State officials appealed, and the case is to be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court in September. Ohio's more than 700 chartered private schools have about 227,500 students, or about one private school student for every nine in public schools. That's more private school students than Akron has people. None, according to state and federal courts. The choice on whether to do that is in the hands of the legislature in each state.
Many states handle it differently than Ohio does.
A recent survey by the U.S. Department of Education shows that 13 states prohibit education aid outside the public school system, including for textbooks and health services. Twenty provide no transportation funding to private schools. In Ohio, state law allows tax money to go to private schools for transportation and other specifically defined goods and services. One caveat is that those funds cannot provide the private school students with anything beyond what they would be getting if they went to the public school where they live. A Beacon Journal analysis of the Department of Education expenditures shows that the state actually spends 21 percent more per pupil to transport private school students than it does for public schoolchildren.