Morgan Trau, Ohio Capital Journal

Two Republican members of the Ohio House are leading the charge to protect access to marijuana, fighting back against their own party members who aim to restrict the drug.

In November of 2023, 57% of Ohioans voted yes on Issue 2: the legalization of recreational cannabis. But since then, many GOP legislators have been trying to change the law — angering citizens, dispensaries, Democrats, and even fellow Republicans.

“Thumbing our nose in the face of the voters, I think that should be a non-starter for a lot of people,” state Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, said.

State Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, has been the resident marijuana expert in the House, but recently, Fischer has joined him as the other leading voice in preventing the Senate’s proposed changes to Issue 2.

“We’re kind of the long and the short of the issue,” Callender said, jokingly pointing out the height difference between him and Fischer.

For the past several months, the Ohio House and Senate chambers have been trying to compromise on their separate bills.

In short, the Senate’s proposal decreases THC content, reduces home growing from 12 plants to 6, imposes more criminal penalties, and takes away tax money from local municipalities that have dispensaries. The House’s latest version had none of those.

Click here for Senate version and here for House version changes.

In June, Callender said an agreement was reached on following most of the House’s new version, which mainly focused on preventing children from accessing the drug.

But as we reported, the Senate pulled out of a deal at the last minute.

Once the senators said “no deal,” the chambers were left to figure out what to do to still pass legislation by the end of June.

But it never got there. The House GOP, made up of 65 members, couldn’t reach 50 “yes” votes.

“Those who are leaning ‘no’ have varied reasons why they’re leaning no — from, ‘I don’t want to vote for any bill that has the word cannabis in it’ to ‘it restricts too much and is against the will of the voters’ or ‘it’s going to harm local businesses and the hemp sales,'” Callender said.

Fischer, the state’s youngest lawmaker, who just turned 29, has been able to navigate the hemp side of the argument while Callender dealt with cannabis.

The Senate has also passed legislation that would completely remove hemp, low-level THC products such as delta 8, from being sold anywhere besides a licensed marijuana dispensary. This would prevent the grocery stores, smoke shops, wellness facilities, convenience stores, and gas stations from selling the product.

Fischer argues that this is against the free market, and there are better ways to regulate the product without harming businesses or consumers who don’t want to visit a dispensary or don’t have one in their area.

Delta 8 has become a major concern for Gov. Mike DeWine, who conducted an “undercover sting operation,” sending in teenagers to buy low-level marijuana from a convenience store.

As of right now, hemp products do not have an age requirement. Both Callender and Fischer say there should be, and also should have testing requirements like cannabis, which has all been included in their legislation.

“I don’t want to pass a policy that only punishes the people in Ohio that are playing by the rules, that are embracing regulation, that want to be productive and be a part of this conversation,” the Gen-Z legislator said.

The governor, on the other hand, says he just wants something done — and has been asking legislators to move on this for years.

“I’m hopeful that the legislature will wrap this up and give us a bill and we can go on to other, other discussions,” the governor said. “This is the whole issue in regard to the implementation of what the people of the state of Ohio voted on. It’s important.”

Marijuana policy expert state Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, hadn’t been focusing on hemp while going through the negotiations process because he was under the impression that everything was fine with the Senate’s proposal, he said.

“We really haven’t had much discussion on hemp in the last six months or six weeks,” he said, adding that this is the number one priority to handle. “We felt it wasn’t the issue (we disagreed on).”

The Senate, even the last General Assembly when current House Speaker Matt Huffman was the Senate President, was in lockstep with DeWine on restricting marijuana access and handling hemp. The more marijuana-friendly House members, led by Callender, have been behind the stall.

“I believe that it’s really important that we get this done by June 30th, and particularly hemp, so our young Teenagers aren’t going to convenience stores this summer and getting intoxicated,” S. Huffman said in late June.

Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, stated that the lack of action prevents municipalities from receiving their share of the revenue. During the budget negotiations, lawmakers addressed a “defect” in the initiated statute, one that inadvertently prevents any of the tax revenue from being returned to its designated fund.

The law gives the 10% tax revenue from each marijuana sale to four different venues: 36% to the social equity fund to help people disproportionately impacted by marijuana-related laws; 36% to host cities — ones that have dispensaries; 25% to the state’s mental health and addiction services department; and 3% to the state’s cannabis control department.

