Ohio's public schools served more than 1.6 million students last school year. This is an awkward number to misplace, but the state has been demonstrating exceptional concentration on another set of numbers.

Private-school voucher spending reached $1.173 billion in fiscal 2026, Ohio Capital Journal reports, up from $444.5 million in 2021. The total covers five programs, including programs for children with disabilities. The children did not design this funding system. The lawmakers celebrating it did, and their ability to locate money improves considerably when the destination has a private entrance.

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An appeals court has ruled the EdChoice program unconstitutional. That ruling does not cover every dollar in the five-program total, and the program continues while an appeal is expected. Ohio has therefore reached the advanced stage of school choice where the state gets to choose continued operation while disputing the constitutional problem.

Teachers' union leaders say public schools still lack full and fair funding. That contention deserves to sit beside the voucher total, where it is harder to dismiss as a general complaint about tight budgets. Tight budgets, it turns out, can be surprisingly athletic when crossing this particular threshold.

The public-school students are still there. All those children, and no application required to count them as the state's responsibility.