Chamber backs education mega-department
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday jumped in to support a controversial bill giving the governor control over much of the Ohio Department of Education.
Amid another lineup of largely home-school parents concerned about the consequences of turning over education rule-making and oversight to a governor’s appointee, a chamber leader testified it would make Ohio’s talent development more effective and accountable.
House Bill 512 proposes to largely dismantle the Ohio Department of Education, merging most of its functions into a new Department of Learning, which also would subsume the Department of Higher Education and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development. The governor would oversee the agency and appoint the director.
Gov. John Kasich is backing the bill.
It brings together “entities responsible for producing graduates with workforcerelated skills,” said Keith Lake, the chamber’s vice-president of government affairs.
Lake said an earlier witness characterized workforce as a “perceived need.”
“I can tell you that need is real, not perceived,” he said.
“One critical problem persists for many Ohio employers — they cannot find qualified workers for the jobs they have available right now, and they have serious concerns about filling the jobs they plan to create in the future,” Lake said.
But Kristen Schnipke of Findlay took issue with that. She said she has several entrepreneurs in her family.
“They have all said, along with the steel factory my husband works for, the issue of finding workers does not lie in their training,” she said. “It lies because they cannot pass a drug test.”
Schnipke said the bill might not currently impede her ability to home-school her children, “but it does open doors that give the government the right to dictate mine and my children’s educational choices.”
Deborah Gerth of Blacklick, another home-school parent opposed to the bill, said questions last week about the impact on homeschool families posed by GOP lawmakers to a bill supporter tried to assure them that “we needn’t worry our pretty little heads about such an idea.”
Rep. Dorothy Pelanda, R-Marysville, admonished Gerth for misstating one of her earlier questions.
Gerth said she found 23 references to home schooling in the bill.
“We hope this helps to clear up any confusion on the part of proponents or sponsors of this bill who simply could not find any place that affected home education,” she said.
But Pelanda said all the references are necessary because the Department of Education is being merged into a new department.
“Simply referencing where those changes occur is not proof, from where I stand, that the home schoolers are automatically negatively impacted,” she said. “Any policy changes would continue to have to be voted on by legislators.”
Gerth also mentioned campaign contributions from some who want to do away with the Department of Education — at least one other witness directly mentioned the ECOT situation — and drew a rebuke from Rep. Tim Ginter, R-Salem.
“I really would caution you, that’s really not the best way to advance your cause with the legislature, by insulting them personally,” he said.
Rep. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, the bill sponsor, said he completely supports home schooling and the bill is not trying to restrict it in any way.
“When we have 40 percent (college) remediation and everybody gets up here and says that we shouldn’t change the system. You’ve got to tell me why we shouldn’t change it when we’re getting bad results,” he said.