Ohio Voucher Program Is Being Mismanaged, State Auditor Says.

The state auditor of Ohio has charged that Cleveland's controversial school voucher program is being mismanaged and that 30 families whose household incomes fall between $50,000 to $90,000 a year received vouchers, even though the program was intended to benefit low-income residents.

"Ohio must bring the operation of this program under better control," Auditor Jim Petro said in a Jan. 5 press release.

Petro's report found lax oversight of program rules regarding residency, inconsistent policies regarding the use of a lottery to choose participating students and consistent overpayments to taxi companies that were hired to ferry students to and from private schools. State officials had earlier uncovered $419,000 in overbillings over a two-year period from the taxi firms.

Ohio lawmakers passed the plan four years ago. At the time, it was promoted as a way to help low-income families send their children to private schools. But the audit noted that the program has no income cap, meaning that some families whose incomes are far above the federal poverty level have been participating.

Critics said the audit is further proof that the program should be shut down. "We need to re-examine the entire program," Sen. C.J. Prentiss, a Cleveland Democrat, told the Associated Press. "It's been totally mismanaged."

Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and other organizations have filed suit against the program in state court, insisting that it violates the separation of church and state. Arguments in the case, Simmons-Harris v. Goff, were heard before the Ohio Supreme Court last September, and a decision is expected soon.

In other news about vouchers:

* Voucher advocates insist that religious school aid schemes will boost student performance, although to date no objective study of students participating in voucher plans has shown this to be true. One researcher asserted recently that the key to increasing student performance isn't vouchers, it's smaller class sizes.

Alex Molnar, a professor in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, outlines his findings in a report titled Smaller Classes Not Vouchers Increase Student Achievement. The 48-page report notes that nearly all of the research on vouchers stems from Milwaukee's Parental Choice Program and that five legislatively mandated evaluations of that program show no significant achievement gains for voucher students.

Molnar wrote the report for the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, Pa., as part of an effort to respond to a push for vouchers there by Gov. Tom Ridge. For information on obtaining the report, contact the Center at 412 N. Third St., Harrisburg, PA 17101. Phone: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail].