During a marathon session Tuesday -- likely the last this year -- the state legislature voted to expand Ohio's voucher program to add more schools, including 16 in the Akron area.

The expanded list includes schools in Canton, Alliance and, for the first time, Akron.

Students who attend schools in academic watch or academic emergency, the lowest rankings on the state report cards, for two of the previous three years would be eligible for vouchers to attend private schools.

Those in schools that had improved to effective or excellent, the highest grades on the state report cards, in the previous year would not receive vouchers. Previously, students were eligible for vouchers if they attended schools ranked in academic watch or academic emergency three consecutive years.

The voucher language was added late Monday night to a bill that requires the Ohio Board of Education to request a criminal records check before renewing an educator's license. It was among several amendments made to the legislation in a conference committee of House and Senate members. The House and Senate approved the legislation Tuesday afternoon.

Gov. Bob Taft must still approve the bill for it to become law.

The legislation did not -- as had been rumored -- authorize the expansion of charter schools or raise the total number of vouchers available to students. There will still be a maximum of 14,000 vouchers available to students -- a number that hasn't yet come close to being met.

The bill includes a provision that would close poorly performing charter schools. A charter school would be shut down after July 1, 2008, if it:

Has grades kindergarten to three and has been in academic emergency for four consecutive years.

Has grades four to nine and has been in academic emergency for three consecutive years and showed less than one year of academic growth in either reading or math for two of those years.

Has grades 10 to 12 and has been in academic emergency for three consecutive years and showed less than two years of academic growth in reading or math for two of those years.

A charter school that closed could not be reopened under another sponsor.

The bill exempts dropout recovery charter schools -- such as the Life Skills centers run by Akron businessman David Brennan -- from the closure sanction.

Ohio Rep. Tom Raga, R-Mason, the bill's sponsor, said these schools were not included because ``their mission is different' from that of other charter schools. He noted that Brennan's White Hat Management operates nondropout recovery charter schools that would still be subject to the closure penalty.

``That's an acknowledgement to their mission and is not targeted to any one operator,' Raga said.

Others call the exclusion unfair, arguing that all of the state's charter schools should be held to the same standards.

``This is another example of them setting up a completely separate system for David Brennan's schools and everyone else's schools,' said Lisa Zellner, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Federation of Teachers, a critic of charter schools.

Zellner was also critical of the voucher expansion, saying it was done ``at the last minute, in the dead of night, with no public discussion.'

She said the voucher program has so far garnered little interest from eligible students.

``Why are they broadening it now?' she asked. ``The market has shown no interest.'

The legislation directs the Ohio Board of Education to make legislative recommendations for performance standards for dropout recovery charter schools and requires school districts to offer property for sale to start-up charter schools if the district has not used the property for one year and doesn't plan to use it for three years.

The bill also requires the Partnership for Continued Learning, a newly formed group, to study the operation and oversight of charter schools and the voucher program. It must also submit recommendations to the legislature within a year of the law's effective date.