Ohio House Democrats have introduced a slew of bills targeting the state’s education system, affecting everything from teacher pay to oversight of private school vouchers and overall funding of the public school system.
At a press conference last week, House Democratic leaders and bill supporters listed legislation that has been in the chamber for some time and newly introduced measures they hope will see the lightweight of day before the end of the legislative session.
“Our policies are pretty clear on this,” said House Minority Whip Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati. “There is no better investment we can make in our state’s future than investing in the education of our students and ensuring that every child, no matter where in the state they grow up, deserves a world-class education.”
Having such an education requires learning systems that are equally supervised and have the financial resources necessary to support both students and teachers in Ohio school districts, Democrats said in explaining many of the bills they have introduced.
At the top of the list is House Bill 10, which aims to get lawmakers to follow a six-year phased-in change plan that has been assigned to the Fair School Financing Plan, legislation that funds public schools based less on property values and more on property values. larger individual school districts.
HB 10 is a bipartisan bill that simply “expresses the General Assembly’s intention to continue the phased implementation of the school financing system” that was included in the bill Draft budget for 2021“until this system is fully implemented and funded,” according to the bill’s language.
The bill was introduced in February 2023 and quickly referred to the House of Representatives Finance Committee, but has not seen any activity since then.
“There is no guarantee that the Fair Schools Funding Plan will continue,” said state Rep. Beryl Brown Piccoloantonio, D-Gahanna. “We must continue our work to ensure adequate and equitable funding for our public education system.”
Democrats are pushing for full funding of the public school system while seeking greater oversight of private schools, especially those receiving private school vouchers, for which eligibility has been raised to to near universal levels in the last budget cycle.
He introduced Isaacsohn House Bill 575 on May 21, which would require oversight of “financial accountability, fair testing transparency and other standards for private schools where at least 25% of students receive vouchers,” Democrats say.
House Bill 567 also takes aim at Ohio’s private school voucher system in an attempt to limit the income eligibility limit for private school vouchers, which its sponsor, state Rep. Phil Robinson Jr., D-Solon, says will focus on indigent families and people in need of support to afford education.
“Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent, and parents deserve to be able to make real choices by knowing what the plan is for the school’s future, how many students are performing well and at what levels,” Isaacsohn said.
The bills have the support of the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the state’s two main education unions.
“For students to be successful, we must not only support them, but we must also support the system they are in and the staff who work with them,” said Melissa Cropper, president of the OFT.
Unions emphasized the need not only to finance public schools and supervise private schools, but also to introduce such laws House Bill 408which would create a universal public school meal program, and House Bill 387which would eliminate academic welfare boards, a state takeover method for underperforming schools.
“It is time to put an end to academic relief boards once and for all and return them to local control,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the OEA.
Bills, especially those related to limiting private school vouchers, could face difficulties in a Legislature with a sturdy Republican majority and leadership supporting private school vouchers and the idea “school choice”, a conservative term used to describe attempts to send more students to private schools in areas where public schools are considered underperforming.
