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Tag: Ohio Department of Education and Workforce

  • Reading Recovery lawsuit trying to prevent science of reading implementation in Ohio schools

    Reading Recovery lawsuit trying to prevent science of reading implementation in Ohio schools

    BY:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    A lawsuit is trying to prevent a new law from changing how Ohio students learn how to read.

    Reading Recovery Council of North America, located in Worthington, filed a lawsuit on Oct. 3 in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to block the science of reading from being implemented in schools across the state.

    The science of reading is based on decades of research that shows how the human brain learns to read and incorporates phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

    Reading Recovery Council of North America’s reading intervention programs would be banned under the new law.

    The association has seen a decline in Ohio school district memberships since the state budget was signed into law and a major portion of its operating revenue comes from annual membership fees paid by Ohio members, according to the lawsuit.

    “The unconstitutional, improper and unlawful teaching, instructional and educational policy directives of the Ohio Legislature … directly and significantly impact RRCNA’s mission and outreach,” wrote David Yeagley, an attorney with Ulmer & Berne that filed the lawsuit.

    DeWine’s press secretary Dan Tierney said the governor is disappointed this lawsuit has been filed.

    “I truly believe there’s nothing more important than the science of reading, and making sure that every single child in the state of Ohio, as they are learning to read, has the benefit of the science,” DeWine said at a March 23 event. He has visited several schools to learn about how the science of reading method has been implemented in lessons.

    State budget

    A chunk of the state’s two-year operating budget goes towards implementing the science of reading — $86 million for educator professional development, $64 million for curriculum and instructional materials, and $18 million for literacy coaches.

    DeWine, who first began advocating for the science of reading during his state of the state address back in January, signed the state budget in July. He originally put the science of reading in his proposed state budget and it remained, with some tweaks, as it went through the budget process.

    “If permitted to take effect, it will allow the General Assembly to disguise a policy-based law in a must-pass appropriations bill,” the lawsuit said.  “The literacy curriculum statute intrudes on classroom teaching and learning programs, models, methodologies and materials.”

    The lawsuit argues the General Assembly is trying to set education policy and curriculum, infringing on the Ohio State Board of Education’s authority to oversee the Ohio education system.

    Three-cueing

    The budget bans teachers from using the “three-cueing approach” in lessons unless a district or a school receives a waiver from the education department or a student has an individualized education program that specifically includes the “three-cueing approach.”

    However, the lawsuit argues the budget fails to clearly articulate “a clear standard for assessing what teaching models or methods might be categorized under the “three-cueing” approach.”

    The budget defines the “three-cueing approach” as any model of teaching students to read based on meaning, structure and syntax, and visual cues. The three-cueing method encourages children to read words by asking three questions: Does it make sense? Does it sound right? Does it look right?

    Reading recovery is “often referred to or perceived as a “three-cueing” approach, and therefore is targeted as being anti-science of reading,” according to the lawsuit. “There are no recognized or established teaching, instructional or educational approaches that strictly and exclusively fall within either the “science of reading” or the “three-cueing approach.”

    Louisiana, Arkansas and Virginia have laws that ban curriculum that includes three-cueing.

    Other education lawsuit

    This is the second education lawsuit filed against DeWine that relates back to the budget bill. Seven members of the Ohio State Board of Education filed a lawsuit against DeWine on Sept. 19 to block the transfer of power over Ohio K-12 education from the board to the governor’s office.

    On Sept. 21,Franklin County Judge Karen Held Phipps issued a temporary restraining order that currently remains in place and is set to expire on Friday.

    The lawsuit is trying to prevent the Ohio Department of Education from transitioning to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, which would create a cabinet-level director position and puts the department under the governor’s office. These changes would also limit the State Board of Education’s power to teacher disciplinary and licensure cases and territory disputes.

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

    Megan Henry
    MEGAN HENRY

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

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  • Governor begins Ohio’s K-12 education overhaul despite judge extending temporary restraining order

    Governor begins Ohio’s K-12 education overhaul despite judge extending temporary restraining order

    BY:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is moving forward with an overhaul of Ohio’s education department and state board of education despite a Franklin County judge extending a temporary restraining order to prevent that from happening.

