Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Politics and Policy

Why I’m Saying “NO” to SB83

By Lily Fergeson, Innovation Ohio Fellow

I recently graduated from The Ohio State University, attracted by their Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program and the Morrill Scholarship program. When deciding where to go to college, I researched several options based on location, major availability, campus atmosphere, student organizations, and more.

Out of the 16 colleges I applied, 15 had some form of women’s, gender, or sexuality studies programs. However, Ohio Senate Bill 83 and House Bill 151, also known as the “Enact Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act,” seek to limit public colleges and universities in Ohio in many ways, including preventing faculty, staff, or students from being treated differently based on group identities such as race, gender, or sexuality. While this may seem like a positive step, the vague language could be used to eliminate programs like Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, scholarships based on identity, and student organizations focused on identity.

These bills would also significantly reduce state funding for public universities and colleges, making higher education less affordable and limiting opportunities for economic mobility. Furthermore, a governor-appointed CEO would oversee the operations of each institution, risking political interference and academic freedom. These bills could destroy the reasons why I and others came to Ohio’s public colleges and universities, preventing future students from coming to Ohio. In a recent poll of half a million college students, 61% said they tend to stay in the region where they graduated, so these bills could have long-term negative consequences for Ohio’s economy. 

My mom’s side of the family all lived in northwest Ohio for about 200 years before nearly all leaving in just the last 30. Clearly, something is going on. Something is happening that is preventing people from coming here and staying here, despite Governor DeWine’s money and efforts poured into getting people to live here. Aside from Columbus, Ohio’s population is shrinking. 

Perhaps we should take a look at what Ohio is getting wrong that is causing people to leave or not want to stay. I believe that if our lawmakers spent more time and money on efforts that we really want, rather than wasting time micromanaging our public colleges and universities, we could get more people not just to come here but to stay here and be happy to do so! Please join me in urging our representatives not to waste another minute or dime on SB 83 and HB 151.

In Solidarity,  
Lily Furgeson
Innovation OhioFellow

Ohio Lawmakers Focus on Coronavirus Emergency

This week, the legislature is back in session for the first time in nearly a month, taking up a number of emergency measures necessary to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Items we know will be on the agenda:

  • Rescheduling the March 17 primary election
  • Waiving standardized testing and other requirements for schools
  • Extending the time to renew a drivers’ license
  • Changes to laws requiring in-person meetings of various governing bodies, boards and commissions

Other legislation that could be in the mix include:

  • Addressing expanded eligibility for private school vouchers to prevent a continued negative fiscal impact on local districts

The process at the Statehouse this week will look very different.

No regular committees are scheduled to meet, other than the powerful Rules committees in each chamber, which determine which measures will be going to the floor for debate and vote.

The House is scheduled to meet three times: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 1pm, while the Senate is in session on Wednesday (and possibly Thursday, if needed) at 1:30. At this hour, we are even hearing that the Senate may be called into session later today. 

No regular committees are scheduled to meet, other than the powerful Rules committees in each chamber, which determine which measures will be going to the floor for debate and vote.

What those sessions will look like is up in the air – while members’ desks are normally well-spaced, it is possible that debate and vote may be extended to limit the number of people in the chamber at any one time. 

The mechanism for enacting the above changes to state law is likely to look very different. Instead of three committee hearings before a bill goes to the full House or Senate for a vote, It is likely that policy changes enacted this week will be made by members offering, debating and voting on amendments on the floor of their respective chambers, potentially incorporating them into unrelated legislation that has already gone through the committee process. This faster, less hands-on process is arguably necessitated by the public health emergency but offers far less transparency, predictability and almost no opportunity for public input.

If you have an issue that requires legislative attention, contact your state lawmakers as soon as possible. 

We’ve provided more guidance below on how to get help from state leaders during this crisis.

Who to Contact for Help

Remember, part of a lawmaker’s job is to provide constituent services. If you are experiencing challenges accessing benefits that you or your business may be eligible for, or in dealing with a state agency, your state lawmakers should be able to help you navigate those programs and get resolution. 

