Ohio House Democrats have filed two modern education bills: one that would provide school meals to all students who ask for them and another that would raise teachers’ base salaries to $50,000 a year. The future of the proposed bills is uncertain because a Republican supermajority controls both the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate.
The bill, introduced by state Rep. Darnell Brewer, D-Cleveland, and state Rep. Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, would “require public schools to provide meals and related services to students,” even beyond changes made in the latest operating budget.
“Regardless of whether a student has the money to pay for a meal or owes money for previous meals, every school district must provide a meal to a student who requests one,” the modern bill says. House of Representatives Bill No. 408states.
The bill also prohibits requiring a school district to dispose of a meal after it has been served “due to the student’s inability to pay for the meal or because of financial delinquency for previously provided meals” or “publicly identifying or stigmatizing a student who is unable to pay for a meal or has debt for a meal.”
In 2019, a 9-year-old student from Ohio had his heated lunch taken away due to an unpaid $9.75, a Uniontown family told NBC.
The bill follows changes to the state’s most recent operating budget that allowed free meals to be provided to all students who qualify for reduced-price or free meals.
After the budget passed, advocates praised the improved eligibility requirements but said more could be done to reduce the categorization of children and raise the visibility of those in meal debt.
Nearly half of Ohio students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches in the 2022-2023 school year, according to data from the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio, up from 46.6% the previous year. Eligibility is based on household income, with children eligible for up to 185% of the federal poverty level.
Brewer and Mohamed’s bill also requires districts to direct “information regarding a student’s meal debt to the parent or guardian and not to the student, except in the event that the student inquires about his or her student’s meal debt.”
Teacher’s salary
In a separate bill, state Rep. Joe Miller, a Democrat from Amherst, seeks to raise teachers’ base pay to $50,000 a year statewide.
That would raise the current base salary of $35,000 for teachers with a bachelor’s degree. Teachers with less than a bachelor’s degree would have their base salary set at $43,250, while teachers with five years of training but no master’s degree would start at $51,900 and teachers with a master’s degree or higher would start at $54,750, according to the bill. House of Representatives Bill No. 411.
According to the analysis conducted by Legislative Services Committeewhich saw an 11.2% raise in wages in Ohio from fiscal year 2012 to 2021, while the U.S. saw wages raise by 17.9%.
A 2022 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that average weekly teacher pay has remained “relatively flat” since 1996, with teachers in Ohio earning more than 14% less compared to other college-educated workers.
Under the latest House bill, pay would continue to be based on years of service, including a maximum of five years of busy military service.
Both bills are led by Democratic sponsors, meaning the path forward will be complex in the Republican-majority Ohio General Assembly, especially since it is the General Assembly that has the lack of legislative action is reaching historic levels.
The draft laws must still be referred to committee for consideration before public consultation and possible votes can be held.
