Ohio appeals court rules state's EdChoice school voucher program unconstitutional
An Ohio appeals court ruled Thursday that the state's EdChoice school voucher program breaks the state constitution, AP and Reason reported. The judges said private schools, not families, get to pick who uses the vouchers. The program stays in place while families and the state plan to appeal to the state's top court, Reason reported.
An Ohio appeals court ruled Thursday, Oct. 15, that the state's EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional, The Associated Press and Reason reported. A three-judge panel of the 10th District Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a June 2025 lower-court ruling, AP reported.
The program will keep running: the court stayed its judgment pending an expected appeal, according to its opinion, and families will be able to keep their scholarships while the case goes on, Reason reported.
"EdChoice, as presently structured and funded, secures with taxpayer funds a competing system of uncommon schools that is not subject to the same obligations imposed on Ohio's system of common schools," Judge David Leland wrote, according to AP. The judges said the choice belongs to private schools, which have broad discretion over whom to admit, not to families, AP reported.
The court found that the program draws money away from public schools, lets private schools cherry-pick students and gives voters less reason to approve local school levies, according to its opinion. Those effects reinforce one another, "creating a downward spiral of reduced enrollment, reduced revenue, and increased fiscal pressure on schools," the court said, AP reported. Leland wrote that the court was not suggesting "that school vouchers in all forms violate the Ohio Constitution," according to AP.
The 2022 lawsuit was joined by hundreds of public school districts, known as Vouchers Hurt Ohio, and by some parents and students, AP reported. The plaintiffs argued that EdChoice had over time created an unconstitutional system of separately funded private schools and led to resegregation of some districts, AP reported. "We're getting really close to the end," said Dan Heintz, a school board member in Cleveland Heights-University Heights, the first district to join the suit, WEWS reported in a story published by the Ohio Capital Journal.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said in a statement that his office was disappointed and would appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. "Families should not worry, as there is no immediate impact from the ruling," Wilson said. Republican House Speaker Matt Huffman, who championed making the program universal in 2023, said courts including the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ohio Supreme Court have upheld school choice programs, AP reported. "The decision of one of 12 courts of appeal in Ohio will not affect that," Huffman said in a statement.
Families using EdChoice also plan to appeal, Reason reported. "I think the only conclusion that the Ohio Supreme Court can walk away with is that programs like the Educational Choice Scholarship program are constitutional," said Keith Neely, an Institute for Justice lawyer who represents them, according to Reason.
What we know: An Ohio appeals court ruled on Oct. 15 that EdChoice is unconstitutional as now structured and funded, and the program stays in place during an appeal.
What we don't: When the Ohio Supreme Court will take up the case, or how it will rule.
Where outlets agree AP and Reason report that a panel of Ohio's 10th District Court of Appeals unanimously ruled on Oct. 15 that the EdChoice voucher program is unconstitutional, and that the program remains in place pending an appeal.
Where they differ The outlets cited here report the same key facts so far.