As the Ohio Senate and House conference committees prepare to hash out their differences over the two-year, $86 billion budget bill, they should start by adopting the House language repealing the flawed “academic distress commission” process for failing schools.
The clumsy school takeover process established in House Bill 70 in 2015 — without hearings or discussion — has not worked and should be abolished outright, rather than tinkered with, as the Senate wants to do.
The budget bill adopted by the House contained a provision that repealed H.B. 70 in its entirety, restoring local control to the three school districts that were placed under the thumb of an academic distress commission.
The Senate version rejects the repeal language, but did not include a substitute solution. It is believed the Senate seeks to retain the option of a school takeover authority.
House Speaker Larry Householder (R., Glenford) this week said he wants the conference committee to put a moratorium on school takeovers in the pending budget bill and later work out a resolution. A bipartisan group of lawmakers this week proposed a separate bill with a new formula for distributing state money to school districts, changing the takeover practice. As Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) said: “Give us back our self-determination.”
The existing law requires an academic distress commission for any school district earning three consecutive F grades in its annual report card. The Lorain, Youngstown, and East Cleveland districts have been taken over by the state. With two more F grades, the Toledo school district will be a candidate for a takeover.
The interventions have not been welcomed by the local school boards, administrators, teachers, and citizens. They have not created synergy or collaboration. And there is no evidence of improvement in the districts where the commissions have been assigned.
The state of Ohio — through the legislature, the Department of Education, and the Board of Education — already has more than enough tools needed to turn around underperforming school districts. It controls all of the regulations and all of the laws. It provides the money and determines how local boards of education can spend that money. If a school board, teacher, or local administrator violates the state’s policies, the state has the authority to order a correction.
Its interventions in local boards of education should be more surgical than the wrecking ball applied by the academic distress commissions.
The General Assembly wants to continue the fiction that local boards of election have the resources and authority on their own to turn around a failing report card grade. Failing grades correlate closely with family median income. It is no coincidence that Ottawa Hills, the highest-income school district in Lucas County, was the only one last year to receive an A grade, and Toledo, the lowest-income district, was the only one to receive an F.
State lawmakers should put on hold any school takeovers until they work out an acceptable resolution.
First Published June 28, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
