Another court declares Ohio school choice voucher program unconstitutional

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A trio of judges from the 10th District Court of Appeals has ruled once more that Ohio's private school voucher program, EdChoice, is unconstitutional. The decision was handed down on Thursday, just months after a lower court reached the same conclusion in June 2025.

The judges argue that the EdChoice program violates an Ohio constitutional requirement for "a thorough and efficient system of common schools." They point to the fact that participating private schools have "broad discretion" in admitting students, which allows them to deny or withdraw students based on their own criteria. This, the court says, grants the schools, not the students or their families, the power to choose whether a student may utilize taxpayer-funded vouchers at their institution.

The ruling also highlights the program's impact on public schools. It allows private schools to "cherry-pick" students, concentrating EdChoice-participating schools in urban areas and potentially reducing enrollment and revenue in public schools. This, in turn, puts increased fiscal pressure on these schools.

The decision follows a 2022 lawsuit joined by hundreds of public school districts, known collectively as Vouchers Hurt Ohio, as well as individual parents, students, and the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding. These plaintiffs argued that EdChoice has led to an unconstitutional system of separately funded private schools and has contributed to resegregation in some districts, as mostly non-minority students take advantage of the program.

In her initial ruling, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page rejected the plaintiffs' argument that EdChoice violates the equal protection clause. Ohio expanded its universal voucher program in 2023, which is one of the largest and most expansive of its kind in the United States. Republican Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, who supported this expansion, dismissed the appellate court's ruling as inconsistent with established legal precedent.

He noted that the constitutionality of various school choice programs has been affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ohio Supreme Court, and numerous other tribunals over the past few decades. Huffman emphasized that a single appellate court's decision will not alter that.