DaytonDailyNews.com

A big story has gone largely unnoticed in the debate about Gov. Ted Strickland's ambitious school reform plan.

That story is the EdChoice voucher program, which is growing fast. The program helps students from public schools that consistently rank poorly on the state's report cards. They get tax money in the form of a voucher to attend a private school.

Three years after Ohio expanded vouchers statewide from a pilot program for 2,500 students just in Cleveland, nearly 10,000 kids have signed on. Students at qualifying low-performing public schools are eligible for up to $5,300 for tuition at a private high school and $4,500 for elementary school. About 1,400 Dayton kids use vouchers.

The program already is the nation's biggest statewide voucher system. It's on track to soon hit its 14,000-student limit, at which point it will rival Milwaukee, with 17,000 voucher students. That city has the largest voucher program of any kind.

As Ohio's program grows, so does the need for accountability. Right now, schools accepting vouchers must administer state achievement tests to their voucher students. But the state does not collect the results in a way that allows for easy comparison of students' performance. Even if that data were available, it would be hard to use to evaluate individual schools, since many of them have only a small number of voucher students.

Gov. Strickland is not a fan of vouchers, preferring to spend Ohio's education money on public schools. In his education plan, he proposes to expand accountability by requiring all schools accepting voucher students to administer state tests to all of their students.

The resulting scores would be used by the state to gauge whether it is getting its money's worth at those schools, and by parents to compare school quality. The state is picking up the tab for the added tests.

Even so, voucher proponents are worried. Testing all students can be arduous, and supporters fear some schools with only a few voucher kids will decide instead to just withdraw from the program, denying those students the option of attending a better school.

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a sponsor of charter schools in Dayton and a backer of vouchers, convened a panel of education experts who favor school choice and issued a report on how states should manage voucher programs.

With regard to testing, Fordham suggests a "sliding scale," whereby a sample of students at each voucher school are given state tests based on how many voucher kids attend the school. The idea is to lighten the testing load, while still collecting data.

Fordham deserves credit for its long-running commitment to promoting quality in alternative schools that get state money. But in this instance, Gov. Strickland's plan makes more sense.

While more testing can be a headache for private schools, it's not an unreasonable burden, especially with the state paying the tab. State officials should have conversations with the schools to devise processes that ease the testing workload and encourage the schools to stick with the program.

The governor's plan simply results in better information. Complete test results are much easier to compare school-to-school and can help the state and parents make better judgments.