In some cases, issues you are experiencing may highlight previously-unknown gaps in state programs and benefits. Letting your lawmaker know is one of the best ways to get those systemic gaps onto the radar of policymakters and into the legislative agenda at the Statehouse.

 The Governor’s office also operates a constituent helpline. If you are having trouble with a state government program or agency, they are there to help. 

If you observe someone engaging in fraudulent behavior, such as price-gouging or scamming consumers, contact the office of the Attorney General of Ohio.

New Legislation

Below are bills that have been recently introduced to deal with the current public health emergency:

  • House Bill 557 (Sobecki) – Video Meetings – to authorize public bodies to meet via teleconference and video conference during a public health state of emergency as declared by the Governor, and to declare an emergency.

Committee Hearings to Watch

  • Tuesday, 11 am – House Rules and Reference. Statehouse Room 116.
  • Wednesday, 10:30 am – House Rules and Reference. Statehouse Room 116.

Find details about all upcoming committee hearings:

In-Session

  • House: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 1:00 pm – watch online 
  • Senate: Wednesday (and Thursday, if needed) at 1:30 pm – watch online

As always, we will be sharing updates on Twitter using the #OHLeg hashtag for legislation, #OHBudget for budget updates and #OHGov for executive actions. Follow us to stay up-to-date on what’s happening at the Statehouse.

>> Sign up for legislative alerts and other updates at innovationohio.org/signup

Voucher Proponents Sue Ohio Over 60-Day Delay

Pro-voucher forces have sued the state over a meager 60-day deal to delay the initial sign-up period for taxpayer-funded vouchers to send students to private schools. 

Lawmakers moved the deadline from Feb. 1 to April 1. 

This recent lawsuit on behalf of families seeking vouchers and religious private schools was spurred by a meager 60-day delay which allows lawmakers to address significant problems with a program that has skyrocketed in taxpayer cost over the last few years.

First of all, let us be extremely clear. The Ohio Constitution guarantees zero right for families opting to send their students to private schools to receive a taxpayer subsidy to do so. 

However, there is a constitutional provision requiring that the state establish a system of common, public schools – a system that has yet to be fixed.

60 days vs. 10,200 days

Ohio’s school funding formula produces drastically different outcomes in poor districts versus wealthy districts. The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered four times that our system be fixed because the state relies too much on property taxes to equitably pay for the education of Ohio’s 1.7 million students.

Ohio’s school funding system is as unconstitutional today as it was more than 10,200 days ago when the DeRolph lawsuit was first filed. Sixty days doesn’t seem very long in comparison.

The delay spurring this recent lawsuit on behalf of families and religious private schools entailed a meager 60-days to address structural problems with a program that has skyrocketed in taxpayer cost over the last few years.

Competing priorities cause 60-day delay

What caused the 60-day delay? State Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, wants to fix education not by investing in the system for 90 percent of Ohio’s students as Ohio’s Constitution demands, but by removing hundreds of millions of dollars from that system and instead handing it out to families that make as much as $100,000 a year or more to subsidize their child’s private school education.

The stated intent of vouchers is to give an out to students in “failing” school districts. Huffman wants to give vouchers even to students who never attended the qualifying public school districts in the first place.

Because of the primary way the vouchers are funded – directly removing state money from traditional public school districts – vouchers leave many districts with substantially less state aid. This loss of funding forces districts to choose between more frequent and larger property tax levies or fewer opportunities for students in districts.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, doesn’t want the program to be based on the report card performance of school districts because everyone in the General Assembly agrees that the current state report card is deeply flawed.

Speaker Householder also does not want the money to be directly deducted from school districts’ state funding amounts. He wants the state to pay for vouchers directly.

A list of Ohio’s different school voucher types

While both sides could not agree on the future course of EdChoice performance-based vouchers before Saturday’s deadline (necessitating the delay), the fact that there are serious divisions among the Ohio Republican Caucuses suggests that changes may be soon to come.

Is a comprehensive fix for our broken school funding in sight?

