The mission of the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign is to organize and advocate for high quality public education opportunities for all Ohio children wherever they live, whatever their race and whatever their family background.
To:      LWVO
From:      Joan Platz
Education Update for October 29, 2007

1)  127th General Assembly: 
The Ohio House and Senate will hold committee hearings and sessions this week.

*Governor Strickland signed into law on October 25, 2007 HB 177 (Blessing), which bans cash prizes worth more than $10 won from playing skilled gaming devices.  Lawmakers continue to debate in the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee SB 221 (Schuler), legislation pertaining to energy policy and regulation.

*Last week the Ohio Senate approved SB148 (Faber), which revises retirement eligibility requirements and benefit calculations for new members of the School Employees Retirement System (SERS).  Currently SERS provides benefits and access to heath care for approximately 185,000 active and retired public school employees.  The bill bases eligibility for retirement benefits on years of service and age.  The change is expected to save the retirement system millions of dollars.

*The House Education Committee, chaired by Representative Setzer, heard last week two days of testimony on teacher misconduct in response to articles published in the Columbus Dispatch.  Testifying on the issue were Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Susan Tave Zelman, members of the State Board of Education, and representatives from the Ohio Department of Education, Ohio Education Association, Buckeye Association of School Administrators, Ohio Federation of Teachers, parents, and citizens.  It is expected that legislation will be drafted to tighten current law regarding teacher misconduct, although it was stated that Ohio has 155,000 licensed educators, and "....99.9 percent of these individuals never have a disciplinary issue."  (Virgil Brown, member of the State Board of Education, testimony October 23, 2007 before the House Education Committee.)

In his testimony before the Education Committee, Virgil Brown, member of the State Board of Education, requested that lawmakers revise current law in the following ways:
-Automatically deny a teaching license to a person convicted of murder, rape, or kidnapping, including currently licensed teachers.
-Immediately remove from the classroom teachers charged with murder, rape, or kidnapping.
-Charge the Educator Standards Board with developing a "Code of Ethics for Ohio Educators".  This code should be specific and used as a foundation for disciplinary actions.
-Require the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to provide instant reports of arrests to the Ohio Department of Education (ODE).
-Provide the ODE access to LEADS - Law Enforcement Automated Data - to access more complete information regarding a person's criminal history and arrest.
-Require all applicants for licensure to obtain both a state and federal fingerprint background check.
-Require clerks of court and law enforcement agencies to report arrest and conviction information to the ODE.
-Impose a penalty on those who are required but fail to report disciplinary actions, arrests, and conviction, etc. information pertaining to educators to the ODE.

2) Hearings and Meetings this Week:
*School Funding:  The State Board of Education School Funding Subcommittee, chaired by Virgin Brown, will meet from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at the Medina County ESC, 124 W. Washington St. in Medina.

*The House Financial Institutions, Real Estate and Securities Committee, chaired by Representative Widener will meet on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 8:30 AM in hearing room 121.  The Committee will hear testimony on HB270 (Schneider), State Retirees - which would prohibit a member of the State Retirement System who retires and returns to public employment in the same position to receive a pension while earning a salary for that employment.  The Committee will also hear testimony on HB240 (Goodwin) - regarding changes to the Public Employees Retirement System, School Employees Retirement System, State Teachers Retirement System, and Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund.

*The House Education Committee, chaired by Representative Setzer, will meet on October 30, 2007 at 4:00 PM in hearing room 116.  The Committee will hear testimony on teacher misconduct (no bill as yet); HB347 (Setzer) Professional Educator License -- which replaces the Praxis III exam with a mentoring program; and HB348 (Peterson) -- Special Education Scholarship Program.

*The Senate Education Committee, chaired by Senator Padgett, will meet on October 30, 2007 at 4:00 PM in the North Hearing Room.  The committee will hear testimony on SCR 18 (Padgett) - changes for Ohio's school accountability system, and SB 151 (Roberts) - Textbook Pricing.  The Committee will also consider a substitute bill for HB190 (Hite) - elementary achievement tests.

