Ohio's Expanded EdChoice Program - A Breakdown of Scholarship Amounts for 2024

So Ohio Governor Mike Dewine signed Ohio House Bill 33 on July 4th. This bill is Ohio’s budget for fiscal years 2024-2025.

If you want to read it, it’s only 6198 pages.

If you don’t want to even read the analysis in this blog post, jump down to the tables below.

What’s got people excited about this is the expansion of Ohio’s EdChoice program - or educational choice scholarship as the budget calls it.

EdChoice, for those who don’t know, is basically money used to help students go to private school. Not just any private school - it has to be a “participating” private school. And it used to be that the student would have to be in a failing public school district and their family income had to be at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines.

Now every child in Ohio is eligible. But not everyone gets a full ride.

Those children whose family’s income is under 450% get a full ride. After that, the higher the income, the less the student will receive - but no less than 10% of the full amount.

Details on the amount have been hard to come by - news stories online seem to gloss over what the amounts are. So I dug into the bill itself (don’t worry, I didn’t read the entire thing - thank you find feature in my PDF viewer!)

There’s two relevant sections - the first, on page 1010 of the bill, describes how the amounts awarded to those above the 450% level are to be calculated:

Sec. 3310.08.

(A) As used in this section:

(1) “Constant multiplier” means 0.50.
(2) “Base amount” means the maximum educational choice scholarship amount for the student’s grade level under division (A)(10)(a)(ii)(I) of
section 3317.022 of the Revised Code for the fiscal year.
(3) “Federal poverty level multiplier” means a percentage equal to the student’s family income percentage of the federal poverty guidelines for the fiscal year.
(4) “Federal poverty guidelines” has the same meaning as in section 5101.46 of the Revised Code.
(5) “Power equation” means the following formula: The federal poverty level multiplier X ln(constant multiplier)
(6) “Minimum amount” means an amount equal to the student’s base amount multiplied by ten per cent.

(B) The department of education and workforce shall determine the educational choice scholarship amount for a student described in division (A)(10)(a)(ii)(II) of section 3317.022 of the Revised Code for a fiscal year, as follows:

(1) For a student with a family adjusted gross income, as defined in section 5747.01 of the Revised Code, at or below four hundred fifty per cent of the federal poverty guidelines for the fiscal year, the base amount;
(2) For a student with a family adjusted gross income, as defined in section 5747.01 of the Revised Code, above four hundred fifty per cent of the federal poverty guidelines, an amount calculated according to the following formula: The base amount X (1 / the constant multiplier)^4.5 X e^power equation

If the amount calculated for a student under division (B)(2) of this division is less than the minimum amount, the student’s scholarship amount shall be the minimum amount.

The second relevant part, starting on page 5872, lists the actual amounts to be used for the fiscal year 2024:

SECTION 265.277. EDUCATIONAL CHOICE SCHOLARSHIP AMOUNT FISCAL YEAR 2024

(A) As used in this section:

(1) “K-8 student” means a student enrolled in any of grades kindergarten through eight;
(2) “9-12 student” means a student enrolled in any of grades nine through twelve;
(3) “FPL” means federal poverty guidelines, as defined in section 5101.46 of the Revised Code.
(4) “Traditional Educational Choice scholarship amount” means the maximum Educational Choice scholarship amount the student would receive under division (A)(10)(a)(ii) of section 3317.022 of the Revised Code for the school year if the student qualified under section 3310.03 of the Revised Code.

(B) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in sections 3317.022 and 3310.08 of the Revised Code, for the purposes of division (A)(10)(a)(ii) of section 3317.022 of the Revised Code, the Department of Education and Workforce shall determine the maximum Educational Choice scholarship amount for the 2023-2024 school year for a student described in division (B) of Section 265.275 of this act, as follows:

(1) For a student with a family income at or below 450% of the FPL, the traditional Educational Choice scholarship amount.
(2) For a student with a family income above 450% of the FPL, but at or below 500% of the FPL, either:

(a) For a K-8 student, $5,200;
(b) For a 9-12 student, $7,050.

(3) For a student with a family income above 500% of the FPL, but at or below 550% of the FPL, either:

(a) For a K-8 student, $3,650;
(b) For a 9-12 student, $5,000.

(4) For a student with a family income above 550% of the FPL, but at or below 600% of the FPL, either:

(a) For a K-8 student, $2,600;
(b) For a 9-12 student, $3,550.

(5) For a student with a family income above 600% of the FPL, but at or below 650% of the FPL, either:

(a) For a K-8 student, $1,850;
(b) For a 9-12 student, $2,500.

(6) For a student with a family income above 650% of the FPL, but at or below 700% of the FPL, either:

(a) For a K-8 student, $1,300;
(b) For a 9-12 student, $1,750;

(7) For a student with a family income above 700% of the FPL, but at or below 750% of the FPL, either:

(a) For a K-8 student, $900;
(b) For a 9-12 student, $1,250.

(8) For a student with a family income above 750% of the FPL, either:

(a) For a K-8 student, $650;
(b) For a 9-12 student, $950.

Oh, and Federal poverty level is defined over here → https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fpl/.

For instance, in 2022, for a family of 4, the Federal poverty level was $27,750. 450% of that would be $111,000. So a family of four who’s income (which is, essentially, the adjusted gross income on your tax return, albeit potentially slightly more) is equal to or less than $111,000 can get a full ride.

Let’s make some tables.

First, the income numbers from 450% to 750%:

And now the scholarship amounts:

Based on the weird equation in the bill and these numbers, the base amount is $7,354 for K-8 and $9,970 for 9-12. But remember, for schools to accept EdChoice, they have to accept the payment as payment in full for those below the 450% even if the payment is less than tuition.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio House Bill 33, expanding the EdChoice program. While some might support this because it provides more options for kids to attend private schools, others may have concerns that it could impact public school funding and create inequalities. Feel free to express your opinions in the comments below.