The Columbus Dispatch first published this opinion piece.

Ohio’s school choice initiatives have proven popular with parents and successful for students.

Nevertheless, a coalition of local public school districts have filed suit against EdChoice, the state’s largest school choice program, in a misguided effort to kill it.

EdChoice currently helps more than 100,000 students improve their academic prospects.

According to a recent study by the Urban Institute, “EdChoice students were substantially more likely to enroll in college than students who remained in public schools (64% versus 48%).

The differences in college enrollment were especially large at four-year colleges (45% versus 30%) and selective colleges (29% versus 19%).

The enrollment impacts were strongest for male students, Black students, students with below-median test scores before leaving public school and students from the lowest-income families.” Families — especially in African American communities — support the program for good reason.

Opponents, however, resent school choice’s success and bristle at the principle on which it stands: that parents, not school districts, should control K-12 education.

A threat to their academic monopolies

The plaintiffs challenging EdChoice act entitled to all state education funds, and every dollar syphoned from public schools and redirected elsewhere by parents threatens their presumptive academic monopoly.

Their legal and policy arguments ring hollow — which is why The Buckeye Institute has filed an amicus brief with the court to defend EdChoice and the families it helps.

Plaintiffs argue that EdChoice violates the Ohio Constitution’s “thorough and efficient” clause, which requires the General Assembly to use state funds to “secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state.”

Their faulty legal theory seems to be that a thorough and efficient public school system requires that the state fund only a public school system. But the Constitution says no such thing.

And despite state funds flowing to EdChoice-supported schools, the state still maintains a robust public school system with many local districts receiving more state money per student today than they have in the past.

Ohio’s K-12 public school enrollment has declined for 20 years — down roughly 10% since the mid-2000s — but that may have more to do with overall demographics and their poor academic track record than lost state funds. Despite the plunging enrollment, in fiscal year 2023, the state still “spent more on primary and secondary education than at any other time in state history,” according to the Ohio Department of Education.

State K-12 spending in 2023 was 39.5% higher than in 2010 — and school spending in 2024 and 2025 shows no sign of cooling off: “State funding for primary and secondary education totaled $11.64 billion in FY 23; was $13 billion in FY 24 (a $1.36 billion or 11.7% increase); and is estimated at $13.42 billion in FY 25, the second year of the state budget (a $415.8 million or 3.2% increase).”

Perhaps some plaintiff school districts will not receive all the funding increases they want or think they deserve, but that does not mean the state has failed to support a “thorough and efficient” public school system.

EdChoice is helping Ohio families solve problems

School districts crying poor, lamenting low enrollment, and fretting that moms and dads have found better academic alternatives for their children should look in the mirror before looking to the courts.

School district policies during the COVID pandemic shuttered public schools longer than private schools, and their students suffered for it.

Math scores for some grades dropped by double digits, reading proficiency fell and achievement gaps widened far more at public schools than at private.

Parents who questioned public district protocols were rebuked or unanswered. And Ohio’s public schools continue to underperform peers in other states across the country.

EdChoice did not cause these shortcomings, but for many Ohio families, it can help solve them.

The public and the General Assembly understand that parents need more freedom to choose the right learning environment for their kids — not less. It’s a shame some school districts still don’t.

Greg R. Lawson is a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute.