The civil lawsuit could determine whether the EdChoice program in Ohio, in use by more than 130,000 students across the state, is legal. Vouchers Hurt Ohio is the organization opposing the voucher system.
The case was expected to go to trial in November but was pushed to next year.
A department spokeswoman said ODEW has paid out $241,837 in fiscal year 2025 for the voucher lawsuit.
State Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Ashtabula, said ODEW requested an increase in funding for school choice administration for this fiscal year.
“The department is requesting to move some money around to cover the cost of the school choice administration due to the fact that there have been some lawsuits and it’s costing them a lot of money to fight the existing school choice lawsuits,” said state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, the chair of the Ohio Senate Education committee.
Brenner told the Dayton Daily News he believed the $4 million was a reappropriation of existing dollars.
The state spent nearly $1 billion on school vouchers last school year, the first year that at least 10% of a voucher was available to each Ohio resident.
This school year, the scholarship amount is $6,166 for grades kindergarten to eighth and $8,408 for high school.
Bill Phillis, the executive director of Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding, also part of the Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit, said the Ohio Constitution is clear that the General Assembly creates a single system of common schools, which is the main argument that the Vouchers Hurt Ohio group has made against vouchers being legal.
“It’s really a waste of money,” Phillis said of the state fighting the lawsuit. “They ought to cut. The legislature ought to come to a consensus, if it has any, and just admit it is unconstitutional.”
He added, “Before this is over, they’ll be spending a lot more than $4 million on it.”