Although the lawmakers could have expedited the distribution process by amending the law in the budget, they didn’t.

“There will not be distributions out to the local governments, to the host communities, until we deal with the entire marijuana bill,” Cirino said.

Cities would rather wait a few months to get their funding, Callender said, rather than have the Senate remove it completely — which was in that chamber’s proposal.

Asked if he was OK with the latest delay, Callender said he’s fine with it but thinks they need to do some implementation language.

“But generally, I’m fine taking another six months. I’d rather take six months and get it right than have something that is against the will of the voters,” he said.

“The will of the voters is a perfectly acceptable situation,” Fischer added.

Lawmakers will attempt to renegotiate in the fall.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Ohio Republican leadership has backtracked on their steadfast effort to cut funding for public education.

Our extensive reporting led to massive backlash for lawmakers, and numerous GOP members spoke out privately.

Recap — history

Ohio’s history with school funding isn’t the brightest. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 in DeRolph v. State that the way the state funds schools is unconstitutional, relying too much on property taxes.

Throughout the next three decades, lawmakers went back and forth on policy in an attempt to fix the unconstitutionality. The Ohio Education Association, as well as lawmakers on each side of the aisle, have deemed that it has been unconstitutional since then. However, some Republicans argue that because they are no longer using the struck-down policy, and since nothing else has been deemed “unconstitutional” in court, they argue that, by definition, it can’t be considered unconstitutional.

Either way, there has been a bipartisan effort for years to fix the funding system.

House Bill 1, introduced by State Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) and Jamie Callender (R-Concord), in 2021, required $333 million additional dollars a year for K-12 education funding — or about $2 billion overall. It is called the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP).

Their bill was an amended version of policy that passed the House but not the Senate in the General Assembly prior, which was created by former Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) and former state Rep. John Patterson (D-Jefferson). House Bill 1 was finally passed in the budget and signed into law.

The rollout was supposed to take six years and is meant to change how public dollars are provided to K-12 schools. It would give additional support to local districts so they can rely less on property taxes.

The first two years were partially fully funded, the second two years were fully funded, and there are just two years left to go.

Recap — timeline

In early January, comments made by new House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) angered viewers, readers, parents and education leaders across the state.

“I don’t think there is a third phase to Cupp-Patterson,” Huffman told reporters. “As to the expectation that those things are gonna go in… I guess the clear statement I can say is I think those increases in spending are unsustainable.”

The G.A. from four years ago shouldn’t be able to “bind” what the future lawmakers can do, he said.

We did a follow-up story several days later, in which half a dozen GOP legislators personally reached out, vowing to protect K-12 education.

Those six, and at least 15 others we have spoken to in recent weeks, say that one of their main priorities is supporting public schools.

This comes as Gov. Mike DeWine would not commit to supporting the current bipartisan funding formula, saying that “difficult choices” will need to be made.

A week after that, we brought the topic back up to Huffman due to the immense backlash. He doubled down.

“If people are upset about it, they still need to address the facts,” the speaker said. “I think the current system, especially if we did the third part of what some people are calling the plan, is really unsustainable.”

He called the continuation of the current funding plan a “fantasy.”

A change on the horizon

Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District gets roughly 75% of its funding from local taxes, with the rest coming from the state’s FSFP.

But Board of Education member Dan Heintz said his district, and all of K-12 schools, would suffer under Huffman’s plan.

“We’re looking at reduced programs, we’re looking at larger classrooms, we’re looking at less one-on-one and small group work with our students,” Heintz said.

Huffman has been adamant about slashing at least $650 million in public education spending in this General Assembly’s budget.

“The implementing of the Cupp-Patterson plan that many believers say — fait accompli — that we decided four years ago, that in this budget we’re going to do that, in my estimation, is a fantasy,” the speaker said on Jan. 14.

Huffman explained that this year’s budget is going to have significantly less money due to the federal COVID dollars drying up. And for him, public education is on the chopping block.

Ohioans have called their lawmakers. Former Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill), Callender and a dozen more Republicans reached out to share they would fight for school funding. And it seems they have.

