LIBERTY — A township resident expressed her concern that school vouchers will “endanger” public schools in a presentation to the school board.

Julia Catchpole, a former teacher who has lived in Liberty since the 1980s and put two children through the district, said to school board members and attendees that she holds nothing against private schools, but she feels they need to be paid by the people and families who want to use them.

“We do not pave private roads with our taxpayer money. So, we should not be paying private schools with our taxpayers’ money,” Catchpole said.

The Ohio Ed Expansion Voucher Program provided $1 billion in taxpayer dollars for tuition at private schools across five scholarship programs in the 2023-24 school year.

Catchpole said the amount of money that follows a student in Liberty’s school system is $5,137. For high school students in the district with a voucher, the amount increases by $3,270 per student, she said.

“The Ohio (General) Assembly members saying they are looking to help children who are in failing systems. However, if you look at what happened in Liberty in 2023, 61 students used vouchers to go to private schools,” Catchpole said. “In 2024, it was 131 students. Now, that is over a 115% increase and yet, Liberty Public Schools did not lose those students. Those students never came here. They were already going to private school.”

Catchpole said it’s now hers and the tax money of other township residents paying for those private school students, in a system that is “very selective” about the types of students they choose to take via screening. She compared it to public schools that have to take all children regardless of their needed accommodations, which can be very expensive.

“This is a concern because public schools have all sorts of mandates; private schools don’t have to show how well their children are doing,” Catchpole said. “They don’t have any open airing about how many passed the (state) tests or didn’t pass the test. So what goes on in private schools? I don’t know — it may be very good, but there’s no way to judge.”

Catchpole urged school board members earlier this month to consider joining the pending Vouchers Hurt Ohio lawsuit, which declares the use of school vouchers for private schools as unlawful. It would cost $2 per child in the district to join it.

Multiple school districts in Trumbull County — Bristol, Girard, Hubbard, LaBrae, Lakeview, Lordstown, Mathews, Howland and Niles — are among the 200 districts involved in the lawsuit. Boardman, Canfield, Poland, South Range, Struthers and Youngstown are the districts in Mahoning County involved so far.

The case was filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

School board member Janine Hamilton thanked Catchpole for the work and research she did, admitting she spoke to board president Dave Malone and was planning to do a similar presentation.

“I agree with you 100%,” Malone said. “It started with districts that were in academic distress, and now it’s moved on to the state level. There were some income requirements for the family that apply with the vouchers; well now, anybody can get it.”