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Tag: SB 1

  • Ohio private college presidents ask to get rid of proposed changes to Governor’s Merit Scholarship

    Ohio private college presidents ask to get rid of proposed changes to Governor’s Merit Scholarship

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    By:  – Ohio Capital Journel

    Ohio private college presidents slammed proposed requirements for participating in the Governor’s Merit Scholarship that were added to the House’s version of the two-year operating budget during testimony in the Senate Higher Education Committee.

    The committee had four hearings on the budget, which Senate lawmakers are currently working on. The Ohio House passed the budget last month and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine must sign the budget by June 30.

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    Todd Jones, president and general counsel of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio (AICUO), spoke out against provisions the Ohio House added to the budget regarding new requirements for private colleges if they want to continue to participate in the Governor’s Merit Scholarship, which gives the top 5% of each high school graduating class a $5,000 scholarship each year to go to an Ohio college or university.

    Under the new changes made in the House, private colleges would also have to accept the top 10% of Ohio’s graduating class and comply with parts of Senate Bill 1 — Ohio’s new higher education law that bans diversity and inclusion efforts and regulates classroom discussion, among other things.

    “I want to be clear that our concerns are not about DEI and SB 1,” Jones said. “Our concerns are about the very nature of our institutions and what it means to be a private, nonprofit institution. … When the state dictates our missions, board structures, curriculum, hiring practices, workloads, and public engagement, the autonomy that defines nonprofit institutions disappears.”

    Tiffin University President Lillian Schumacher said the S.B. 1 mandates would increase operational costs without improving educational outcomes.

    “For many institutions, these new burdens could lead to closures, reduced financial aid, higher tuition, and a reduction in critical educational services for students,” she said in her testimony.

    Forcing private colleges and universities to accept the top 10% of Ohio’s graduating class would create challenges for those institutions, Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education Mike Duffey said.

    “Public universities have the infrastructure with branch campuses, large-scale facilities, and state funding to absorb enrollment increases,” Jones said. “Independent institutions operate on much smaller scales.”

    Eight AICUO institutions function out of a single academic building, he said.

    “Imposing this mandate without providing financial or logistical support places an impractical burden on private colleges,” Jones said.

    Being able to welcome an additional influx of students depends on various factors including the students’ major, housing and financial needs, University of Findlay President Kathy Fell said.

    “I know we all agree that students will not benefit from this opportunity if approbate supports and resources for success are not available,” she said in her testimony.

    Aultman College President Jean Paddock said the 10% acceptance mandate would not be possible in healthcare programs that are limited to a capped number of seats.

    “With a nursing shortage well documented, sending our best and brightest who want to enter the healthcare field to other states is the opposite of what we want,” Paddock said in her testimony.

    The Governor’s Merit Scholarship was enacted through the last state budget two years ago and 76% of the state’s 6,250 eligible students from the class of 2024 accepted the scholarship. The acceptance rate was 100% in Hocking, Holmes, Putnam, Adams, Monroe, Noble, and Vinton counties, Duffey said.

    In the second year of the scholarship, 87% of Ohio students accepted the scholarship and 11 rural counties had a 100% acceptance rate, Duffey said.

    Ohio Sen. Jane Timken, R-Jackson Township, said she has received several inquiries from private colleges and universities with concerns about the Governor’s Merit Scholarship requirements being linked to compliance with parts of S.B. 1.

    “Clearly we would lose some students if they weren’t able to access those funds,” Duffey said.

    The budget currently allocates $47 million for fiscal year 2026 and $70 million for fiscal year 2027 for the Governor’s Merit Scholarship.

    Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.

    EDITOR’S NOTE:

    These Loveland High School seniors earned a Governor’s Merit Scholarship. Only the top 5% of Ohio high school students are eligible for this scholarship, worth up to $5,000 toward tuition at an Ohio college or university.

    • Olivia Bast
    • McKenzie Dunlap
    • Chloe Finkler
    • Luis Garcia Saucedo
    • Daniel Gomez Carrillo
    • Jacob Hentz
    • Alyse Knapschaefer
    • Mackenzie Liu
    • Carter Lucas
    • CJ Margraf
    • Isaiah Marx
    • Jonas Moore
    • Tyler Roberts
    • Benjamin Tibbs
    • Sophia Yurovski
    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.

    Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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  • K-12 advocates react to Ohio Senate’s state budget proposal

    K-12 advocates react to Ohio Senate’s state budget proposal

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    BY:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    Public and private education supporters had a mixed bag of reactions to the state budget proposal released by the Ohio Senate GOP on Tuesday.

    Public school advocates criticized the bill’s provisions making private school vouchers almost universal at 450% of the federal poverty level, allowing those who may be able to pay for the private education to be eligible for scholarships.