In the background of this conversation about vouchers lingers the Cupp-Patterson education funding plan. If modified, Cupp-Patterson could provide the long-awaited fix to Ohio’s education finance system for the 90 percent of students attending our state’s public schools. 

Speaker Householder has made it very clear that fixing school funding is a top priority for him.

We shall see how this all shakes out.

Vouchers do not produce better outcomes for students

Meanwhile, let us not forget that a pro-voucher group – the Thomas B. Fordham Institute – found a few years ago that “the students who actually left the public schools—at least those on the margin of eligibility—perform worse on statewide tests.”

Recently, I compared how public school districts performed on state tests versus how private schools taking vouchers in those communities performed. 

In 8 of 10 cases, public school districts outperformed voucher schools by an average of 27 percentage points.

The 2 of 10 cases where the private school performed better was by a far more modest 9 percentage points (and that’s assuming every voucher provider with a mailing address is actually in that city, which we know is not true, but I wanted to be as generous as possible to the voucher schools).

Ohio is pouring more and more taxpayer money into a program that doesn’t appear to improve outcomes for our students but rather harms them.

Innovation Ohio’s New Report Finds Exploding Voucher Payments, Return to Lax Oversight of Charters in Ohio Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2019
Contact: Michael McGovern, mcgovern@innovationohio.org
 
Columbus, OH – A report from Innovation Ohio focused on the state’s new budget finds a huge increase in spending on voucher payments to private schools and a return to lax, pre-ECOT scandal charter school oversight. This is the latest budgetary explosion for a voucher program that has increased more than 600% since 2011.
 
“Given the ECOT scandal, it is astounding that statehouse leaders would loosen rules around failing charter schools that suck money out of Ohio public school classrooms,” said Innovation Ohio Education Fellow and report author Stephen Dyer. “What we need is closer scrutiny and reigning in these payments to private schools.” 
 
The report highlights four key giveaway to poor-performing, privately run schools: 
1. Weakening rules to automatically close failing charter schools
2. Lowering standards for dropout recovery schools
3. Weakening oversight of charter school sponsors, many of whom are for-profit companies
4. A huge increase in public dollars flowing to private schools via vouchers
The voucher expansion alone could cost Ohio public school districts another $73 million over two years, on top of an already ballooning $389 million per year private school voucher program.
Over the last several years, Innovation Ohio has been leading the fight to expose Ohio’s failing charter school system and sounding the alarm bells around expanding voucher programs. 
 
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Innovation Ohio Statement on Charter School Provisions in Operating Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2019
Contact: Michael McGovern mcgovern@innovationohio.org
Columbus, OH – Today, Innovation Ohio President Janetta King issued the following statement regarding the charter school provisions in the state operating budget:
“It is disappointing that Republicans in the legislature have once again placed the interests of failing charter schools ahead of Ohio students and communities. The budget passed today weakens state oversight of charter schools like ECOT, which ripped off Ohio schools and taxpayers to the tune of $200 million. After the ECOT debacle, we should be strengthening, not loosening, the rules regulating charter schools. Ohio taxpayers – and more importantly, Ohio students – deserve better.”
Founded in 2011, Innovation Ohio is a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank that blends policy research and advocacy to fight for working families in Ohio.

