The legislation making changes across a variety of state policies because of coronavirus also settled an issue that lawmakers had been struggling with for months. That’s the question of how many students would qualify next school year for the state’s largest private school voucher program.
The legislation freezes the number of EdChoice buildings at 517, the same number as this school year – though new rules on criteria for determining whether a building was failing and the students were EdChoice eligible were supposed to have that number soaring to over 1200.
House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) said he understands families who were hoping for the bigger list are disappointed, but this is the right resolution.
“The portal never opened, and so they’ve never been granted that voucher," Householder said.
Lawmakers had delayed the window to apply for EdChoice from February 1 to April 1.
The legislation does allow siblings, incoming kindergarten students and students going into high school to get vouchers if their building is on the current list.
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