    “Paying private school tuition for wealthy families is not a good use of our education dollars, especially when the state is still trying to accomplish the full and fair public school funding that is required by Ohio’s constitution,” Ohio Federation of Teachers president Melissa Cropper said after the budget draft was released.

    Ohio Senate GOP leadership proclaimed that “significant reforms” were on the horizon in education policy, with Senate President Matt Huffman saying the new education budget would bring “the results our parents should expect for their children’s education.”

    Senate Republicans said school districts would receive “at least the level of state aid they received this school year,” and Senate Finance Committee Chair Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, touted the increase of the minimum state share of instruction from 5% to 10%,  but certain “guarantees” would be eliminated in the current education funding formula.

    One of those eliminated guarantees would be $106.8 million to 36 districts, which paid residents for private school scholarships.

    “The state now directly funds students where they are educated making this giveaway a wasteful use of taxpayer funds,” an announcement on the budget stated.

    Those direct funds will be distributed on a sliding scale based on income if the budget bill passes as written, but the eligibility level in the proposal stands at an annual income of $135,000 for a family of four.

    “Every student in Ohio will be eligible for a scholarship worth at least 10% of the maximum scholarship regardless of income,” Senate GOP leaders said in a release.

    The full scholarship would award $6,165 for K-8 students and $8,407 for high school students.

    Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, used her initial reaction to the budget proposal to discredit changes made to the private school vouchers.

    “A program that was intended to help low-income children could now subsidize wealthy families to continue to send their children to private schools,” Antonio said in a statement. “Our caucus will be spending the next few days digging into the details to follow the money.”

    One thing the budget won’t be paying for under the Senate’s budget proposal is an expansion of a statewide free breakfast and lunch program. The House inserted a provision to make school meals free for anyone whose household income qualified them for free or reduced meals, considered a small win by school nutritionists who asked for completely universal school meals.

    In the Senate version, that provision has been removed.

    Many of those who dislike the education parts of the budget proposal spoke out against Senate Bill 1, legislation that would restructure the Ohio Department of Education to become the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW), and work within the governor’s office under two deputy directors, one for primary and secondary education, and another for workforce development.

    The bill, and the provision now in the budget draft, “transfers most of the powers and duties of the State Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the DEW,” according to budget documents.

    The State Board of Ed and the state superintendent would retain power “regarding educator licensure, licensee disciplinary actions, school district territory transfers and certain other areas,” the budget proposal states.

    Odds are opponents will be back to decry the inclusion of SB 1’s language in the new budget. Cropper said including the restructure would be “too big of a reorganization to shove through as part of a budget bill.”

    “It deserves more attention and a more thoughtful, deliberative legislative process,” according to Cropper.

    The same message was sent by opponents of the bill in the last General Assembly, when that version of the restructuring came late in the GA session, and died as the lame duck session ended.

    It reappeared at the beginning of the year, and has been going through the committee process in the last few months.

    Some right-wing groups praised the education provisions of the budget, with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute complimenting the preservation of third-grade retention and the expansion of vouchers. The group also said the Senate version has “taken another step towards a more coherent and accountable governance system,” referring to SB 1, which they have supported.

    “Greater parent empowerment, accountable school systems and strong evidence-based literacy policies can only help increase student achievement,” said Fordham’s Ohio research director, Aaron Churchill.

    The Buckeye Institute’s Greg R. Lawson called the proposal “a significant step toward putting students first,” with the plan to universalize private school vouchers and improve charter school funding.

    Susan Tebben
    SUSAN TEBBEN

    Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.

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  • Ohio Senate passes education department overhaul

    Ohio Senate passes education department overhaul

    BY: SUSAN TEBBEN – Ohio Capital Journal

    The Ohio Senate passed a bill to overhaul the administration of the state’s education system in a Wednesday vote along party lines.

    The 26-7 party-line vote on Senate Bill 1 came with fierce urgency from GOP supporters that the chances must be completed to improve the way in which education is led in the state.

     State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell. Official photo.

    Senate Education Committee chair Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, complimented the State Board of Education members for being hardworking people with good intentions for the state education system.

    “Yet the structure they find themselves in is sluggish and incapable of getting through the bureaucracies,” Brenner said on the Senate floor.

    Democratic opposition questioned the motives, but also the speed at which the measure was pushed through the chamber, claiming the true intent of the bill hasn’t yet been teased out.

    Senate Education Committee ranking member Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati, said spotlighting districts at the bottom of state report cards or test scores only points to a greater problem not addressed by SB 1.

    “When you continue to point to the lowest achieving districts, unfortunately you are continuing to point to those children who have been left behind all along,” Ingram said.

    After multiple hearings in the last General Assembly and in the current one that included hours of testimony against the bill, Ingram said she fears the desires of the public, and elected school boards in each district, will be overlooked if the bill becomes law.

    “We continue to talk about how we listen to the people,” Ingram said. “I don’t buy it.”

