ASHLAND — Sara Paddags has seen the impact of EdChoice Expansion from several different vantage points.
She teaches at St. Edward School, which is one of two EdChoice providers in Ashland County. The other is Ashland Christian School.
Paddags is also a mom to three students who have attended St. Edward School. But tuition for a private school can be pricey. The average private school tuition in Ohio for 2025 is $8,153 per year.
For years, Paddags’ family leaned on the school’s generosity to help them pay the tuition bill. Principal Suellen Valentine said that was a common practice for the school.
“We’re a Catholic school,” Valentine said. “You welcome everyone. We’re not gonna turn someone away ever because they can’t afford tuition.
“So we’ve always been open to come, even if you can’t afford it. We’ll make it work.”
It lists several scholarship options on its site, including a “Diocese or Parish Financial Needs-Based Assistance” scholarship. While the school does work with families, Valentine said having students who relied on it to fill the gaps in tuition was becoming a financial burden.
A brief history of EdChoice Expansion scholarships
EdChoice Expansion scholarships first became available at the kindergarten level in 2013. The program has since expanded to include all grade levels.
The scholarships were only available to people at or below 200% of the federal poverty level — around $64,300 for a family of four today. In 2021, income levels expanded to include families at or below 250% of the federal poverty level.
In EdChoice’s most recent iteration, the program became “means-tested.” The amount of money families receive from the state decreases as income goes up.
But in 2023, the state legislature approved increased eligibility for the EdChoice Expansion scholarship program.
The program offers families attending EdChoice-approved private schools state dollars to attend private school. The increase in eligibility and funding has driven a rise in “new” scholarship participants.
The number of students across Ohio using state-funded scholarships to attend private schools nearly quadrupled over the course of one fiscal year. In Ashland County, the number tripled.
Some have suggested many of those “new” participants in the state were already attending private schools without the help of scholarships. That includes families like Paddags’. For a school like St. Edward School, the increased eligibility also took away part of the financial squeeze of providing tuition assistance internally.
But, an unclear data trail makes it difficult to track exactly where those students are attending private school.
In addition, the voucher program’s approval has drawn criticism from some groups, like Vouchers Hurt Ohio. That group has nearly 300 public school district members who’ve signed on to challenge the program’s constitutionality.
How many students are using EdChoice scholarships?
The state saw 68,000 new students take advantage of EdChoice Expansion scholarships from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024.
During the same time frame in Ashland County, the number of students using scholarships increased from a potential high of 66 to nearly 200 students across four public school districts.
That “potential high” is because, if fewer than 10 students in a grade level were using EdChoice, the state’s Reports portal doesn’t provide an exact number.
Numbers from the current fiscal year, fiscal year 2025, show Ashland County has 277 EdChoice Expansion scholarship participants.
Where are these students coming from & where are they going?
For the most part, the “new” students using EdChoice vouchers over the last two years aren’t leaving public school districts.
Analysis from the Legislative Budget Office of the Legislative Service Commission shows that statewide, around 84% of the new students using EdChoice vouchers were already attending private schools.
That distinction is more difficult to make in Ashland County specifically. The state keeps data showing how many scholarship participants have renewed their scholarships versus non-renewals by school district.
We’re not gonna turn someone away ever because they can’t afford tuition. So we’ve always been open to come, even if you can’t afford it. We’ll make it work.
Suellen Valentine, Principal At St. Edward Catholic School
But for those non-renewals – the “new” EdChoice participants – data about whether they’ve come to the scholarship program from public or private schools isn’t available.
The state also doesn’t show where those students are going to school, so it’s unknown whether they remain in the county or attend a private school in a nearby county.
“It doesn’t seem like the data trail is super clear,” Michael Tefs said.
Tefs works as Ashland University’s program director of superintendent licensure, and boasts expertise in data analysis and school funding.
Why go private?
Students and families might opt for private schools for a few different reasons, Tefs said.
Tefs also previously worked as the superintendent of Wooster City School District, a public district in Wayne County. In that capacity, he sometimes spoke with families who were making the choice for their students to attend a private school.
Families may choose to do so thanks to a desire for a faith-based education or a high-quality extracurricular specialty the private school might offer. In some instances, a private school might be the best option for a child socially.
“Sometimes, for whatever reason, that particular school isn’t working, and my heart breaks for any student that’s not feeling embraced or fully included, and if for whatever reason that isn’t happening, I’m gonna lay down on the mud puddle so they can walk by to get to wherever,” Tefs said.
“That’s why I think a lot of superintendents, (while) I don’t know that they are choice advocates, I think they get it.”
Still, Tefs said by and large, public education is offering an important service to students and communities. He said he worries that public policy around EdChoice Expansion may be setting up public school districts for failure by taking away part of their clientele.
How about Ashland County?
For both EdChoice provider schools in Ashland County, an increase in scholarship use has outpaced enrollment growth.
St. Edward School’s enrollment has remained stable over the past three fiscal years. Ashland Christian School’s enrollment has had more variation over the years, but declined between fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024 — the first year EdChoice Expansion eligibility grew.
Both St. Edward School and Ashland Christian School only educate students through the eighth grade. Any students in Ashland County receiving EdChoice vouchers to attend high school are leaving the county to receive their education.
Again, it remains unclear where they are going.
Valentine, St. Edward School’s principal, said it’s true that most students at her school taking advantage of the expansion in eligibility were already attending the school.
But just because they were already attending the school, it doesn’t mean they were able to pay the full tuition.
