Rep. Robinson Responds to Passage of EdChoice Provisions in SB 89 Conference Report

State Rep. Phil Robinson (D-Solon) Thursday voted no on Conference Committee changes to Senate Bill (SB) 89, saying that Republican changes in the EdChoice Scholarship program failed to address the problems in the program. The bill passed in the House, mostly along party lines, with four Republicans joining Democrats to vote against the conference committee report.

“I was originally optimistic on having a bipartisan and eventually bicameral solution where we would both stop the harmful expansion and end the burden EdChoice vouchers have on our public schools’ tight budgets, pitting them against private schools,” said Rep. Robinson. “Unfortunately, once again at the last minute, that was all abandoned for a rushed solution without public input that doesn’t address the core problem of how vouchers hurt public schools. We cannot keep unfairly expanding private school vouchers without first fixing our public school funding model. I am ready to continue fighting for a good solution.”

The recent Senate amendments to SB 89 base EdChoice performance-based vouchers school building list on 1) schools with 20 percent or more students taking federal program Title 1 funds; and 2) schools in the bottom 20 percent of Ohio's school performance index, ranking all Ohio public schools from scores on statewide tests.

Rep. Robinson took issue with several provisions within the bill, including:

1. The qualifying public school building list will including new schools never before on the list (43 schools across 27 school districts).
2. The school list will still have A, B, and C rated schools on it (26 percent of the schools on the list).
3. The performance index ranking increased from 10 percent (under current law) to 20 percent (under the Senate’s amendments). This arbitrary increase does nothing other than designate more public school buildings. Additionally, by targeting schools in the bottom 20 percent, this scenario means there will always be schools on the list, even if they are not struggling and maybe even excelling.
4. Students who have never attended a public school and have only attend private schools or have only been home schooled will now be able to receive a voucher throughout their entire academic career.
5. This approach is another unfunded mandate, put on the backs of school districts and constituents to pass more local levies in already tough economic times.

When the state operating budget was passed last year, Senate Republicans added provisions to the final version to expand the EdChoice school building list. This expansion brought the list from less than 300 in the previous school year to over 1,200 and included successful A and B rated schools. Without the expansion, the list would have only increased to 517 school buildings.

Rep. Robinson sent a letter to Gov. DeWine veto to EdChoice expansion provisions before the Ohio Department of Education released the updated school list. He outlined why he foresaw potential issues of adding additional financial burden to more public schools, while being based on a flawed state report card system.

From February 11, 2020 to February 20, 2020, HB 9 Conference Committee had nine public meetings with over 49 hours of public testimony from more than 500 witnesses on House and Senate plans to fix the problems caused by the Senate’s expansion to the list.

Rep. Robinson and House Democrats supported the House’s original bipartisan compromise plan would have eventually moved away from performance-based vouchers and to a solely the income-based scholarship. This approach would have ensured vouchers are covered by the state, not public school districts; prioritized low-income students; and eventually ended the bad policy of having public schools pay for any vouchers.

The overwhelming majority of witnesses, including teachers, principals, and parents who testified, supported this plan.

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