    If SB 1 moves on to be passed by the GOP-majority House, it will change the Ohio Department of Education to the Department of Education and Workforce, and create a new leadership position not under the purview of the Ohio State Board of Education, but under the governor’s cabinet.

    Two deputy directors, one for primary and secondary education and another for workforce, would also be created under the bill.

    If passed, the transfer of duties to the new leadership would happen six months after the bill’s passage.

    The bill would reduce the Ohio State Board of Education’s powers to include hiring a new superintendent of public instruction and dealing with district-level territorial and licensure issues.

    In the Senate Education Committee, several amendments were made, for the most part by Republican legislators.

    Amendments added to the bill before it’s full Senate passage changed the implementation date of the proposed law, taking it from June 30, 2023, to 90 days after full General Assembly passage.

    The committee also adopted an amendment that would allow the superintendent of public instruction to serve as an advisor to the heads of the new department, which was originally a requirement in the bill.

    A Democratic amendment adopted requires the Senate Education Committee to hold at least one in-person meeting before approving a director or deputy director for DEW.

    Scott DiMauro, of the Ohio Education Association, agreed that the bill’s true aim is unclear at this point.

    “I’m still not seeing exactly how restructuring the department get to what are ultimately policy decisions and support decisions,” DiMauro said. “It raises questions about what the impact of this will be.”

    DiMauro said he hopes the House consideration will include changes to ensure a voice for educators and the public.

    “I hope that whatever happens with this whole issue of any kind of restructuring … wherever Senate Bill 1 ends up, that lawmakers are not losing sight of a larger purpose,” he said.

    The bill came back to the Senate hastily after the lame-duck effort last year was rejected at the last minute. Senate President Matt Huffman pledged after the effort went down to bring it back as quickly as possible.

    When asked what he sees as the direct impact of SB 1, Huffman said it would “allow greater opportunity for reforms” and the “ability to act on specific problems.”

    “When I have district meetings, and folks ask me questions and I can’t get the current answer,” Huffman said. “I know that I’m going to be able to get a better answer now.”

    SB 1 now moves to the House for committee consideration.

  • Inside Ohio Republicans’ 10-month war on the state health department over COVID-19

    Inside Ohio Republicans’ 10-month war on the state health department over COVID-19

    A man protesting Ohio’s health orders at the state Capitol on May 1. Gov. Mike DeWine later repealed most of them only to start reimposing orders on Tuesday as coronavirus cases continued to surge. Capital Journal photo by Marty Schladen

    By Jake Zuckerman and Ohio Capital Journal

    Ohioans were living with the coronavirus for about two months before GOP lawmakers initiated what would be a nearly yearlong effort to squash the state health department’s ability to issue public health orders.

    The earliest version of the idea was to limit any order issued by the Ohio Department of Health to a two-week window. After that, a small panel of lawmakers would need to approve the order for it to stay in effect any further.

    “We are clearly on the downside of the curve, there is no longer a risk of overwhelming the health care system,” said now-former Rep. John Becker to the House State and Local Government Committee, setting one of the first legislative attacks on the health department in motion via Senate Bill 1.

    “I’m not sure there ever was, but that argument did make sense to me initially.”

    Ten months, three gubernatorial vetoes, and more than 520,000 Americans dead from COVID-19 later, little has changed. The Senate passed a similar version of the idea last month on a party-line vote.

    A review of emails obtained by public records requests, committee hearings, interviews and contemporaneous media reports highlight just how absent public health was from efforts to wrest power from the health department during a pandemic.

    In several instances, abortion politics, coronavirus infections among lawmakers, and overly rosy assessments of the pandemic from Republican leaders played a larger role in the legislation than the coronavirus itself.

    SB 1 died an unusual death last May when every state Senator — even the bill’s sponsors — voted it down. Its supporters gave varying explanations from the Senate floor. They said it didn’t have an emergency clause, meaning it wouldn’t take effect for 90 days; and it was clumsily drafted.

    Then-Senate President Senate President Larry Obhof, one of the most powerful Republicans in the state, later told constituents that Senators killed the bill, in part, because it could have expanded women’s access to abortion.

    “A prominent Right to Life organization pointed out that the language, as written, could allow lawsuits challenging health orders that regulate or close abortion clinics,” he said in an email obtained in a public records request.

    “Thus, the language could have been used to protect abortion clinics.”

    The concern came from a letter the Greater Columbus Right to Life sent to lawmakers. Ohio Right to Life, which operates independently of the Columbus organization, disagreed, according to its director, Michael Gonidakis. However, he tried to stay out of it.

    “We had no desire to be involved in that debate,” he said in a recent interview.

    Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, later wrote on Facebook that the bill would have limited the state’s ability to “shut down illegal abortion clinics.” Then-Speaker of the House Larry Householder, R-Glenford, prior to being indicted in an alleged racketeering scheme, commented on the post. He told the senator to “grow a pair” and called his rationale “bullshit.”