House committee to vote on bringing anti-abortion education to Ohio classrooms

The House Health Committee has scheduled a vote on House Bill 90 for Tuesday, June 4. The bill, introduced by Rep. Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg), would require Ohio public schools to teach students about the “anatomical and physiological characteristics of the unborn child” that pertains to each week of gestation. While pushing the message to students that “abortion is killing a living human being,” any education regarding human sexuality would be prohibited. This misleading informational attack on reproductive choice will be aimed at students of various levels. This curriculum would be taught in 3rd through 8th grade science classes and in high school health classes.
  • Mandates the state Dept. of Health to implement curriculum in Ohio public schools regarding the “anatomical and physiological characteristics of the unborn child” that pertain to each week of gestation to be taught in 3rd through 8th grade science classes, 9th through 12th health classes
  • Prohibits the curriculum from including any “component of human sexuality education”
  • Directs Dept of Health to create and maintain a pregnancy and child services database to provide women a comprehensive list of public and private adoption agencies
  • Dept of Health to include the following statement on its website and all public restrooms: “There are many public and private agencies willing and able to help you carry your child to term and assist you and your child after your child is born, whether you choose to keep your child or place your child for adoption. If you are pregnant, the State of Ohio strongly urges you to contact an agency listed on the Department of Health’s pregnancy and child services database.”
If passed by the committee, the proposal could come before the full House of Representatives as early as this week. To share your views about this new mandatory education curriculum, contact your State Representative. Update (6/5/19): The committee did not hold a vote on HB90 on June 4. Opponent testimony from the ACLU of Ohio, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and others, which can be located on the committee website under “June 4”. The bill could be brought up for a final hearing and vote at any time. Follow @innovationohio on Twitter or subscribe to our legislative alerts newsletter for the latest. 

More on House Bill 90:

Ohio House: Legislation Text and Status Legislative Services Commission: Synopsis of Changes in Substitute HB6 vs. Original Version Columbus Dispatch: Critics say bill would push ‘harmful’ anti-abortion beliefs onto Ohio school children

10 Things Ohio’s Budget Needs to Get Right for College Students

Ohio is lagging far behind its stated goal of having 65 percent of our citizens attain post-secondary degrees or certificates. These post-secondary options must be more attainable for more of our students, especially those from at-risk populations. We will not reach the goal without significant improvement in attainment among our economically-disadvantaged, minority and first-generation students. These recommendations would all cut to the core of these issues, making colleges and universities more accessible and attainable for more students.

Our approach has the support of local, state and national advocates who see and recognize Ohio’s need to invest in its workforce through these types of initiatives. In addition, Ohio organizations representing professors, administrators, and students, support these efforts to expand workforce opportunities. Innovation Ohio offers these 10 recommendations for the state’s two-year budget that, if adopted, would make attaining the most valuable post-secondary credentials and degrees significantly more attainable.

What’s in DeWine’s K-12 Budget?

Like much of Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget, his K-12 proposals are underwhelming. No New Base Funding Schools see no new change to the school funding formula in the DeWine proposal, as he has left the heavy lifting to State Reps. Cupp and Patterson, who next week will release the most highly-anticipated school funding reform plan in a decade. As we prepare for next week’s proposal, it’s important to have some historical context. When adjusted for inflation, Gov. Kasich’s last budget left schools about $900 million short of what they received in the recession budget 10 years ago. If the state were to base school funding on the actual cost of providing a high-quality education to students, Ohio would currently be about $1.7 billion short, according to figures from the last serious attempt to reform its school funding formula. Thus, any serious new funding formula will require significant new revenue.  $300 million a year more for wraparound services This money would bring more mental health and other services to poor students, providing every district with at least $25,000, even if the district has only a handful of poor students, up to about $250 a student, which could make a real difference. There would be cause for concern if this becomes a substitute for adequately funding schools. Our students deserve the investment the state simply hasn’t made for 30 years. And every kid deserves that commitment. Even with $300 million more in the 2020-2021 school year, adjusted for inflation, districts would remain several hundred million dollars short of what they received a decade ago during the Great Recession. $30 million for high performing charter schools While Ohio absolutely should begin to differentiate between low and high-performing charter schools, creating a market based on quality rather than enrollment, DeWine is doing so by tapping into the state’s lottery fund, forcing cuts in lottery money headed to traditional public districts. At the end of this two-year budget, nearly $50 million will be headed to charters from the Lottery, which was supposed to go strictly to school districts. We need to be creating a charter school market that rewards success. But taking it out of funds voters created for school districts seems counterproductive. There is already $16.6 million in the current state budget for high-performing charters to receive capital funding. Not even 25 percent of that amount has been spent because so few charters meet the criteria. Adding $30 million which is limited to the few high performing schools operated in Ohio in hope that more will materialize prevents that money from going to kids in our traditional public school districts. Another big increase for the voucher program DeWine continues the misguided increases to the EdChoice, income-based voucher in this budget. EdChoice has actually been shown to harm student achievement. Pouring $24 million more into this program that has hurt the kids who take the vouchers makes little sense. We also need to review amounts going into the other voucher programs when the final budget documents are released to see how much total revenue meant for school districts will be going instead to private, mostly religious schools. Preschool flat funded This was actually shocking. Ohio’s struggles with early childhood education have been stunning, especially given how even conservative states like Oklahoma have created Universal Pre-K. And while there has been a lot of talk about beefing up our state’s early childhood program, this budget is not that. Significantly more charter school oversight DeWine increased the budget for ODE’s charter oversight office from $2.5 million to $7 million. That’s good, but still not enough to oversee an $889 million a year industry with a track record of fraud and underperformance. Workforce Development Much of DeWine’s workforce development agenda is funded within the K-12 budget, with new resources to help students achieve more industry-recognized credentials. Between 2014 and 2018, the percentage of Ohio students leaving high school with an industry-recognized credential grew from about 4 to just over 6 percent. While that’s a significant increase, it’s still far short of what our students should be achieving. We need more details to understand whether the new money in this budget would be paired with programs to motivate more students to seek these credentials during high school. Conclusion Overall, this falls short of the “investment budget” that DeWine promised. There are some small benefits and a few districts will see significant increases to address the real challenges of their most needy students. But it’s neither enough money to overcome the needs of poor students in every district nor is it enough to overcome the last decade of Kasich budget cuts. All while charters more than double their money from lottery funds, vouchers continue to increase, and early childhood education is all but ignored.

