Ohio's generally risk-averse Governor Bob Taft is expected to astound the Buckeye State today with a budget-message proposal to expand the Cleveland voucher program such that kids trapped in some 70 chronically low-performing public schools elsewhere in Ohio could exit with $3,500 state vouchers in hand, redeemable in participating private schools. This resembles Florida's "opportunity scholarship" plan and would be a swell thing for Ohio's neediest kids - and a wake-up call for their current schools that nothing in the state's present accountability system can rival. With a GOP-majority legislature in Columbus and a serious school choice supporter in the House speaker's office, it even stands a decent chance of being enacted. Team it up with President Bush's proposed $50 million federal voucher fund and Ohio's kids might begin to see light at the end of their very long dark tunnel.
"Taft pushes vouchers for schools," Catherine Candisky and Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch, February 10, 2005 (subscription required)
"Taft plans to expand school vouchers," Sandy Theis, Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 10, 2005
"Taft program would widen school choice," James Drew and Jim Provance, Toledo Blade, February 10, 2005
Choice Incentive Fund, Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Summary, February 7, 2005