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For the second year in a row, Ohio spent more than a billion dollars on private school vouchers for the 2026 fiscal year, with the total reaching $1.173 billion across five state programs, according to data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. This is the third full year with near-universal school vouchers.
Court Ruling on EdChoice Program
An Ohio appellate court ruled on Thursday that the EdChoice voucher program is unconstitutional, though the decision allows the program to continue while the state appeals.
Interim Republican Attorney General Andy Wilson announced plans to appeal to the 6-1 Republican-controlled Ohio Supreme Court, which Republicans made explicitly partisan through party labels added in 2021.
Ohio Education Association President Jeff Wensing called the program an “illegal use of taxpayer money,” noting that EdChoice scholarships go to students already enrolled in private schools. “These families have been paying for their students to go to private schools, mostly wealthy families, and it’s a handout to the wealthy, a handout to the rich,” Wensing said. He also emphasized the need for the state to fully fund public schools, arguing that the diversion of funds undermines educational equity.
Program Breakdown and Spending History
The Education Choice Expansion vouchers accounted for nearly half of all spending at $532.8 million. This scholarship program, expanded to cover families at 450% of the poverty line three years ago, provides $6,166 for K-8 students and $8,408 for high schoolers.
More than 105,000 EdChoice Expansion scholarships were awarded, averaging $5,114 per participant. Traditional EdChoice scholarships totaled $284.6 million for over 42,000 recipients, with an average of $6,807 each.
The Cleveland Scholarship program distributed $55.09 million to over 8,000 students, averaging $6,875 per scholarship. The Autism Scholarship Program provided $186.7 million for over 6,000 recipients, with an average of $30,318 per student. The Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program allocated $114.2 million for over 9,000 scholars, averaging $13,511 each.
These figures represent a significant increase from previous years: $1.09 billion in 2025, $970.7 million in 2024, $610.2 million in 2023, $554.5 million in 2022, and $444.5 million in 2021. The $1.173 billion total slightly undercuts the Legislative Service Commission’s $1.18 billion projection.
The data comes amid declining public school enrollment in Ohio, with 1,629,346 students in public schools during 2025-26, down from 1,652,539 the previous year and continuing a multi-year decline from 1,672,198 in 2021-22.
Enrollment in nonpublic schools reached 185,584 students in fiscal year 2026, reflecting the growing use of state voucher programs.
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