COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed a slew of executive orders. He recently signed a few on education, including an order that asks the Department of Education to favor school choice programs when awarding grants.

School choice allows parents to decide whether they want to send their child to public or private school through government-funded scholarships. The executive order the president signed could make it easier for parents to use taxpayer funds on private school tuition.

Here in Ohio, lawmakers have already passed laws furthering school choice, also known as voucher programs.

“They have that choice to go to wherever they want and the state of Ohio will reimburse them a certain amount of money for tuition for that school,” said local Republican strategist Bob Clegg.

It’s been a back-and-forth topic, often split down party lines. Republicans have said parents should be able to send their child to any school no matter the cost. Democrats and teachers’ unions have argued school choice diverts money from public school districts.

“There’s been this growing movement to put more money into the hands of private schools through voucher programs. We think that’s a real concern in terms of draining resources away from the vast majority of kids who need them,” Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, said.

Clegg and DiMauro are on opposite sides of the aisle when it comes to the impact of school choice and the president’s executive order.

“If we’re going to fulfill our mission that is deeply embedded in the history of our country and in our constitution here in the state, we have to fully and fairly fund our public schools,” DiMauro said.

“I think it gives school choice parents some hope that the federal government, instead of fighting them as they have been doing over the years, they actually will be supporting their choice,” Clegg said.

Ohio already has a pretty big voucher and school choice program, so Clegg said the order won’t have a huge impact on the state. He said Ohio parents already have good options.

“What President Trump’s executive order does is it says it wants school choice to be prioritized in all local school district’s throughout the country,” said Clegg.

DiMauro said voucher programs are not something the federal government should be pushing for.

“It’s really impossible to predict what impact this is going to have in Ohio, but we know that vouchers are bad policy for Ohio. Let’s not make that bad policy for the entire country,” said DiMauro.

Clegg said Trump’s executive order will have the biggest impact on blue states like New York and California.