*The Senate Judiciary - Criminal Justice Committee, chaired by Senator Grendell, will meet on October 31, 2007 at 10:00 AM in the North Hearing Room.  The committee will hear testimony on several bills, including testimony on HB142 (Batchelder) - School Threat - which permits the Highway Patrol to provide emergency assistance to schools under a bomb threat.

3)  110th Congress:
*Appropriations:  The U.S. Senate approved last week S. 1710, FY08 appropriations for the departments of Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education (LHHSE).  The bill includes over $600 billion, and increases spending more than President Bush outlined in the administration's FY08 budget.  The U.S. House approved its appropriations recommendations for LHHSE, H.R. 3043, on July 19, 2007.  The House and Senate versions differ in several areas, and a compromise bill will need to be developed.  Congress passed a continuing resolution after failing to approve FY08 appropriations by an October 1, 2007 deadline.  That resolution expires November 16, 2007.  President Bush has stated that he will veto appropriations that exceed his budget recommendations.

*New SCHIP Legislation Introduced:  The U.S. House of Representatives failed on October 18, 2007 to override President Bush's veto of H.R. 976 - the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).  A "compromise" version of SCHIP legislation, H.R. 3963 was approved by the U.S. House on October 25, 2007, but was not approved by a veto-proof majority.  President Bush has announced that this new version still does not meet the requirements that he supports, and has threatened a veto.

4)  Update - Ohio Fair Schools Campaign (OFSC): 
The OFSC is sponsoring a bill board campaign called "We Support Public Education" to promote the positive aspects of Ohio's public education system. Public schools welcome all students and prepare them for citizenship, work, continuing education, and living in the 21st Century.  Public schools are the best economic investment we can make for the future.

Several billboard slogans have been proposed, and the OFSC is inviting Ohioans to vote for their favorite slogan.  In the coming weeks OFSC will ask students, parents, teachers, and community members to propose billboard designs that illustrate the winning slogan.

The mission of the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign is to organize and advocate for high-quality public education opportunities for all Ohio children wherever they live, whatever their race and whatever their family background.  For more information about the "We Support Public Education" campaign, please visit:  www.ohiofairschools.org.

5)  New Study Released on Public School Choice: 
The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, James Miller president, released on October 25. 2007 a study called "Fixing the Milwaukee Public Schools, The Limits of Parent-Driven Reform" by David Dodenhoff.  The study used a national data base to examine the impact of parental choice and parental involvement in the Milwaukee Public School district.  The Milwaukee voucher program was not included in this study.

The study found that few parents (10 percent) in the Milwaukee Public Schools chose a school for their child based on the school's academic performance, and one-fourth of parents are actively involved at the school site, and moderately involved at home in their children's schools.

According to George Lightbourn, author of the introduction to this report,

"Policy makers and policy analysts, including WPRI, have pinned high expectations on increased parental choice and parental involvement. It was thought that by giving urban parents more tools, they would be able to bring pressure to reform the educational marketplace."

"What Dr. Dodenhoff details in this report is a dose of reality that has been missing from the discussion of education reform in Milwaukee.  He discovered that there are realistic limits on the degree to which parental involvement can drive market-based reform in Milwaukee. There are simply limits on how much Milwaukee parents will use the tools that have been made available to them.  While many parents have taken full advantage of choosing either an MPS or another school for their children, only 10 percent have been the active consumers that would exert market- based influence to the school system."

"The message from this study is that educational leaders and policy makers must continue to strive to increase parental choice and parental involvement. However, we must all have realistic expectations about the impact on MPS.  Focusing on parental choice and parental involvement cannot be seen as a substitute for substantive reforms in the hierarchy of MPS and in the classrooms throughout Milwaukee."

The author of the report writes, "This may be just as well. Relying on public school choice and parental involvement to reclaim MPS may be a distraction from the hard work of fixing the district's schools."

The report is available at http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume%2020/Vol20no8/vol20no8.pdf
Ohio Fair Schools Campaign, 94 Columbus Road
Athens, Ohio 45701
Tel. (740)592-2866 Fax (740)593-5451