“It’s a pretty simple, commonsense, bipartisan bill,” Pizzulli said in an interview. “It simply says that if you make more than half a million dollars a year in household income, then you’re no longer eligible for Ed Choice voucher programs.”
Pizzuli told this outlet that he and Democratic joint-sponsor Rep. Anita Somani, D-Dublin, landed on $500,000 because, “If you make half a million dollars a year, it’s assumed you’re a millionaire. We should not subsidize millionaires.”
Ohio’s EdChoice program, which gives families a stipend to send kids to participating private schools, has been available to every family in the state regardless of income since the Ohio General Assembly expanded the program in 2023.
Under current law, income does come into play in determining how much of a stipend a family gets. Anyone making 450% or less of the federal poverty line — about $148,500 for a family of four in 2026 — is eligible for the full scholarship. It’s prorated beyond that, with all Ohio families currently eligible for at least 10% of the full scholarship.
In the 2025-2026 school year, the scholarship amount is $6,166 for grades K–8 and $8,408 for grades 9-12, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
About 34% of Ohio households make $49,999 or less, according to the 2024 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. About 9% of Ohio households make more than $200,000.
The median household income in 2024 was $72,213 in Ohio, according to the same survey.
The $500,000 cutoff is still too high for Somani’s taste and she expects her Democratic colleagues to want a lower number, but it’s a starting point, she said. She said the cutoff would save the state about $250,000 a year.
Pizzuli also argued that the voucher program, despite being a statewide initiative, only works in certain areas. His area of southern Ohio, for example, doesn’t have many private schools that allow residents to participate in a school choice program, meaning the tax dollars from the area that go into the program are being used elsewhere.
“You can say that vouchers are a hard sell in Appalachian Ohio,” he said. “Not because families oppose choice; certainly we acknowledge that there are some folks in inner city schools that may need that as an option and we’re fine with that. But we are not OK with subsidizing millionaires.”
According to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, less than 12% of either EdChoice or EdChoice Expansion students who used the scholarship in the 2024-2025 school year were eligible for the award based on a low income.
Pizzuli said his bill was something “the majority of Ohio can get behind.”
“When taxpayers see vouchers are going to families who don’t need help, that we’re subsidizing millionaires, trust breaks down,” he said.
Yitz Frank, the president of School Choice Ohio, which advocates for and supports school choice, said the bill goes in the wrong direction and argued the bill would make it more difficult for all families to access vouchers.
“Income restrictions that force even low income parents to prove their poverty to the government in order get access to a great education are wrong,” Frank said.
He said School Choice Ohio plans to work with lawmakers to help them understand some of the implications of the bill.
Bill Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding and longtime public schools advocate, said he doesn’t understand the point of the bill.
Putting the limit at half a million dollars would not result in significant savings, he said, and argued that the Ohio voucher system is unconstitutional. A Franklin County judge ruled the EdChoice system unconstitutional in June 2025 and the ruling is being appealed.
“I can’t believe the legislators would introduce a bill like this,” Phillis said.
The bill, House Bill 643, was introduced earlier this month and needs to be assigned to a committee before it begins its legislative journey.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
