Even though there are no immediate plans to create voucher programs in Cincinnati, the U.S. Supreme Court gave Maria Minor hope.

        “For them to even consider it, I think it's awesome,” the Roselawn woman said. “As far as me being a lower-income single mother, it's like it opened up new doors. My kids' education is more important to me than anything else in the world.”

        Ohio doesn't intend to expand its school vouchers program until it's sure the Cleveland experiment is improving student achievement. Yet if vouchers come to Cincinnati, it could be a boon to local private and parochial schools.

        The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Thurday upheld the Cleveland voucher program, which provides tuition for 4,000 students in that city to attend private or parochial schools.

        Catholic schools in Cleveland benefitted most from the program. Similarly, the biggest benefit locally would go to Catholic schools. With 56,000 students in 136 schools, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati operates the 10th-largest Catholic school system in the country and the second-largest in the state behind Cleveland.

        “It's not at all clear there would be vast amounts of children beating down our door,” said Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the archdiocese. “We already have a strong program of scholarships for economically disadvantaged children through CISE.”

        The Catholic Inner-City Schools Education Fund is a consortium of eight schools that receive subsidies from the archdiocese for students.

        But some Catholic schools are underutilized, Mr. Andriacco said. One inner-city school, St. Mark in Evanston, closed this month because of dwindling enrollment. Two other schools, St. Margaret of Cortona in Madisonville and Cure of Ars in Madison Place, are merging this fall for the same reason.

        “A voucher program in Cincinnati would have a major impact,” said Tom Mooney, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers union. “It would be used to fill up inner-city parochial schools that are emptying.”

        Cleaster Whitehurst-Mims, founder and president of Marva Collins Preparatory School in Roselawn, said her school would grow if vouchers were expanded to Cincinnati.

        She noted the Marva Collins school in Milwaukee, which also has a voucher program, has 200 children on a waiting list.

        The local school, which includes pre-K through eighth grade, had 209 students last year but has space for an additional 300.

        This fall, Ms. Minor will have three children at Roselawn Condon, a Cincinnati Public School — not her first choice.

        She checked out the Marva Collins school for her second son and again for a daughter but found the cost prohibitive.

        “It was more than I could afford. That school was a phenomenal school. I loved everything about it.”

       Jennifer Mrozowski contributed to this report.
       

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