New Analysis: ECOT Overbilled State Nearly $200 Million

New Analysis: ECOT Stole Nearly $200 Million from State

Estimate shows ECOT scandal is largest in state history
Columbus, OH – Today, Innovation Ohio Education Policy Fellow Stephen Dyer released a new analysis of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) scandal, finding that the shuttered charter school defrauded the state by at least $189 million since 2000. This is the first published estimate of the total amount stolen by ECOT. When ECOT was caught billing the state a total of $80 million in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 for students they couldn’t prove they actually educated, the immediate question arose: how much more did they potentially rip off taxpayers during their entire 18 years in operation? In 9 of the 18 years of ECOT’s existence, the Department of Education found and documented overpayments of various sizes. Based on these findings, Dyer took the percentage overpayment in each of those years, calculated an average percentage of overpayment during those FTE reviews, then applied that to the years in which ECOT’s enrollment wasn’t scrutinized. The estimated overpayment was combined with the previously reported overpayments, and the result is that approximately $189 million was overbilled during the school’s time in operation. “This is easily the largest scandal in Ohio history,” said Dyer. “ECOT stole nearly $200 million in taxpayer money that should have gone to educate our children. Instead, this money enriched ECOT’s founder and his political allies.” A full explanation of Dyer’s methodology can be found here. In terms of scale, the infamous Tom Noe “Coingate” scandal in 2006 involved $50 million in unemployment insurance money (technically not taxpayer money). Even with this relatively conservative estimate, the ECOT scandal could be four times larger than Coingate – likely even more. Tom Noe was given more than 20 years in prison for his scandal. Will this much larger, taxpayer funded scandal produce similar results? “While it is important to have this number and understand the scope of this scandal, this also raises many more questions that must be answered. The Department of Education and state Auditor owe us a full explanation of how they allowed this to happen for 18 years,” Dyer continued. Despite the size and scope of this scandal, lawmakers have yet to address the underlying issues that allowed this to occur. KEY NUMBERS IN THE ECOT SCANDAL Total taxpayer dollars diverted to ECOT since 2000 – More than $1,000,000,000 Total diverted since 2012 that we can document by each school district – $591,000,000 Estimate for the total amount stolen – $189,000,000

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For more information: All of Innovation Ohio’s ECOT research can be found here: innovationohio.org/ecot  

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