'We Gotta Know' bill looks to make private schools getting public $$ more transparent

COLUMBUS, Ohio -A bipartisan pair of lawmakers announced a new bill that would require private schools taking taxpayer-funded scholarships to disclose more detailed enrollment information, such as the number of voucher students per grade and the number of disabled and homeless students in the building.

 The bill, which has not yet been given a number, comes after state appellate court unanimously struck down Ohio’s two EdChoice voucher programs on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. The Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals put its decision on hold pending an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.

 The new legislation – dubbed the “Take the Dough, We Gotta Know Act,” is similar to Senate Bill 443, which was introduced in May by Republican Sen. Louis Blessing III of Greater Cincinnati and Democratic Sen. Kent Smith of Euclid. SB 443 hasn’t had any committee hearings yet.

The separate bill in the House requires additional private school transparency but puts the responsibility for collecting the data on the state faces steep opposition from the religious and school choice community.

Rep. Tristan Rader, a Democrat from Lakewood, said it’s time for the House to discuss private school accountability, even if the bill comes toward the end of the two-year legislative session, when many bills fail because there’s not enough time to vet them.

“I want to get the conversation started in the House and I want it started sooner rather than later,” Rader said Monday.

 Rader and Republican Rep. Justin Pizzulli of Scioto County are co-sponsors of the bill. It would impose the following requirements on the Cleveland Scholarship Program and the EdChoice programs:

-- Enrollment and capacity by grade level, school building and education program

-- Number of voucher students enrolled, disaggregated by the type of school the student attended the previous year – such as a traditional public school, a charter school, a different private school or home school

-- Number of scholarship students enrolled in the school for each of the five most recent school years

-- Number of students with disabilities, disaggregated by disability category as described in state law

-- Number of enrolled students who are English learners

-- Number of homeless students

-- Tuition and fees charged by the school and a five-year cost trend of tuition and fees

-- Special education services offered at the school

-- Any religious or faith-based instruction provided

-- The name of the school’s accrediting body, if any, and the school’s most recent accreditation or evaluation report

“I don’t think we’re asking too much here,” he said. “Ohio is spending over a $1 billion year of taxpayer money on private schools without requiring some basic transparency and accountability that we require of our public schools.”

 The $1 billion educates fewer than 200,000 students. At the same time, the legislature is sending $10.2 billion to pay for nearly 1.6 million students in traditional public, charter and vocational schools this school year, according to state budget documents.

The traditional EdChoice program is for students who live in the boundaries of a poor-performing school. EdChoice-expansion is based on a family’s income. In 2023, the legislature lifted income caps, allowing families in the highest tax brackets to receive at least a partial voucher. By 2024, spending on vouchers shot up, with much of the scholarship money claimed by families in the suburbs who already had their kids enrolled in private schools.

Last week, the appellate court focused on two narrow constitutional arguments to invalidate EdChoice. It ruled that vouchers deviate from the legislature’s responsibility to fund a system of common schools, since they are not open to all students and lack accountability.

In the 2023-2024 legislative session, two Republicans — including Rep. Gayle Manning, a North Ridgeville Republican — sponsored a bill that required some of this transparency from private schools. The school choice community successfully defeated the bill.

 This year Manning is back with House Bill 715, which is narrower in scope and requires the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) to gather most of the information. Nevertheless, the religious and school choice community continue to oppose the legislation.

Tom Rhatican, associate director with the Catholic Conference of Ohio, said in testimony against the bill that transparency must be balanced with the freedom schools need to flourish.

DEW has rules around curriculum, mandatory instructional hours, schools submitting enrollment and attendance data, administering testing, teacher and staff credentialing and background checks, and requirements for auditing with independent auditors, among other requirements.

“With our Catholic schools, we also have our Ohio Catholic School Accrediting Agency, who work collaboratively with the State to ensure our schools meet and maintain all requirements but to also communicate with our parents on academic measures of success and accountability,” he said.

Many of these requirements are stricter for public schools. For instance, with testing, private schools can use one of nearly 40 alternatives to Ohio’s State Tests that public schools are generally mandated to administer.

Hannah Kubbins, legislative director of the pro-school choice Americans for Prosperity-Ohio, said HB 715 treats private schools virtually the same as public schools.