This week, Huffman seemed to backtrack from his firm stance.

“School funding is a longer discussion that I think really cannot be had in earnest and detail until the governor introduces the budget,” Huffman said on Jan. 22.

So what happened?

The Republicans went on a caucus retreat at the beginning of the G.A. During the private three-day-long trip, policy was discussed.

I’ve confirmed with half a dozen representatives that the speaker’s team gave a presentation about how the current funding formula needs to be cut due to it being “unsustainable.” After the supporters spoke, numerous Republicans stood up to advocate for fully funding public schools, starting a larger discussion.

Some of the lawmakers have been focused on public schools for years. Others haven’t always been the most vocal supporters but still wanted to speak up, while others are education leaders in the state.

“I don’t think we landed, because it’s so enormous, on anything in particular,” Huffman said.

Huffman mentioned how his colleagues expressed frustration with real estate taxes.

“Seventy percent or 75% — the number I found was actually 63% on average — are the real estate taxes that go to your local government,” the leader continued. “No matter what happens, the taxes go up — and so we have to address that and therefore address school funding.”

Although what Huffman said may technically be true, since schools fall under local government, real estate taxes mainly go to education — not township officers or child services.

For example, we searched Huffman’s address in Lima and found that more than 70% of his real estate taxes in 2023 went to the school system, while less than 10% went to the village/corporation.

Affordability

Parma City Schools Superintendent Charles Smialek is still worried about Huffman’s championing of the private school vouchers. Under Huffman’s watch, the state spent roughly $1 billion in public money to send kids to nonpublic schools.

“If we’re gonna squeeze our public schools, what is the commensurate squeeze on the other side?” he asked.

Huffman and many GOP politicians believe spending that much on EdChoice is necessary in order to have the money “follow the child” or have the students avoid poor-performing public schools.

“This program is designed to acknowledge the unique abilities and needs of Ohio’s student population and to foster an educational environment in which every student can have access to the best learning environment for them,” state Rep. Riordan McClain (R-Upper Sandusky) said in his testimony for one of his bills supporting vouchers.

A parent shouldn’t be forced to choose between moving to another school district for their child to go to a different school, he said.

“Ohio has made strides with the EdChoice Scholarship to provide new opportunities for financially challenged families as well as students in ‘failing’ districts,” he added.

If you can afford to pay out of pocket for education or you make a lower amount of income and are eligible for an EdChoice scholarship, you are able to have “educational options,” the lawmaker said.

The number of students receiving EdChoice Expansion vouchers increased from 23,272 students during the 2022-2023 school year to 82,946 students during the 2023-2024 school year, according to data provided by the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce (ODEW).

But the number of students enrolled in private schools during the 2023-24 school year only increased by 3,719 students, according to ODEW.

“What is the least expensive, acceptable educational product for the taxpayer?” Huffman asked rhetorically. “If someone says they’re willing to take a $7,000 scholarship voucher and go to a private school rather than going to the school that… on average in the state, it’s about $15,000 — that’s better for the taxpayers.”

Huffman is referencing the average operating expenditures per pupil, according to the Legislative Service Commission.

Many schools, like CH-UHCSD, reached out to share that their pupil numbers are much lower than that. They amount they receive is roughly $2,300.

“The state of Ohio will send about three times that, $8,400 to educate the same student at a private school,” Heintz said.

But for public schools, the EdChoice program is siphoning money from them, and the voucher system doesn’t have a record to show for transparency.

“You would think with the $1 billion in public investment, we’d be very concerned about what exactly that’s going to,” Smialek said. “And yet we don’t have any type of report that can generate that type of information for us.”

Public schools are held to higher standards than private schools, Smialek said.

We questioned Huffman on the lack of transparency with that state money, in which he said schools with voucher programs already have accountability because “lots of folks” send their kids to private schools.

Heintz is furious at Huffman. He is also more than just a school board member. He teaches American history at Chardon High School — and is part of the steering committee for Vouchers Hurt Ohio, the organizing suing the state for the private school voucher system.

Exactly 200 public school districts are part of the organization, according to the website. More than 130 are a part of the lawsuit. This includes Lima City School District, where Huffman is from.

“Here we have a man who five years ago voted in support of the fair school funding program and promised the future full implementation of the fair school funding program… Now he switches to the House and seems to have put on a different brain because he’s all of a sudden saying ‘the fair school funding program is unsustainable,'” Heintz said. “I say back, ‘Mr. Huffman is not sustainable.'”

The speaker has remarked that even back when he voted on the FSFP, he didn’t believe that it could require him to support it years later.

“That’s often how a lot of projects go — early on it doesn’t cost very [much] money — but some other governor or General Assembly will have to figure out how to pay for it,” Huffman said in early Jan. “As it turns out, I am the other General Assembly years in the future, or possibly am, and I don’t think the spending is sustainable.”

What’s next

Just because Huffman isn’t as resolute about public school spending doesn’t mean that funding is safe, but Smialek said it’s a step in the right direction.

“His caucus is giving some pushback here and really putting a little bit of a speed bump in terms of some of the initial conversations,” Smialek said.

Huffman referenced the governor’s budget. Although lawmakers are the ones who get to pick and choose what to do with the state’s funding, Gov. Mike DeWine gets a say, too. His budget comes out first, then goes to the House for review and later to the Senate.

We asked DeWine in early January if he would fully fund public schools, but he was noncommittal.

“It would be unfair of me at this point to come out here and say we need to do this, this, this and this,” the governor responded.

Former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, now a U.S. Senator, jumped in, giving a more straightforward answer.

“Funding for the education of children will continue to be a huge budget priority going forward… as he’s made sure of in the past,” Husted said.

Still, there is a coalition of House Republicans that would be able to get the FSFP into the budget or prevent a budget from passing that doesn’t have it.

Callender is one of the most vocal GOP supporters of all schools.

“I have fought since my first term, when the DeRolph decision came out, for public education at our local district schools and will continue that fight as long as the voters give me the chance to,” Callender said.

Only 16 out of 65 House Republicans need to join the Democrats to block a cut to funding.

“If taxpayers and community members turn up the heat on their local legislators, that heat will be felt in Columbus,” Heintz said.

It clearly already has.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

A federal grand jury has indicted Charles E. Jones, 69, of Akron and Michael Dowling, 60, of Massillon, on one count each of participating in a racketeering (RICO) conspiracy.

According to the Southern District of Ohio, the two are accused of using “bribery, money laundering and obstruction to increase the company’s stock price and enrich themselves.”

From 2015 until 2020, when he was fired, Jones worked as a senior executive within the company, including president and CEO. During that time, authorities say Jones earned around $65 million, with about $60 million coming from performance-based compensation connected partly to FirstEnergy stock prices.

Dowling worked as senior vice president, and his compensation was also tied, in part, to the company’s stock prices.

Both were indicted last year on state charges.

The federal indictment alleges that “Jones and Dowling allegedly acted in support of the RICO conspiracy, including schemes to bribe former Ohio House Representative Larry Householder and former PUCO Chairman Samuel Randazzo.”

Specifically, for a three-year period that ended in 2020, authorities say that FirstEnergy paid nearly $60 million to an organization called Generation Now, a social welfare organization that former Ohio House Rep. Larry Householder controlled.

“The bribe money helped Householder gain the position of Speaker of the House and pass and uphold House Bill 6, a billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout to benefit FirstEnergy,” authorities said.

Householder would later be sent to prison for his role in the bribery scheme.

The indictment also accuses Jones and Dowling of pushing for “FirstEnergy-approved appointments to the state public utilities board,” one of which included Randazzo as PUCO chairman.

Randazzo was the PUCO chairman from April 2019 until November 2020, when he resigned. He allegedly received more than $4.3 million from “an energy company and its affiliates to provide favorable actions for the company through PUCO proceedings,” according to the Department of Justice.

Randazzo was eventually indicted on dozens of charges, pleaded not guilty and later died from suicide.

In September 2024, The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ordered FirstEnergy to pay a $100 million civil penalty for misleading investors about its role in the scandal. The month prior, FirstEnergy paid $20 million to avoid criminal charges as part of a deal with state prosecutors.

Jones and Dowling are each facing up to 20 years in prison.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

Ohio House Republican leadership is doubling down on their threat to cut public school spending, with House Speaker Matt Huffman calling the continuation of the current Fair School Funding Plan a “fantasy” and eyeing $650 million in cuts.

