table of contents

Extras
Unused voucher money returned to state coffers instead of Cleveland public schools 

by Caitlin Scott

Unused voucher money returned to state coffers instead of Cleveland Public Schools

Over the past three years, the Cleveland voucher program has not spent 37 percent of the $33.8 million appropriated for it by the Ohio Legislature, sending it back to state coffers, CATALYST magazine has learned.

Total funding for the voucher program is taken out of the state’s allocation to the Cleveland Municipal School District. But the $12.4 million in unused funds was returned to the state’s general education budget. (see chart)

At this point there are no formal proposals to remedy this situation, but state education officials say it could be done.

“If I had it to do over again, I would have reduced the [voucher] amount by several million dollars,” says Paul Marshall, director of budget and government relations at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE).

Marshall says that he, Saundra Berry, voucher program director, and Kathleen Vaughan, comptroller at ODE, are responsible for recommending the amount to appropriate for the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, which began in 1996. The amount appears as a line item in the budget sent to the legislature for approval.

The annual appropriations for the voucher program rose from $8.7 million in 1999 to $11.2 million in 2000 and $13.9 million in 2001. Funds approved but not yet spent include $14.9 million for 2002, and $18.7 million for 2003.

“We had assumed throughout that we would add a thousand kids [per year],” Marshall explains.

However, that did not happen. In fact, total spending by the program declined in 2000. In 2001, the program sent almost half the appropriation back to the state. The program may use the money for tuition vouchers of up to $2,250, tutoring, and administrative costs.

Berry declined to comment on why the funds went unused.

Voucher advocate Carolyn Hoxby, a professor of education at Harvard University, speculates that the judicial battle over the program may have scared off parents. “The program has been in the courts non-stop, and parents aren’t sure whether or not it will continue.” Parents may not want to participate in a program that could be shut down in a few years, she explains.

Robert Bower, consultant to the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, says, “Folks aren’t as interested in some of these alternatives [to public school] as the legislature believes.” He says parents are uncomfortable with unproven systems like vouchers. At public schools, he says, parents and community members know that reforms like smaller class size and tutoring can make a difference.

Future funding

The Cleveland voucher money comes out of the Cleveland school district’s Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid (DPIA) allotment, which is used for all-day kindergarten, remediation, class-size reduction, and safety and security. Cleveland’s total allocation for 2002 is set at about $61 million. Appropriations for the voucher program have been approved through fiscal year 2003.

Marianne White, aide to State Sen. Robert Gardner (R-18), chair of the Senate Education Committee, says the legislature could pass an amendment to lower voucher program funding that already has been approved. She notes that, in the past, several amendments to eliminate the voucher program entirely have been unsuccessful.

Also, she says, the legislature’s Controlling Board could decide to return unused funds to the Cleveland public schools. The board is made up of senators James Carnes (R-20), Bill Harris (R-19) and Rhine L. McLin (D-5), and representatives John A. Carey (R-94), Charles Calvert (R-81) and Sylvester Patten (R-64).

However, Kelly Weir, education budget analyst for the state, notes that the Controlling Board typically does not review voucher program funds as a separate line item. She says unused voucher funds would likely be rolled into unused DPIA funds for the state as a whole.