Wednesday, January 06, 1999
'Too rich' students receiving tuition credits
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cleveland's school voucher program enrolled 29 students whose families were too rich to qualify, overspent on taxicab transportation and failed to verify students' residency and guardianship, Ohio auditors found in a report released Tuesday.
The program, which state lawmakers started three years ago to give poor families the same educational opportunities richer ones have, uses public money to pay private school tuition.
Of 2,914 students enrolled in the program last year, 29 came from families with household incomes of $50,781 to $90,000, according to the audit, which examined data from July 1995 through last June. The system this year enrolls about 3,700 students in 58 private schools.
If lawmakers continue the fledgling program or expand it to other cities, Auditor Jim Petro advised, they should adopt an income cap.
“This program shouldn't subsidizing middle-class families who probably can afford private schools without government subsidy,” Mr. Petro said.
The audit was the latest bad news for the voucher program, which was criticized in a recent Indiana University study. IU researchers found that Cleveland's voucher students didn't perform better than public-school children except in language.
Voucher opponents, who say the program violates the constitutional provision for the separation of church and state, said Tuesday's audit demonstrated that Ohio's school-choice experiment isn't working.
But supporters say such problems shouldn't be surprising in a pilot program, and many already have been fixed.
The audit found:
• Of 1,994 students en rolled in the program in 1996-97, 23 — or 1.2 percent — received scholarships in the 1997-98 school year despite having household incomes of $50,781 to $90,000. In 1997-98, 22 of those scholarships were continued, and another seven were given to applicants in that income range.
Program director Bert Holt said all low-income students who applied received scholarships, and richer students got vouchers only after eligible students were satisfied.
• Cab companies that transported students to school overbilled the state at least $420,000 the past two years.
After learning the costs, state lawmakers last year ordered the Cleveland City School District to transport all voucher students, eliminating the need for taxis.
• Voucher schools didn't adequately verify proof of residency or guardianship. Of 200 students sampled from 1996-97, about a quarter provided only one form of residency verification or none at all, even though two forms are required. In 1997-98, no schools verified residency.
• Program administrators didn't run background or fingerprint checks, as required, on half of the school tutors in 1996-97 and 87 percent last year.
Most tutors are teachers in Cleveland's public-school system, which already does background and fingerprint checks, Ms. Holt said.
• Scholarships are given to students based on a lottery. Administrators held the lottery for this year more than two weeks before the application deadline.
Ms. Holt disputed this finding, saying applicants are accommodated regardless of when they file.
The audit didn't deter many voucher supporters.
House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, R-Reynoldsburg, repeated her commitment to the program, adding: “I could support taking a look at some kind of income cap.”
But critics said the audit should prompt lawmakers to scale back — or eliminate — the program.
“Enrolling over-income kids tends to reinforce the concern that this is a patronage system — it's (former Gov. George) Voinovich paying back the constituency that launched him into office,” said Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney.
Sen. Mark Mallory, D-Cincinnati, agreed: “The whole voucher program was sold as a concept that would help inner-city or low-income kids get a quality education. In my mind, some of these (voucher) students are way beyond levels of poverty. It doesn't seem fair.”
Sen. C.J. Prentiss, D-Cleveland, said the audit should fuel support for Ohio's charter school law, which “has standards, and a higher level of scrutiny and accountability.”
“The proof is now in — three strikes and you're out,” Ms. Prentiss said, referring to Tuesday's audit, the IU study and the taxicab findings, which first surfaced last year. “We need to halt all expansion of this program and re-examine it entirely. (Enrolling over-income students) is a blatant disregard for public policy.”
Mr. Petro warned against drawing conclusions from a program still in its infancy.
“We as a state owe it to ourselves to experiment with alternatives to improve the quality of education,” Mr. Petro said.
The $8.7 million program is open to children from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Students receive up to $2,250 each for tuition. About 80 percent of students attend religious schools.
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