Agudath Israel Commends the Ohio General Assembly’s Expansion of School Choice

By BJLife Newsroom
Posted on 06/01/22

COLUMBUS, OH (June 1, 2022) – Today, the Ohio House concurred with the Senate and voted to pass H.B. 583, which addresses numerous education related issues. The bill now awaits Governor Mike DeWine’s signature, which is expected. The bill creates a new law that is welcomed by families and education advocates alike.

Agudath Israel of Ohio’s Executive Director Rabbi Yitz Frank praised the General Assembly for their vision. "Expanding school choice options empowers underserved families to choose the school that works best for their child. While these changes appear modest, thousands of students will benefit from these provisions and will ease the path for further expansion of school choice to all families.”

The bill contains several provisions that expand school choice. Including:

• Allowing students that initially qualify for Ohio’s EdChoice Income-based Scholarship Program, (which is limited to families that earn below 250% of the federal poverty level, or $69K for a family of four), to remain eligible for a full scholarship, even if their family income rises. Current law awarded scholarships on a sliding scale.

• Allowing siblings of students enrolled in Ohio’s EdChoice Income-based Scholarship Program to qualify for a scholarship

• Eliminating the June 30th deadline for families to use funds in their ACE scholarship account.

This important bill builds on the work of the General Assembly in this most recent state budget bill to continue to expand Ohio’s national leading school choice policies. Those key changes were:

• Increasing the EdChoice and Cleveland Scholarships to $5,500 per pupil in grades K-8 and $7,500 per pupil in grades 9-12.

• Expanding traditional EdChoice scholarship eligibility to include siblings of current scholarship students and students entering 9th grade.

• Increasing the value of special needs scholarships.

• Creating a $750 state tax credit for individual contributions made to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO).

• Creating the ACE Education Savings Account program to provide $500 for education expenses for students with income levels below 300% FPL.

Further background information, can be found here (from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission).