Lawmakers OK new criteria to qualify for tax-funded vouchers
The Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly has approved a new system for awarding tax-funded vouchers for private school tuition.
Supporters say the move will avoid more confusion about which students are eligible for assistance and avoid a massive expansion of qualified schools.
The Senate voted 23 to 8 along party lines on Wednesday to accept the compromise on Senate Bill 89, reached by a joint conference committee just days before enrollment opens Dec. 1 for the next school year.
The agreement was approved by the House on Thursday, 51 to 36.
Under the plan, students attending 469 schools across the state will be eligible for vouchers, slightly fewer than this year. Schools on the list include those with 20% or more of their student population having low income and those ranked in the bottom 20% for academic performance on state report cards.
The plan also expands eligibility for a separate income-based voucher program from 200% of the federal poverty level to 250%, or roughly $65,000 a year for a family of four.
The Senate on Wednesday also approved bills largely along party lines to abolish the health department’s order banning county fairs because of the coronavirus, loosen gun training requirements for school district employees authorized to carry firearms, and crack down on unemployment benefits being paid to those who don’t qualify
for the help. All three bills move to the House for consideration.
Supporters of the voucher plan said that if lawmakers fail to act on new guidelines, more than 1,200 of the state’s roughly 3,000 schools will wind up on the 2021-22 list of those whose students are eligible for vouchers.
Sen. Matt Huffman, R-lima, said that earlier this year, lawmakers froze the list at 517, angering many families who had thought they would be eligible for vouchers.
“So if we do nothing, another 750 schools will be added to list,” he said.
Democrats blasted the plan and objected to the conference committee removing a provision from the Housepassed version of the bill to abolish academic distress commissions and restore local control to school districts in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland.
“We’re rushing to make another change without public input,” said Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-toledo. Fedor said many schools on the list got A’s, B’s and C’s on state report cards and there is no accountability on how the tax dollars are spent once they go to private schools.
Amid growing pushback in the legislature against coronavirus restrictions, the Senate voted 23 to 8 to approve Senate Bill 375, to revoke a July 30 coronavirus order by Gov. Mike Dewine’s administration that closed all county fairs in Ohio except for junior fairs.
The bill, by Republican Sens. Frank Hoagland of Mingo Junction and Tim Schaffer of Lancaster, moves to the House for consideration.
“We heard that the majority of fairs lost revenue due to this order,” Hoagland told his colleagues. “Our agriculture committees and fair boards are certainly responsible enough to safely conduct fairs to best suit their counties. It is essential that we reopen Ohio.”
The Senate also passed Senate Bill 317 by a vote of 21 to 11, to exempt school employees who are authorized by a district to carry a gun from completing basic peace officer training.
Instead, the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Bill Coley, R-west Chester, would allow school districts to determine what training to require.
Coley introduced the legislation after the 12th District Court of Appeals ruled this year that staff members would be required to take 700 hours of peace officer training before being allowed to carry a gun on school grounds under Ohio law. The case involved the Madison Local School District, which sought to arm school personnel after two students were shot and injured in a 2016 shooting in a school cafeteria.
“It’s incumbent upon us when some other branch of government makes a mistake, it’s our job to fix it,” Coley said before the vote.
Each school district, Coley said, should decide if it wants willing staff to carry a firearm, and what kind of training they should have.
Democrats said that without training, more guns in schools will make schools more dangerous, not safer.
“While there is universal agreement for the critical need to protect the lives of our students and their teachers, it is my belief that SB 317 does not meet the expectation of ‘do something,’ the rallying cry, the battle cry that Gov. Dewine was met with after the Dayton shooting,” said Sen. Hearcel Craig, D-columbus. He referred to the Aug. 4, 2019, shooting in the city’s Oregon District in which a gunman shot and killed nine people and injured 17 others.
“No child in Ohio should have to worry about if there’s a gun at school and whether the person with the gun has had proper training.”
The Senate also passed by a vote of 23-8 legislation aimed at preventing unemployment benefits from being paid to ineligible applicants.
Senate Bill 282, also by Hoagland, requires the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the agency which administers jobless benefits, to establish an online process for employers to inform the state about individuals who fail to show up for interviews, turn down a job offer, or drop out of an educational program.
Hoagland said the legislation will ensure jobless workers meet all requirements and prevent erroneous payments as a high numbers of Ohioans seek help during the economic recession. Opponents argued that the bill is unnecessary, and boosts unfair stereotypes that people who collect unemployment are somehow cheating the system.
“There already is an online form for businesses to report such issues,” Craig said. The legislation “does not create anything new, nor does it fix any problems. There seems to be an assumption that fraud is pervasive in Ohio’s unemployment system and that is not the case at all.” ccandisky@dispatch.com @ccandisky