Private school vouchers, school board powers: Here's how K-12 education changed in Ohio in 2023

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – From expanding the private school voucher program to dissolving the Department of Education, a lot changed in K-12 education for Ohio in 2023 – and more change is on the way.

It was a busy year for K-12 education policy in the state. Dozens of bills were introduced, several policies were hotly debated and a few significant proposals came to pass. 

State school board loses powers, lawsuit continues

Perhaps no change was as complicated, and fraught with controversy, as the legislature’s move to overhaul the state’s education agency. The change, originally put forth as a standalone bill that was later folded into the two-year budget, replaced the Department of Education with the Department of Education and Workforce and reassigned most of the state school board’s powers to a governor-appointed position.

Seven school board members originally sued to stop the transfer of power, alleging it effectively violated the state constitution’s mandate to have a school board oversee the department. That complaint was amended to include school board members suing in their personal capacity as parents, as well as the Toledo school board. 

A judge temporarily halted the transfer of power, although Gov. Mike DeWine ordered the Department of Education and Workforce to begin operations as planned. The judge then declined to issue a longer block on the changes, allowing the school board’s power to move to the newly-created director of the Department of Education and Workforce.

The lawsuit seeking to strike down the changes as unconstitutional and improperly added to the state budget remains ongoing in Franklin County court.

Private school vouchers and more added to state budget

Another controversial policy proposal folded into the state budget was the wide expansion of the state’s private school voucher program. EdChoice eligibility was expanded to all K-12 students in the state, with those whose families are at or below 450% of the federal poverty line eligible to receive the maximum voucher amount – $6,100 for K-8 students and more than $8,400 for high school students. 

Dozens of school districts have joined a lawsuit against the state over its school voucher program, arguing it goes against a constitutional requirement to sufficiently fund a system of public schools in Ohio. While that lawsuit remains ongoing, EdChoice continues to accept applications for the voucher program through June 2024.

Also folded into the state budget were significant updates to the school funding formula, cost adjustments that increased the state’s per-pupil contribution to districts to nearly $8,250. Other additions included increased funding for free and reduced meals, a mandatory minimum salary of $40,000 for public school teachers, deregulations to home-schooling and an opt-out provision to retention under the Third Grading Reading Guarantee.

The state budget also included millions in funding for literacy improvement programs under DeWine’s push to bring the “science of reading” to Ohio’s classrooms. An intentional move away from Reading Recovery and other balanced literacy programs, the “science of reading” focuses on phonics and phonetics and is DeWine’s tool to improve reading scores across the state.

His program has been challenged by the Reading Recovery Council of North America, a reading professional and advocacy organization based in central Ohio. That lawsuit also remains ongoing.

What’s coming

Some more changes to schooling in Ohio may be on the horizon.

Last week, the Ohio Senate passed a bill deregulating many aspects of K-12 education, including by allowing districts to permanently employ unlicensed people as teachers. The bill, which now awaits committee assignment in the House, lowers education requirements for advanced teacher and administrator licenses and allows schools to adopt their own evaluation systems.

Another bill, House Bill 206, would allow school districts to indefinitely expel students who pose a “severe and imminent” danger to others. Students would have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and fulfill other district-imposed requirements to return. 

A series of bills at various stops along the route to the governor’s desk would impact LGBTQ+ youth in Ohio schools. 

The “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” or House Bill 8, would require parents to be notified of any “sexuality content” in class materials and of any changes to their child’s mental, emotional or physical health. LGBTQ+ advocates have criticized the bill as dangerous to LGBTQ+ youth, whose gender or sexual identities may be forcibly disclosed to their parents under the bill.

HB8 passed the House in June and has had three Senate committee hearings. House Bill 68, or the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation” and “Save Women’s Sports” Act, bans certain medical care for transgender minors and prohibits transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams. The bill was sent to DeWine’s desk on Monday. He has a little over a week to sign the bill, veto it, or let it come into law.