COLUMBUS—Ohio’s Backpack Bill (HB11), which would make every Ohio K-12 student eligible for an Educational Savings Account (ESA), is scheduled to receive its first hearing before the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee tomorrow—Tuesday, February 28—at 4:00 pm.

The bill’s sponsors, Reps. Riordan McClain (R-Upper Sandusky) and Marilyn John (R-Shelby), will provide testimony. Prior to their remarks, the Ohio Department of Education will make a presentation on the current school funding model to the committee.

“The time has come for Ohio to fix its broken educational system,” said Troy McIntosh, Executive Director of the Ohio Christian Education Network. “The most recent results from national assessments show that fewer than one in three Ohio 8th graders can read proficiently and only one in four are proficient at math. At the same time, radical ideologies that are directly opposed to many families’ sincerely held beliefs are proliferating and crowding out instructional time.”

HB11 uses a “funding-follows-the-student” model by which the state provides an ESA for any student who wishes to use the funding for private school or home school options. The ESA is valued at $5,500 for grades K-8 and $7,500 for grades 9-12.

Momentum for this type of education funding is growing across the country and a number of other states have already passed similar legislation or are currently considering them.

“This hearing is the first step toward a major shift in Ohio’s education policy away from funding a system and toward funding students,” said McIntosh. “By empowering parents to take their child’s education funding to the school model that best serves their child, the students of our state take primacy over the system. We urge lawmakers to act now on behalf of our students.”

The public is invited to attend the hearing and show support for the bill. It will take place in Room 116, found in the crypt of the Ohio Statehouse. A livestream of the hearing will be available on the Ohio Channel for those who cannot attend.

SB11 is the Senate backpack-style bill that would make every K-12 student in Ohio eligible to receive a scholarship to be used at a private school of the student’s choice. 

The full text of SB11 and HB11 can be read online. To learn more about how the bill works, the research behind it, and how you can support it, visit BackpackBill.com.

ACTION ALERT

Contact your lawmakers to share what having educational options will mean for your family and ask them to support the Backpack Bill!

For more information, contact CCV at 513-733-5775 or contact@ccv.org.

As Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization, Center for Christian Virtue seeks the good of our neighbors by advocating for public policy that reflects the truth of the Gospel. 

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