Earlier this year, a coalition of traditional public school districts filed a lawsuit that they hope will spell the end of EdChoice, Ohio’s largest voucher program. The majority of their claims are focused on Article VI, Section 2 of the Ohio constitution, which calls for a “thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State.” The plaintiffs argue that the term “common” refers to “non-sectarian, publicly-funded schools” and not private schools that require applications and tuition payments. As part of their argument, they claim that “the common school accepts all comers.”
But that’s not true in many places in Ohio, most notably the state’s wealthier suburbs. Traditional public schools in those areas aren’t open to everyone. They’re open to the students who live within their district boundaries, boundaries that are rooted in real estate redlining that’s had a lasting effect on American society. While they don’t require an application, they do require proof of residency. And instead of tuition, they require payment in the form of a hefty mortgage and property taxes, or sky-high rent, a price tag that’s often far out of the reach of low- and middle-income families.
Consider how this works in the Columbus metro area. Columbus City Schools (CCS), the largest district in the state and one of the named plaintiff districts filing suit, served over 45,000 students during the 2020–21 school year. On the 2018–19 state report card—the last full school year before Covid took over our lives—the district posted an overall grade of D. That was an improvement from the previous year, when the district earned an F, but the results for individual measures weren’t much better. In 2018–19, the district had an F in both achievement and progress, and a four-year graduation rate of 82 percent that earned them a D. The district also earned Ds and Fs on these measures in 2015–16 and 2016–17. Approximately 80 percent of the classes of 2019 and 2020 took the ACT, but only 8.3 percent earned remediation-free scores. Nearly 24 percent of students participated in AP in 2018–19, but less than 5 percent earned a score of three or better on their exams. And while a whopping 99 percent of third graders were promoted to fourth grade that year, only 23 percent proved they could read proficiently on the state ELA exam.
Now, imagine you’re a parent living in Columbus. You want to make sure your child has the best education possible, and the data above—likely combined with your own experience—have convinced you that CCS isn’t the best option. You still want your child to attend a public school, though, so you start looking around. Ohio’s school district map shows that there are over a dozen districts that share borders with CCS, and because you have reliable transportation, they’re all viable options. A close look at 2018–19 report cards reveals that eight of the identified districts had overall grades of C or higher and no Ds or Fs on individual measures: Bexley, Gahanna-Jefferson, South-Western, Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington, Dublin, Worthington, and Westerville.
You decide to focus your efforts on these eight districts. Your first move is to look into open enrollment, because even though your assigned district is academically low-performing, you like your neighborhood and you’d rather not move. Unfortunately, though, open enrollment isn’t an option. None of these eight districts allow students who live outside their borders to enroll in their schools.
If you want to enroll your child at one of these higher-performing districts, you’ll have to move. But that’s easier said than done. Thanks in large part to the impacts of Covid, the housing market is insanely competitive. And even if it wasn’t, purchasing a home in the districts that surround Columbus is financially out of reach for many city residents. The table below lists the median household income between 2015 and 2019 along with the typical home value in each district as of this writing. Every single one has a significantly higher median income than Columbus. The smallest difference—between Columbus and South-Western—is more than $20,000. The same is true for typical home values. The closest difference, also between Columbus and South-Western, is over $52,000.
It’s also important to keep in mind that this table shows median incomes—there are thousands of Columbus households that make far less than $53,745 a year. The same is true for typical home values. Wealthier enclaves within Columbus—neighborhoods like Clintonville and Victorian Village—are driving up the average home value for the rest of the city. And don’t forget, thousands of Columbus residents are renters, not homeowners. That means they don’t have any home equity to help with a down payment on a new house. It’s possible that these families could rent, rather than buy, their way into the suburbs. But the current rental market is just as competitive as the housing market. And as the table below shows, average rents at the time of this writing are higher in the suburbs, too.
As a last resort, you look for family and friends who are living in the districts you prefer but can’t afford. Your loved ones are residents, and they pay taxes, so maybe your children can list those addresses as their proof of residency. But a quick Google search reveals that that’s a really bad idea. Apparently several of the districts on your list hire private investigators to tail parents and make sure they’re actually residents. In other parts of the state, parents have been sent to jail for enrolling their students in districts where they don’t reside. As much as you want your kids to have a better education, doing jail time is a steep price to pay.
The upshot? You’re stuck. The districts that claim they’re open to all aren’t actually open because you don’t make enough money to live there. You can’t send your children to temporarily live with family or friends because districts have teams of lawyers and private investigators to hunt you down. And although Ohio has a statewide open-enrollment policy that approximately 80 percent of districts participate in, the affluent, high-performing districts that surround cities like Columbus are almost exclusively closed.
And that’s what makes the establishment’s “we’re open to all” argument particularly galling. They know not all districts are open. They know that only certain kids are fortunate enough to attend the high-performing districts that they hold up as exemplars of public education. But it’s not enough for them to just close their borders and be hypocrites. They also want to intervene in family decisions and prevent kids from attending any and every school that’s not under the control of a district. That’s why they cherry-pick data to criticize charter schools. That’s why they’ve filed a lawsuit to eliminate the EdChoice program. And that’s why, when parents dared to express concern over a lawsuit that could upend their lives and their kids’ futures, the establishment’s callous response was that families “do not have sufficient knowledge about either the Ohio Constitution or the EdChoice Voucher Program to be of any use to the Court in deciding this case.” (It’s unclear why these particular parents don’t know enough to be heard but the parents named in their lawsuit do. Perhaps there’s a test of some sort?)
The bottom line is this: If you’re rich enough to buy or rent a home in a high-performing school district, you get to choose where to send your kid to school. The world is your oyster. If, however, you can’t afford to pay your way into a high-performing district, then most—if not all—high-performing public schools are closed to you. You can either resign yourself to the assigned district that, for myriad reasons, doesn’t work for your child, or you can take advantage of school choice programs. But beware—if you exercise your right to choose how to educate your own child, the establishment will brand you as a traitor. Because after all, these are their kids.