    After an all-day preliminary injunction hearing on Monday, Franklin County Magistrate Jennifer Hunt ruled that the temporary restraining order blocking lawmakers’ attempts to overhaul Ohio’s K-12 education system remains in effect until the court makes a decision on the case, which must happen by Wednesday at noon.

    “There is certainly a potential for chaos,” DeWine said during what he called a “very unusual press conference” Monday night. “Questions such as who will send out the checks that go to our public schools across the state of Ohio, who will make the determination about eligibility for school choice. I can not let this situation fester.”

    Even though the temporary restraining order is still in effect, the education department changes are still going forward because Tuesday marks 90 days since DeWine signed the state’s operating budget into law which included these changes, DeWine said.

    As of Tuesday, he said, the Ohio Department of Education ceases to exist and is now the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, as set forth in the budget DeWine signed into law in July. Interim Superintendent Chris Woolard is in charge of the department.

    But it’s more than just a name change. This creates a cabinet-level director position, puts the department under the governor’s office, and limits the State Board of Education’s power to teacher disciplinary and licensure cases and territory disputes.

    “We believe, based upon what our lawyers tell us, that the new department can in fact function,” DeWine said.

    He said they will follow the court order and not name the new cabinet-level director, even though “we were actively in the process of finding” candidates before the temporary restraining order was put in place.

    “We will not take an active part in any way as governor in the creation of the Department of Education and Workforce,” DeWine said. “The new department has money going into that department by reason of the budget that was passed by the General Assembly.”

    Lawsuit

    Seven members of the Ohio State Board of Education filed a lawsuit against DeWine on Sept. 19 in an effort to block the education department changes in the state budget bill. The lawsuit was filed in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

    The original plaintiffs were Christina Collins, Teresa Fedor, Kathleen Hofmann, Tom Jackson, Meryl Johnson, Antoinette Miranda, and Michelle Newman. Franklin County Judge Karen Held Phipps issued the temporary restraining order Sept. 21.

    The lawsuit complaint was amended on Sunday and now Collins, Newman, Stephanie Eichenberg and the Toledo Public School Board are the plaintiffs in the case. Eichenberg is a former Toledo Public School Board president. They are being represented by Democracy Forward and Ulmer & Berne LLP.

    “The Court already ruled that the DeWine Administration’s takeover of the State Board of Education in Ohio must be halted until it has an opportunity to issue a decision,” Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in Monday night in a statement. “If the Governor is suggesting the state will not comply with the Court’s order, then he would be in contempt of the Court.”

    Collins, Eichenberg and Toledo Public School Board President Shenna Barnes testified as plaintiffs, and ODE’s Chief of Staff Jessica Voltolini testified for the defense on Monday.

    Collins said during Monday’s hearing that she filed the lawsuit as a concerned parent, not as a state board of education member.

    “The public and transparent nature that I have enjoyed for my entire career and my entire time being a parent is gone,” she said. “There is no public debate. There is nothing that I as a parent can follow to understand why things are being done and how those things will my effect my children.”

    She is the mother of six children, with four currently attending public schools. She said she has reached out to her state board of education representative over the years about questions and concerns over implementing the state’s dyslexia policy, standardize testing and the Third Grade Reading Guarantee.

    Collins, who was elected to the state board of education in 2021, said she started looking into how to file a lawsuit on July 5, a day after DeWine signed the budget into law.

    “I felt like this looked like it was similar to the agenda of our human resources committee on a local education board,” Stephanie Eichenberg said during Monday’s hearing when she was asked what she thought of the new responsibilities of the state board of education.

    Barnes said her working relationship with the state school board “is very vital” and explained how she has worked with state board of education members to put in legislative changes in place at the local level.

    “We need someone who can give us real-time information, that gives us factual information but also responds to us when we ask questions,” Barnes said.

    Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1953 that created a State Board of Education with the power to appoint a Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Ohio State Board of Education is currently made up of 19 members — 11 elected, and eight appointed by Gov. DeWine.

    Senate Bill 1

    These changes to the Ohio Department of Education and State Board of Education started out as Senate Bill 1, which Sen. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, introduced in January.

    The Ohio Senate voted along party lines to pass SB 1 in March — which sent it to the Ohio House, but it stayed in committee. The Senate added SB 1 to the state budget in June, which DeWine signed into law in July.

