A nonpartisan agency says the Backpack Bill, Ohio school legislation that would expand tax-funded scholarships to private schools and provide funding for homeschool students, could cost the state up to $1.13 billion the first year it would be implemented.
“When I saw it, I was definitely taken aback,” said Tanisha Pruitt, state policy fellow for Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal think tank.
The Backpack Bill, or House Bill 11, would make all public, nonpublic, charter and home school students eligible for a state scholarship, funded through an education savings account, according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, which provided the nonpartisan analysis. Currently, only students who live in poorly rated districts or whose parents make under 250% of the federal poverty line are eligible for Ohio’s voucher program.
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