Ohio Legal Aid Organizations File Amicus Brief Supporting Challenge of Harmful Private School Voucher Expansion

Ohio’s expansion of the EdChoice private school voucher program threatens the constitutional guarantee of a “thorough and efficient system of common schools” for every child. All children deserve an education that provides equal opportunity to succeed, and only public schools accept and serve all children. That’s why Ohio must make fully funding public schools its top priority. As a result, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE) joined legal aid partners across the state this week in filing an amicus brief in the “Vouchers Hurt Ohio” case, urging the Tenth District Court of Appeals to uphold the trial court’s ruling that the voucher expansion violates the Ohio Constitution and protect the constitutional promise of quality public education for all students. 
 

The Amicus brief was filed on behalf of: 

• ABLE 

• Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Inc. (LAWO) 

• Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio 

• The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland 

• Community Legal Aid Services, Inc. 

• The Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati 

• The Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, LLC 

• Disability Rights Ohio 

• Ohio Poverty Law Center 

Together, these organizations represent low-income Ohioans, students with disabilities, and families across urban, suburban, and rural communities. They see every day how public school funding decisions shape children’s educational opportunities and long-term stability. The brief explains how the EdChoice voucher expansion undermines Ohio’s public education system and harms the students our organizations serve. It highlights three main concerns: 

1. Underfunding public schools: The State has chosen to divert hundreds of millions of dollars into private school vouchers instead of fully funding the Fair School Funding Plan. This worsens long-standing underfunding in public schools and hits communities with the highest needs the hardest, including districts with large numbers of children living in poverty. 

1. Harm to students with disabilities: When public dollars flow to private schools, students with disabilities often lose key legal protections and services that are guaranteed in public schools. Many private schools can and do legally limit or refuse admission to students with disabilities or fail to offer the specialized supports they need to succeed. 

1. Disproportionate impact on rural and minoritized students: In many rural counties, there are few or no nearby private schools that accept vouchers, which means families do not have a real “choice.” At the same time, rural public schools still lose critical state funding. Students of color, students with disabilities, and other minoritized students are also more likely to face exclusion and discrimination in private school settings that are not bound by the same civil rights protections as public schools. 

“On Monday, all the legal aids across Ohio filed an Amicus Brief in the 10th District Court of Appeals on the side of public school families and districts, against the EdChoice private school voucher program expansion,” said Renee Murphy, Managing Attorney at ABLE and a co-author of the brief. “The State has chosen to continue underfunding public schools, despite an Ohio Constitutional mandate for funding public schools. Instead, the State has been putting increasingly large amounts of funding toward private school subsidies, even though private schools are not equal opportunities for all Ohioans, particularly children with disabilities, rural Ohioans, and other minoritized children.” 

As this case moves forward, ABLE and our partner organizations remain committed to defending Ohio’s constitutional promise of a strong public school system that serves every child, regardless of zip code, income, or disability. 

Read the full Amicus Brief here.