Voucher Ruling Prompts Panic as Schools Open

The public school year opened in a state of confusion Wednesday, a day after a federal judge blocked a voucher program that lets Cleveland’s students attend private or religious schools at taxpayer expense.

Nervous parents tied up phone lines as private school officials said they would continue to accept voucher students pending an appeal.

The public school district also told parents of voucher students to wait before enrolling their students in the 77,000-student system.

About 4,000 students from kindergarten through sixth grade receive up to $2,500 in tuition so they can attend private schools, and the public system is unsure how it would absorb the influx of students if they were cut off from private schools.

“I could see a lot of panic in parents’ eyes when I dropped my kids off at school this morning. A lot of parents really need the vouchers,” said Heidi Hooper, whose two children attend Luther Memorial School. Of the school’s 130 students, 80 receive vouchers.

“We spent a lot of the morning trying to allay parents’ fears that their child wouldn’t have a space,” said Sheila Bolek, principal of Our Lady of Peace, which has 82 voucher students among its 200 pupils.

The Roman Catholic school is a defendant in a lawsuit that challenges Ohio’s 4-year-old voucher program, which was one of the first in the nation. Milwaukee has had vouchers since 1990, and Florida began a program this year.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. halted Ohio’s program, which operates as a pilot only in Cleveland, until a trial determines whether it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

The state immediately said it will appeal.

Cleveland’s Roman Catholic diocese, which could lose up to $3 million in voucher money this school year, said Wednesday it will continue to accept voucher students pending the appeal.

The Institute for Justice, a pro-voucher group based in Washington, will try to raise the money to keep Ohio’s program going, said the group’s director, Clint Bolick.