School Supers Assemble to Oppose Spending In ‘Ed Choice’

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Dozens of southeast Ohio school superintendents are opposing the expansion of Ohio’s “EdChoice” program, designed to help provide tax dollars for private schools.

The topic goes far deeper than that. State legislators are considering requiring tax dollars be spent to pay for students to attend private schools if they choose, and if their local school building is receiving a failing grade.

“These are public taxpayer dollars being used or funneled into private education and we strongly believe that our local taxpayers, when they’ve passed levies to support our school systems, did not intend for them to be used to fund private or parochial schools. This isn’t a battle against private or parochial schools. It’s just a concern for the misuse of funds and a larger concern about how schools are being identified as eligible ed choice voucher schools,” says Stephanie Starcher, Superintendent at Fort Frye School District in Beverly.

Starcher was joined by dozens of other school leaders in downtown Zanesville in an event hosted by the Muskingum Valley Educational Service Center. She explains what service center leaders are asking of their members and the general voting public.

“We want them to reach out to their voted representatives and senators and tell them that we want this legislation to be repealed, and that we want to stop using public dollars to fund private and parochial schools. If there are any types of funds used in that way, which we’re against, that there should be the same set of standards used for all schools including private and parochial,” Starcher says.