Why Ohio Calls School Vouchers “Scholarships”

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What's in a name?

Technically, Ohio doesn’t have voucher programs. It has scholarship programs: The Cleveland Scholarship Progarm, the Education Choice Scholarship, the Autism Scholarship Program and, starting next year, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship.

That’s in part because of Akron businessman and longtime “school choice” advocate David Brennan. From Cleveland State University Professor Jim Carl’s history of school vouchers:

Brennan was also insistent, when he and [Rep. Michael] Fox drafted legislation, to use the term “scholarship” instead of “voucher.” According to Fox, “When you ask, do you support vouchers, people don’t know what you’re talking about or they don’t like it… If you use the word scholarship, everyone supports scholarships.”