For more than two decades, private-school vouchers have unlocked educational opportunities for thousands of Ohio students. In just the past year, more than 70,000 pupils –most of them low-income, minority or students with disabilities — used a state-funded voucher to attend private schools. In Youngstown, more than 1,700 pupils — about a fifth of the city’s students — did so.

Unfortunately, some critics want to rip these opportunities away from Ohio students and their families. A recent op-ed in this newspaper written by a local superintendent, A.J. Calderone, boasts that his district is part of a lawsuit seeking to pull the plug on the state’s voucher programs. Among his litany of complaints is that they drain money from districts and thus represent an “existential threat to public schools.”

That’s nonsense, and here’s why.

For starters, Mr. Calderone conveniently forgot to mention that his district — LaBrae Local Schools — spent $14,550 per pupil in 2021-22, a whisker shy of the statewide average of $14,687. At those funding levels, it’s hard to say with a straight face that Ohio is somehow impoverishing its traditional providers of public education.

Furthermore, contrast those generous sums with the EdChoice voucher amounts of $5,500 for grades K-8 students and $7,500 for high schoolers. Who’s really getting the short end of the stick?

To be fair, those numbers aren’t proof positive that private school vouchers do no harm to districts. But a recent study conducted by Ohio State University professor Stephane Lavertu (and published by my organization) carefully examines the impacts of EdChoice on school districts from 2006 to 2019. Two key findings emerge from his analysis.

First, EdChoice has no effect on districts’ per-pupil spending — it’s fiscally neutral. That may surprise some, especially given the heated rhetoric around vouchers. How to explain it? Remember, when students head for the exits, the district no longer bears the responsibility (and expense) of educating them. With fewer students in their schools — and local-levy dollars retained in full — districts actually end up spending the same amount per student.

Second, he found that the achievement of district students slightly increases as a result of EdChoice. This could reflect the tendency of lower achieving students to use a voucher, thus leaving behind somewhat higher achieving pupils in district schools. But the uptick also could be consistent with research from a number of places indicating that competition from choice programs motivates districts to improve. Far from ruining public schools, private-school choice actually incentivizes them to serve students better.

Even with voucher options in hand, most Ohio parents will continue to send their children to public schools. Many will even purchase homes to access districts or schools more to their liking. But we also know that education isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some may prefer the individualized attention that private schools can offer, or their more family-like settings. Others might like their academic rigor and enrichment opportunities. Still others seek a faith-based education for their children.

Ohio policymakers have long recognized the importance of empowering parents to choose schools that work best for their kids. In fact, Gov. Mike DeWine just proposed a significant expansion of the state’s voucher programs that would give more working-class families access to private schools. Some lawmakers would go a step further and simply open such opportunities to all families.

As the voucher debates move forward, the false accusations of voucher critics look ever more far-fetched and desperate. Ohioans should hope that their state leaders will ignore the detractors and continue to support all students, no matter which schools they choose to attend.

Aaron Churchill is Ohio research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative American nonprofit education policy think tank.