Charter-school reform is tabled in Ohio House until September
A bill that would implement widespread Ohio charter-school reforms to a system that has been sharply criticized and ridiculed both inside and outside the state passed the Senate last week with unanimous support.
The House had enough votes to concur with the Senate’s changes to House Bill 2, including a prime bill sponsor, Rep. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson. That would have sent it to Gov. John Kasich, who also has been pushing for charter-law changes.
Despite all that, the bill stalled, leaving supporters scratching their heads about why legislation that appeared to be a priority to finish before the summer break will instead collect dust until the fall.
“There were 75 major changes, and we need to take time to look through those,” said Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, noting that the two prime sponsors of the bill had split opinions on supporting the Senate changes.
Asked about his specific concerns, Rosenberger said his focus has been on the budget and an anti-monopoly resolution. “I really haven’t focused a lot on (House Bill) 2. Clearly we need some more work.”
While Roegner supported the Senate changes to the bill, her joint sponsor, Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, said he wanted it to go to a conference committee where House and Senate leaders could work out a final bill. But in a closed-door meeting on Friday, it became apparent that a majority of the House would instead vote to pass the bill — something even Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, said he did not want.
So House leaders pulled the bill. The House and Senate are not expected to return to session until September.
“The irony now is this process will take longer than if we had just sent the bill to conference, worked out some of the differences, and got it done before we left for the summer,” Dovilla said. “ The very people who are complaining it didn’t get done should have done it our way.”
Dovilla said he wants changes to parts of the bill dealing with contractual language and truancy.
Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, who has been the Senate’s point person on crafting charter-school reforms, said that she recently got a verbal list of changes that some House Republicans wanted.
“They really are pretty minor — a word change here and there. There wasn’t anything that caused me any heartburn,” she said. “I really don’t know why they didn’t choose to move ahead.”
Lehner said that one issue was not on the list — a behind-the-scenes push by the statewide online school Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) to change the accountability system for charter schools from the current value-added model to a California-based system.
William Lager, the founder of ECOT, was the second-largest Charter-school reform is tabled in Ohio House until September | The Columbus Dispatch:
