COLUMBUS — Ohio’s private school voucher system will go on trial in 2025 after a Franklin County judge delayed the case Wednesday.
The groups met in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday for a final pretrial conference ahead of their anticipated Nov. 4 trial date, the day before the presidential election.
Judge Jaiza Page postponed the trial until 2025, according to a news release from the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding and Vouchers Hurt Ohio, which filed the lawsuit in January 2022 on behalf of a coalition of public schools.
“We are pleased that Judge Jaiza Page is being thoughtful and thorough in preparing for the education trial of the century in Ohio,” said Eric Brown, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice and chair of the Vouchers Hurt Ohio steering committee, in the release Wednesday.
Districts in the area participating in the lawsuit include Ada, Bluffton, Celina, Elida, Hardin Northern, Jennings, Kalida, Kenton, Lima, Lincolnview, Ottawa-Glandorf, Pandora-Gilboa, Ridgemont, Riverdale, Spencerville and Waynesfield-Goshen, according to the coalition.
Brown added, “We believe harmful private school vouchers that are siphoning billions of dollars away from public schools and public-school children are unconstitutional,” Brown said.
The lawsuit alleges Ohio’s private school voucher system is creating a separate system of schools, exacerbating racial segregation and forcing public schools to raise funds through property tax levies to make up for the loss of state funding.
Page rejected previous efforts by Attorney General Dave Yost to dismiss the case.
The Ohio Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s original voucher program, known as the Cleveland scholarship, in 1999 and 2002.
Lawmakers subsequently expanded access to the taxpayer-funded scholarships, also known as vouchers, which are now available to all Ohio families regardless of income or school performance.
A new trial date had not been determined as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the release.
