Almost all of Ohio's voucher cash goes to religious schools

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/03/almost_all_of_ohios_voucher_ca.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Almost all of the money from Ohio's main tuition voucher programs - 97 percent of it - flows to private religious schools, a Plain Dealer examination of records from the 2015-16 school year shows.

Christian schools, as expected, receive the bulk -- more than $140 million in state tax dollars a year.

And Catholic and other Christian schools in Cleveland are the biggest winners, thanks to a Cleveland-only voucher program that was the first in the state when it started in 1996.

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Between standard vouchers and some additional vouchers available only for disabled and autistic students, 97 percent of Central Catholic students use some type of state voucher to pay their tuition.

Many need to do janitorial work in an after-school work study program to make up the difference.

Voucher payments make up two thirds of the school's $6 million budget.

"It would be a big challenge for us to survive" without the vouchers, Hyland said. "It is a godsend to the school, and I'm very pleased that our families make the most of it."

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he Plain Dealer found:

Of the $150 million in state tax dollars Ohio awarded through the Cleveland Scholarship, EdChoice and EdChoice expansion, just over $143 million (95 percent) went to families using Christian schools.
Schools with other religious affiliations - Jewish and Muslim - ended up receiving a little more than $3.4 million, or two percent of the money.
Families using non-religious schools accounted for slightly less, also about two percent of the cash.

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Most of them also don't take it (vouchers) because of the strings that go along with it, specifically testing," Dodd said. The state requires most voucher students to take the same state tests as public school students, even if the school avoids them for other students.