the poverty line three years ago through the state budget — creating near-universal school vouchers.
[inline_story url=”https://www.the74million.org/article/families-dont-want-school-choice-they-want-their-child-to-read/”K-8 students can receive a $6,166 scholarship and high schoolers can receive a $8,408 scholarship in state funding under the EdChoice vouchers.
There were more than 105,000 EdChoice Expansion scholarships awarded, averaging $5,114 per participant, according to the ODEW data.
There were more than 42,000 traditional EdChoice scholarships awarded for a total of $284.6 million — with an average of $6,807 per participant.
For the Cleveland scholarship, there were more than 8,000 scholarships awarded for a total of $55.09 million — with an average of $6,875 per participant.
There were more than 6,000 autism scholarships awarded for a total of $186.7 million — with an average of $30,318 per participant.
For the Jon Peterson Scholarship, there were more than 9,000 scholarships awarded for a total of $114.2 million — with an average of $13,511 per participant.
There were 1,629,346 students enrolled in Ohio’s public schools during the 2025-26 school year, according to ODEW, but the number of students enrolled in the state’s public schools has been on the decline.
- 1,652,539 during the 2024-25 school year
- 1,665,521 for the 2023-24 school year
- 1,671,645 for the 2022-23 school year
- 1,672,198 for the 2021-22 school year
The number of students enrolled in nonpublic school has been on the rise, according to ODEW.
- 185,584 students during fiscal year 2026
- 181,244 during FY25
- 173,156 during FY24
- 169,807 during FY23
- 167,395 during FY22
Total payments for the five scholarship programs for the past five fiscal years, according to ODEW data:
- $1.09 billion in fiscal year 2025
- $970.7 million in fiscal year 2024
- $610.2 million in fiscal year 2023
- $554.5 million in fiscal year 2022
- $444.5 million in fiscal year 2021
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.