Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Politics and Policy

Higher Education in Ohio’s State Budget

Historically large investments in higher education, not enough yet to overcome a decade of neglect.

The July passage of House Bill 166, the state’s two-year operating budget, included record funding for higher education. However, much work remains to make Ohio’s public colleges and universities more accessible and affordable for more of Ohio’s students, especially those from traditionally underrepresented populations most at risk for not exploring post-secondary educational options.

As we reported last year, Ohio faces large and widespread challenges to achieve its stated goal of 65 percent post-secondary degree or credential attainment by 2025. In response, we authored a report identifying 10 ways the state budget could help alleviate these barriers.

House Bill 166 adopted many of those recommendations and put our state on a more hopeful path toward achieving this goal, helping to reduce barriers for students to attain these post-secondary degrees. However, there’s much more that needs to be done to move our state toward reaching the 65 percent goal on time.

Here are the primary benefits provided in the budget:

  1. Ohio’s Higher Education budget grew by 8.3% – a record $220 million increase.
  2. Of the 75 budget line items for higher education, 63 either stayed the same or increased. – Of the 12 line items cut, some were simply relocated elsewhere in the budget.
  3. Ohio’s State Share of Instruction (SSI) – the state’s higher education funding formula – will see a two-year increase of 3.1 percent to $2.04 billion a year, a strong reversal for a line item that had been funded at lower levels than 2010, adjusted for inflation.
  4. The amount of funding provided to students who qualify for the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG) – the state’s primary need-based aid program – will nearly double from a $1,500 maximum award to $2,500 by the second year of the budget thanks to a 51.6% increase.
  5. In one of several examples of micro-targeting more investment to at-risk populations, a program focusing on educating rural, Appalachian members of the workforce will see a $3 million a year increase, helping rural adults attain more certificates and degrees to aid in their career advancement.
  6. For the first time in state history, specific funding was set aside for state investment to increase the state’s FAFSA completion rate, a key driver of college participation among lower-income students.

While many of these victories for Ohio students and families will undoubtedly make a difference in their ability to afford and maintain their post-secondary educational options, Ohio had fallen so far behind that it will take a concerted, well-coordinated, long-term effort to build upon these initial foundations. This budget, while signaling a welcome shift in higher education policy focus, remains well short of the investment necessary to achieve our state’s lofty post-secondary attainment goal.

Download the full Report

Ohio Taxpayers Forced to Pay $588,000 in ECOT Hush Money

Ohio Taxpayers Forced to Pay $588,000 in ECOT Hush Money

Columbus, OH– The Electronic School of Tomorrow (ECOT) paid $588,000 in hush money to 201 former employees, according to records that the now-shuttered online charter school provided in response to a public records request.

Because ECOT was a public charter school, these severance packages were paid for with taxpayer dollars.

Filed by Common Cause Ohio and Innovation Ohio, the request came after a whistleblower refused to take the money, then told reporters that ECOT purchased and manipulated new software to extract millions of dollars from the state that it did not deserve. Ohio officials are attempting to recover more than $80 million from ECOT, and ECOT is in court, insisting it owes taxpayers no money at all.

All the money was paid out in 2017 as part of a “severance and release agreement,’’ the records show. In addition to “non-disclosure” clauses, the agreements also contained “non-disparagement” clauses.

“Public funds should never be used to pay hush money,’’ said Common Cause Ohio Executive Director Catherine Turcer. “A severance package is supposed to give employees a cushion when they leave – not hide problems from elected officials, administrators, the press and the public.’’

ECOT’s attendance padding has been referred to the FBI and Franklin County Prosecutor for further review, and the scandal has emerged as a central issue in this year’s statewide elections.

The agreement’s “non-disparagement” clauses stipulate that former employees receive severance packages only if they agree that they “have not and will not make statements to anyone that are in any way disparaging or negative towards ECOT, including disparaging remarks about individuals associated with ECOT or the service it provides.”

Stephen Dyer, a lawyer and Education Policy Fellow for Innovation Ohio, said the agreements are not standard.

“The agreements ban employees from making statements to ‘anyone that are in any way disparaging or negative toward ECOT, including disparaging remarks about individuals associated with ECOT or the services it provides,’” Dyer said. “ECOT’s lawyer notes that employees are free to talk with law enforcement. What he does not tell you is that these types of agreements cannot legally prevent people from cooperating with law enforcement.’’

The records request asked for the amount of hush money paid over a five-year period.

While ECOT said it fully complied with the request, charter school researcher Sandy Theis said she is aware of other former employees who signed non-disparagement agreements in exchange for money who are not included in the information that ECOT provided.

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The documents turned over by ECOT are online here:

ECOT Response Re: Public Records Request

Severance and Release Agreement: Absi to Deemer

Severance and Release Agreement: Delboccio to Kroehler

Severance and Release Agreement: LeBlanc to Roach

Severance and Release Agreement: Rooney to Zoog and includes complete list

Early, in-person voting especially important to Ohio’s African-American community

Under the headline: Analysis of Cuyahoga County voting finds cutback on in-person balloting hits minorities most a story over the weekend by The Plain Dealer’s Tom Feran provides more confirmation that GOP efforts in battleground states to tighten restrictions on when and how we vote are part of a larger strategy to keep Democrats away from the polls. We showed you earlier that Democrats are more likely to vote early and we also just released a report that puts Ohio into the context of wider-ranging right-wing efforts to suppress the vote during this presidential election season. What the analysis described by The Plain Dealer tells us is that there is solid evidence that Republicans stand to gain by restricting early voting in-person before Election Day because it interferes with a traditional way by which many African-Americans vote. From Feran’s article: [Read more…]

Report: The Real Cost of the Romney-Ryan Plan to Ohioans

Research Overview

Behind dramatically different economic visions and a deluge of attack ads, this election comes down to numbers. Many Ohioans—and many families across the United States—are asking what this will mean at the kitchen table. What will be the cost of a second term of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden or a first term led by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)? The answer is that, in concrete and quantifiable ways, a Romney-Ryan presidency would mean higher taxes for the middle class, out-of-pocket health expenses for current seniors, fewer college loans and fewer health care options for young people, and the re-introduction of corporate outsourcing tax loopholes that have sent so many manufacturing jobs overseas. The nonprofit organizations Innovation Ohio and the Center for American Progress Action Fund examined the economic and tax agenda of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan, taking a close look at how their policies would affect the way Ohioans live and work. The price tag includes:
  • Middle-class Ohioans would pay more in taxes while millionaires pay less. Millionaires in the state would receive an additional $87,000 in tax breaks under the tax plans of Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan while middle-class families would pay $1,900 more in health care taxes and $1,066 more in taxes on their mortgages.
  • Jobs would decline across Ohio. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan plan to provide extra tax incentives for corporations to outsource jobs and are pushing policy proposals to cripple the clean energy industry, jeopardizing 125,000 jobs across the state.
  • Drastic cuts to federal spending would shrink Ohio’s middle class. The state stands to lose more than $106 billion in federal funding from 2013 through 2022, an average of more than $10 billion a year, from cuts to schools, law enforcement, highway repairs, job-training programs and more. These cuts would fall predominantly on middle-class and low-income families, especially cuts to education programs that would result in nearly $100 million in reduced federal support for education in the state in 2013 and 2014 alone.
  • Seniors in Ohio would lose health care benefits and pay more. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan would force seniors in the state to pay at least $660 more for their prescription drugs each year.
Read the Report Here Find out How Much More the Romney-Ryan Medicare Plan Would Cost You  

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