Frank O’Linn, superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, is offering facts and figures to set the record straight about the Educational Choice Scholarship Program, commonly known as EdChoice. The statewide program allows parents to choose a school they consider the best fit for their children in grades K-12, with scholarship opportunities based on eligibility criteria. Scholarships are $6,166 for grades K-8 and $8,407 for grades 9-12.
He calls it “the best value for taxpayers in Ohio,” but acknowledges EdChoice is controversial, with some public school districts maintaining it is decreasing their funding.
“A quick perusal of the news lately … finds plenty of people convinced that the state has reduced its investment in public education. And they all somehow similarly point to Ohio's relatively small investment in school choice as the source of their ills,” O’Linn said. He shared an in-depth look at EdChoice and its impact in a blog post on Northeast Ohio Advocates for Catholic Schools. The information also is available on the diocesan Office of Catholic Education website.
O’Linn explains that in the most recent fiscal year, Ohio “spent more on primary and secondary education than at any other time in state history. And state education spending will continue to increase, per the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.”
Ohio’s District Profile Report, also known as The Cupp Report, “is a comprehensive compilation of several major statewide data systems and official sources designed to complete, transparent and comparable profile of each district. Every district in Ohio is available here,” O’Linn said.
He maintains that “EdChoice is, in fact, the best value for taxpayers in Ohio. The EdChoice Expansion scholarship, which became available to every Ohio household on a sliding scale in 2023, ranges from $616 to $8408, and averaged payments of $4,958 per pupil in fiscal year 2025.”
One local school district “… blamed EdChoice, claiming it was the reason that their schools, with revenues and expenditures among the highest in the state at close to $27,000 per pupil, had ‘inadequate funding’ that ‘has caused lay-offs or suspension of teachers and other staff members.’ Apparently, it was not their failure to manage the predictable decline in enrollment demographers have been projecting, but rather, EdChoice,” O’Linn said.
The complaints are meritless, “because state scholarships are funded separately from the recently enhanced district formula, a truth that even the most overzealous scholarship opponents have begun to acknowledge,” he said.
O’Linn encouraged parents and taxpayers to do their own research. “The next time your district or local media outlet refers to ‘vouchers’ costing a billion dollars without any reference to the number of students served or the amount public school districts spend over a comparable period, look them up … When you hear anti-parental-choice spokespeople claim that the legislature has ‘reduced its spending on public school funding’ because the state’s actual 3.68% increase this biennium is not as high as they would have like, you can search for the facts.”
Read O’Linn’s entire explanation here.