Tuition Voucher Donations Repay Debt of School
--from The Columbus Dispatch
January 14, 2000 

State Rep. James Trakas yesterday called for Auditor Jim Petro to take over Ohio’s tuition voucher program in the wake of an audit that showed a school was paid for no-show students.  The Republican from Independence said he will introduce legislation tomorrow that would strip the Cleveland-based program from the Department of Education and gives Petro the job of overseeing the 56 private schools receiving tuition assistance.

“The issue is tax dollars, and are they being properly utilized,” Trakas said at a news conference called by the School Choice Committee, an organization that favors vouchers.

An audit report released last week accused the now-defunct Islamic Academy School of Arts and Sciences of collecting tax-supported tuition for twice as many students as actually attended classes. The audit, requested by the Department of Education, also criticized the department for failing to monitor schools in the program to ensure that tuition payments matched enrollment.

Petro said yesterday that the prospect of overseeing voucher schools troubles him because conflicts of interest would arise from his office auditing a program that it also administers.

“As long as we could establish a structure that would not conflict with our underlying audit responsibilities, there are things we can do,” Petro said. “But I don’t encourage it, and I will go to the General Assembly when it has hearings and say this is not the right approach.” Petro said state Superintendent Susan Tave Zelman is taking the right approach.

Zelman also issued a statement expressing confidence in reforms in reforms she initiated. They include a policy and a procedural manual for the program and a method of monitoring payments to schools. “Since July, new management has assumed responsibility for monitoring and oversight of the voucher program, and I am confident that the tight measures we have put into place will ensure that the program operates in a responsible and accountable manner,” she said.

The 4-year-old program helps low-income families in Cleveland to send their children to private schools with a tuition assistance of $2,250 per child. A federal judge has ruled that the program violates the U.S. Constitution by funneling tax dollars to mostly religious schools. Pending an appeal, the program continues to assist more then 3,600 students.

David Zanotti, chairman or the School Choice Committee, said he supports Trakas’ bill because the school voucher program must correct oversight problems if it is to survive the legal challenges. “We are absolutely sick and tired of this kind of distraction, “ Zanotti said. “ We want this program fixed … and we want it fixed now.”