Lawsuit Seeks To Block Vouchers in Cleveland

By Jeanne Ponessa

Opponents of Ohio's program to give low-income parents in Cleveland vouchers allowing them to send children to private and religious schools filed a lawsuit last week in an effort to block it.

The legislature last year approved the $5.5 million pilot program, which is scheduled to begin in September. It would distribute vouchers worth up to $2,250 for about 1,500 elementary school children in Cleveland.

A coalition of Ohio parents and teachers, along with the American Federation of Teachers, filed the suit Jan. 10 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. It seeks an injunction that would stop the state...