    The seven board members who originally filed the lawsuit previously wrote a letter to DeWine the day he received the budget and asked him to veto the “power grab” of changing the state board’s roles.

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

    Megan Henry
    MEGAN HENRY

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • Franklin County judge orders temporary restraining order to stop overhaul of Ohio K-12 education

    Franklin County judge orders temporary restraining order to stop overhaul of Ohio K-12 education

    Seven members of the Ohio State Board of Education filed a lawsuit to stop the transfer of power from the Board to the governor’s office.

    BY:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    A Franklin County judge has issued a temporary restraining order to block lawmakers’ attempts to overhaul Ohio’s K-12 education system.

    Seven members of the Ohio State Board of Education filed a lawsuit against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Tuesday in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to stop the transfer of power from the Board to the governor’s office.

    Christina Collins, Teresa Fedor, Kathleen Hofmann, Tom Jackson, Meryl Johnson, Antoinette Miranda, and Michelle Newman filed the lawsuit. They are being represented by Democracy Forward and Ulmer & Berne LLP.

    Franklin County Judge Karen Held Phipps issued the temporary restraining order Thursday and will now go to a preliminary injunction hearing on Oct. 2, a day before the changes are scheduled to take effect.

    “Creating a new cabinet-level agency is not a silver bullet and does not magically solve problems,” House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said in a statement. “Board members are elected on a non-partisan basis and because of that, expertise and experience in education is a big factor of who gets elected. With a governor appointee, there’s little doubt we’ll see an increase in partisan decision-making.” 

    What’s in the lawsuit?

    The state’s operating budget, signed into law by DeWine, would rename the Ohio Department of Education to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. It would create a cabinet-level director position, put the department under the governor’s office and limit the State Board of Education’s power to teacher disciplinary and licensure cases and territory disputes.

    “If unchecked by this Court, the system Ohio’s citizens mandated for governing education in Ohio will be rendered virtually powerless,” the lawsuit reads. “The bill strips the Board’s democratically elected members of their core and constitutionally intended duties and responsibilities for the oversight and governance of Ohio’s public education system.”

    The plaintiffs are asking the court to grant a temporary, preliminary and permanent relief to stop the changes from going into effect, remove this piece of legislation from the state budget and strike it void.

    The Ohio State Board of Education is currently made up of 19 members — 11 elected and eight appointed by Gov. DeWine.

    Under the changes, the plaintiffs fear parents and students won’t be able to voice “their support for or opposition to developments in education policy.”

    Democratic Senators Nickie J. Antonio, Catherine Ingram, Vernon Sykes, and Paula Hicks-Hudson all support the lawsuit.

    “This lawsuit is an opportunity to restore the voice of all Ohioans through protecting the duties and powers of their state board of education members,” Antonio said in a statement.

    Senate Bill 1

    These changes to the Ohio Department of Education and State Board of Education started out as Senate Bill 1, which Sen. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, introduced in January.

    The Ohio Senate voted along party lines to pass SB 1 in March — which sent it to the Ohio House, but it stayed in committee. The Senate added SB 1 to the state budget in June, which DeWine signed into law in July.

    “In fear that the Senate Bill 1 power grab would not pass on its own merits, the Majority chose to circumvent the process by including it in the biannual budget, violating the single subject rule,” Hicks-Hudson said in a statement. “In doing so, they also chose to disenfranchise duly elected representatives to the Board of Education.”

    These seven board members previously wrote a letter to DeWine the day he received the budget and asked him to veto the “power grab” of changing the the state board’s roles.

    Constitutional violations

    The plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue these changes to the State Board of Education and ODE violate the state constitution.

    “When SB 1 could not pass as standalone legislation, the Education Takeover Rider was attached to HB 33 at the eleventh hour to ensure that the rider became law nonetheless,” the lawsuit reads. “This practice — known as logrolling — is prohibited by … the Ohio Constitution.”

    Phipps said “the Court finds it necessary to address only” the logrolling argument, according to court documents.

    Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1953 that created a State Board of Education with the power to appoint a Superintendent of Public Instruction.

    The Ohio Constitution also has the three-reading rule, which means a bill should be considered by each house on three different days.

    “The Education Takeover Rider was not considered by each house of Ohio’s General Assembly on three different days,” the lawsuit says.

    Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.

    Megan Henry
    MEGAN HENRY

    Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR