Bill Would Wipe Out Many Ohio Education Plans (OH)

January 18, 2011

Legislation is in the works to overturn many aspects of former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan for public education, including a mandate that districts offer all-day kindergarten for free.

The Columbus Dispatch reports the bill also would do away with plans for smaller class sizes and requirements that schools create family and civic engagement councils and issue reports showing how tax dollars are spent.

Hopes are that the bill will "send a strong message from Columbus that there is mandate relief and cost savings on the way," sponsor Randy Gardner, a Bowling Green Republican, told the newspaper for a Saturday report.

Gardner plans to introduce the bill in the coming week and has about 30 co-sponsors. He hopes to see it passed by mid-March, before new Gov. John Kasich proposes his two-year state budget plan.

The legislation would allow schools that charge tuition for all-day kindergarten to continue doing so, repealing a provision that would require districts to drop the fees beginning next school year.

"We have been pounding our legislators to do something," said Superintendent Melissa Conrath of the Worthington schools, where the $1 million program serves about 80 percent of the district’s kindergartners. "This would be wonderful news, not just to the school district but parents, too."

Strickland, a Democrat, has said scrapping his plans would be reckless and irresponsible. He said the education systems laid out in the model would not be fully funded for years, largely due to the recession, but that it would be "very, very doable" once Ohio gets back to a more normal economic cycle.

Strickland lost his seat in November, when Republicans gained control of all five statewide offices and the Ohio Legislature.

The new governor has said Strickland’s plan is unfunded and should be scrapped. He has promised to free schools from unfunded mandates and help them share services.

Gardner’s proposal would not do away with all of Strickland’s plans, including its funding model, which gives aid to school districts based on the cost of funding a high quality education and calls for reducing the amount of money that comes from local property taxes, a central reason why a previous funding system was found unconstitutional.

Gardner said he’s not opposed to all-day kindergarten, smaller class sizes or other initiatives but that government should not make such requirements without providing funding.