House Education and Career Readiness Committee
The committee heard House Bill (HB) 21 addressing the verification of community school enrollment. The committee accepted a substitute version of the bill that does the following:
• Specifies that the verification to the Ohio Department of Education must take place upon the enrollment of each student and then on an annual basis.
• Permits each student’s resident district to review the determination made by the community school.
• Permits the district, if it disagrees as to which district a student is entitled to attend, to present the matter to the state superintendent of public instruction.
• Requires the state superintendent to determine which district the student is entitled to attend not later than 30 days after the district presents the matter to the superintendent and to direct any necessary adjustments to payments and deductions under the school-funding formula based on that determination.
The committee also heard testimony on HB 200. This legislation would eliminate the EdChoice and Cleveland Scholarship programs to create the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The following witnesses offered opponent testimony on the bill:
• Robert A. Hancock, treasurer, Hamilton City
• Terry Groden, board member, North Olmsted City
The committee also heard HB 338 regarding school bus driver medical examinations. No witnesses were present to testify on the bill.
The final bill before the committee was HB 377, which would require age-appropriate instruction in child sexual abuse and sexual violence prevention as well as in-service staff training in child sexual abuse prevention. Rep. Dan Ramos (D-Lorain) offered sponsor testimony on the bill.
House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee
The committee heard HB 87, which addresses money returned to the state as a result of a community school audit. No witnesses were present to testify on the bill.
Senate Bill 8 conference committee
The conference committee on SB 8 voted to recommend a new version of the bill for consideration by the House and the Senate. Rather than the original purpose of the bill (much of the bill was inserted into HB 49, the biennial budget legislation), several amendments described as budget corrections were amended into the bill.
The bill would increase the payments made to certain school districts for their fixed-rate operating tangible personal property (TPP) tax losses in fiscal years (FY) 2018 and 2019.
• In FY 2018, for city, exempted village and local school districts and in FYs 2018 and 2019 for joint vocational school districts, the bill would guarantee that the payment will not be less than the preceding year’s payment minus 3.5% of its total resources if the current law results in a smaller payment. Current law provides for a payment equal to the preceding year’s payment reduced by the amount a 5 ⁄8-mill levy would yield from the three-year average property valuation from 2014 to 2016 (equivalent to 1 ⁄16% of that valuation). The amendment supplements current law’s payment by whatever amount is required to equal the guaranteed level.
• In FY 2019, for city, exempted village and local school districts that received such a supplemental payment, current law’s phase-down amount (the 5 ⁄8-mill yield described above) will be subtracted from the total payment the district received in FY 2018, including the amendment’s supplemental payment.
• In FY 2020 and thereafter, payments will be based on the amount a district received in FY 2019, excluding the supplement, less the 5 ⁄8-mill phase down.
Click here for a copy of Legislative Service Commission simulations of the bill’s impact.
The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 32-0. The House is expected to take up the bill after Thanksgiving.