CANFIELD — The Canfield Board of Education may be the next Valley school district to join the lawsuit dealing with school vouchers.

“I believe Canfield should join this lawsuit,” Board President Nader Atway said. “After all, we are advocates for public education.”

He said 90% of Ohio’s public school students receive 75% of state funding, while 10% of Ohio’s students attend private schools and receive 25% of the state funding.

The original lawsuit was supposed to be heard before Franklin Court of Common Pleas Judge Jaiza N. Page on Nov. 4. The judge decided to postpone the hearing to 2025, thus giving more school districts a chance to sign on to the lawsuit.

To sign on means to join the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding. This organization had challenged school funding in Ohio by filing the DeRolph Case in December of 1991.

More recently, the coalition took up the fight of the EdChoice Vouchers in Ohio that allows the state funds to follow the student. The lawsuit in Franklin has more than 300 school districts signed onto it. One of the recent local districts was Poland Local School District which agreed to join at its November meeting.

To join, a district must pay dues to the organization. The dues are set at $2 per student for each district. Poland had to pay $3,400, which didn’t have 100% of the board’s support. Poland Board member Gregg Riddle didn’t agree with the fee.

Atway mentioned the vouchers, but said Canfield needs to have a discussion on the issue before voting on whether to join the lawsuit. It would cost Canfield schools approximately $4,300 to join the lawsuit. Since the court date has been moved forward, it allows for more schools like Canfield to sign on, but it needs to be done by a vote of the board members.

In Canfield, one proponent for supporting the lawsuit is resident Dennis Wingard. He has appeared at prior school board meetings to urge support for the lawsuit and to have Canfield listed on it.

“In my opinion, we need to be part of the lawsuit trying to correct some of the loss of public school funds going to the private sector,” Wingard said.

He said 453 vouchers totaling $2,490,109 are going to one dozen schools in Mahoning County. The private schools include the Islamic Academy of Youngstown, ACLD School, Cardinal Mooney, Ursuline, St. Charles, St. Joseph The Provider, Holy Family, St. Nicholas, St. Christine, Valley Christian School, Akiva Academy and The Montessori School of the Mahoning Valley.

Wingard also presented a listing of local school districts and the number of voucher students from each district. Boardman topped the list at 351, Canfield is second with 208 and Poland is third with 201.

Compared to only 16 voucher students in 2021, Wingard said it represented a 407% increase.

“As this continues, we stand to lose,” he said.

The Canfield Board of Education likely will discuss the topic at the December board meeting, which would give the district time to join the coalition.

ABOUT THE VOUCHER PROGRAM

Ohio last year established a universal voucher program that provides tuition to nonpublic schools, including religious ones, to any family in the state.

Around the country, expanded school choice programs have benefited religious organizations seeking to increase their educational offerings. Of the 33 states with private school programs, 12 allow any student to apply for public money to subsidize private, religious or homeschool education, according to FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.