From Collinwood to West Park, the U.S. Supreme Court's endorsement yesterday of school vouchers lifted a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over the Cleveland program since its inception six years ago.
"I can't believe it!" declared a tearful Eulanda Johnson, whose daughter, Ebony Williams, will be entering the sixth grade at St. Mary's School in Collinwood. "I was ready to tell my daughter, 'I'm sorry, your mom is going to have to get a second job.' "

A spirited mix of poems, prayers and promises flowed freely yesterday among the voucher faithful, many of whom journeyed all night by bus last February to be in the nation's capital when the high court heard arguments in the case.

"Today's glory goes to the Lord!" said Hough Councilwoman Fannie Lewis, an early voucher supporter instrumental in marshaling parent support for the program. "Poor people have a choice if they come together and work together."

Few breathed a deeper sigh of relief yesterday than Christine and Steve Suma. The Old Brooklyn couple, parents to 12 children, have four youngsters receiving vouchers for tuition at Our Lady of Good Counsel School. A fifth child, Angelica, will receive a voucher to begin kindergarten in the fall.

"To say the least, I'm one happy mother," Christine Suma said. "Children can't wait 10 or 15 years for things to change. The education playing field has been leveled."

Former State Rep. Michael Fox said that was his intention when he wrote the legislation seven years ago. While voucher supporters and opponents interpret the impact of the decision in different ways, the bottom line is that vouchers are legal, he said.

"Whether the decision is narrow or broad, if it blows down the door, the force of choice will prevail," Fox said.

Those sentiments were echoed by Akron industrialist David Brennan, another driving force behind the program that gives Cleveland parents public money for tuition at a private school. Brennan, now president of the Ohio State University board of trustees, said the ruling is one of the most significant since the high court's 1954 declaration that racially segregated schools are inherently unequal.

"It is a great victory for children," he said. "Brown vs. Board of Education removed race as a reason to impact where children go to school. Now this decision has removed the same [restrictions] on poor people."

Public education advocates don't see it that way. Cleveland schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said it hurts urban children when money the state sets aside for the district through the Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid fund goes to private schools.

For the current fiscal year, the district was allocated $76.1 million in DPIA funding, but $14.9 million was diverted for the voucher program. Through April, only about $8 million was spent on vouchers and some of the rest has been returned to the district.

DPIA money is used for programs such as early childhood education, safety and creating smaller classes, Byrd-Bennett said.

"It's about choice, sure, but when it takes away from poor kids in the largest school district in the state of Ohio, there are some issues with that," she said. "It's really taking away from children who are in the public school system."

In addition to being bad public policy, the ruling runs counter to the American principal of keeping religion and government separate, said Ohio Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney. As many as 99 percent of the children in the Cleveland voucher program attended Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist or Islamic schools last school year.

"We still believe that taking my tax money and your tax money and sending it to religious schools violates the fundamental bargain we made when this republic was founded," Mooney said. "It was one of the reasons people left the old country."

When he was senior adviser for educational policy to President Clinton, former Cleveland mayoral hopeful Raymond Pierce worked for a man who opposed vouchers.

But Pierce, the father of a Cleveland school student, said it is now time to find a way for public schools and vouchers to coexist peacefully.

"The court has spoken and the task is to manage this decision in a way that does not detract from the school reform movement here and across the country," Pierce said.

Cleveland Catholic Diocese school officials say that can happen. In the gymnasium at Holy Name Elementary School in Slavic Village, a school where nearly two-thirds of the youngsters receive vouchers, Sister Carol Anne Smith, superintendent of Catholic school, said she is hopeful the debate can now move on to the education of children.

Of the 8,391 students in Cleveland parochial schools, 3,567 - 43percent - received vouchers this year.

"The highest court in the land has spoken," Smith said. "It's time to respect that decision and join in efforts to ensure quality education of all of Ohio's children."