Tell Ohio: Keep Private Schools Private

I am writing to urge you to oppose House Bill 715, the
EdChoice scholarship reporting bill currently pending before the House
Education Committee.

Ohio's EdChoice program was built on a straightforward
principle: give families the freedom to choose the school that best fits their
children, and let schools compete on merit. Private and religious schools
participate voluntarily. They are not public schools. Accepting a scholarship
on behalf of a family does not — and should not — transform them into publicly
accountable institutions subject to state data collection and reporting
mandates.

Proponents of HB 715 argue that public dollars require
public oversight. But the EdChoice scholarship belongs to the student and
family, not to the state. When a family uses a scholarship to choose a school,
the state is empowering that family's choice — it is not entering into a
regulatory relationship with the school. That distinction matters enormously
for what school choice actually means.

I am also concerned about where this leads. HB 715 is
explicitly the lighter version of a broader accountability push. Companion
Senate bills would require weekly attendance reporting, state auditor audits of
private school funds, government-designed report cards, and standardized
testing requirements identical to public schools. Each of those steps makes
private schools less private and less distinctive — which is precisely what
families are trying to escape when they exercise school choice.

If the goal is to protect the EdChoice program's long-term
viability, the answer is not to regulate private schools into resembling public
ones. The answer is to trust Ohio families to evaluate the schools they have
chosen.

I urge you to oppose HB 715 and stand firmly for the
independence that makes school choice meaningful.