Ohio’s history with school funding isn’t the brightest. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the way the state funds schools is unconstitutional, relying too much on property taxes.

Throughout the next three decades, lawmakers went back and forth on policy in an attempt to fix the unconstitutionality. The Ohio Education Association, as well as lawmakers on each side of the aisle, have deemed that it has been unconstitutional since then. However, some Republicans argue that because they are no longer using the struck-down policy, and since nothing else has been deemed “unconstitutional” in court, by definition, it can’t be considered unconstitutional.

Either way, there has been a bipartisan effort for years to fix the funding system.

House Bill 1, introduced by state Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) and Jamie Callender (R-Concord), in 2021, required $333 million additional dollars a year for K-12 education funding — or about $2 billion overall in the course of three two-year budget cycles. It is called the Cupp-Paterson Fair School Funding Plan.

Their bill mirrored the policy that passed the House but not the Senate in the General Assembly prior, which was created by former Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) and former state Rep. John Patterson (D-Jefferson). House Bill 1 was finally passed and signed into law.

The rollout was supposed to take six years and is meant to change how public dollars are provided to K-12 schools. It would give additional support to local districts so they can rely less on property taxes.

The first two years were partially fully funded, the second two years were fully funded, and there are just two years left to go.

In early January, comments made by new House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) angered viewers, readers, parents, and education leaders across the state.

“I don’t think there is a third phase to Cupp-Patterson,” Huffman told reporters. “As to the expectation that those things are gonna go in… I guess the clear statement I can say is I think those increases in spending are unsustainable.”

The G.A. from four years ago shouldn’t be able to “bind” what the future lawmakers can do, he said.

We did a follow-up story after half a dozen GOP legislators personally reached out, vowing to protect K-12 education.

Those six, and at least 15 others we have spoken to in recent weeks, say that one of their main priorities is supporting public schools.

This comes as Gov. Mike DeWine would not commit to supporting the current bipartisan funding formula, saying that “difficult choices” will need to be made.

Doubling down

Warrensville Heights City Schools has 2,000 students, and Superintendent Donald Jolly said a fourth of them have special needs.

The current school funding formula provides financial support for them, with the district spending money to help each student succeed, Jolly said.

“We get a lot of support with reading intervention and special needs students and so forth,” the superintendent said.

But he said Huffman will force them to cut reading and math intervention specialists, among other beneficial programs.

The speaker wants to slash at least $650 million in public education spending in this General Assembly’s budget.

On Tuesday, we brought the topic back up to Huffman, including the backlash he has faced.

“The implementing of the Cupp-Patterson plan that many believers say — fait accompli — that we decided four years ago, that in this budget we’re going to do that, in my estimation, is a fantasy,” the speaker said.

Huffman explained that this year’s budget is going to have significantly less money due to the federal COVID dollars drying up. And for him, public education is on the chopping block.

“What is the least expensive, acceptable educational product for the taxpayer?” Huffman asked rhetorically. “If someone says they’re willing to take a $7,000 scholarship voucher and go to a private school rather than going to the school that… on average in the state, it’s about $15,000 — that’s better for the taxpayers.”

Huffman is referencing the average operating expenditures per pupil, according to the Legislative Service Commission.

For the speaker, the choice that accomplishes his question is the private school voucher system. Huffman is a champion of private school vouchers, with the state spending roughly $1 billion in public money to send kids to private, for-profit, and religious schools.

Huffman and many GOP politicians believe spending that much on private school vouchers is necessary in order to have the money “follow the child” or have the students avoid poor-performing public schools.

“There’s no educational system where one size fits all works for everyone,” Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said during a press conference, addressing different types of schools.

But for public schools, the private school voucher program is siphoning money from them, and the voucher system doesn’t have a record to show for transparency.

“You would think with the $1 billion in public investment, we’d be very concerned about what exactly that’s going to,” Parma City School Superintendent Charles Smialek said. “And yet we don’t have any type of report that can generate that type of information for us.”

Public schools are held to higher standards than private schools, Smialek said.

We questioned Huffman on the lack of transparency with that state money.

“Talking about public education spending and spending it wisely,” this reporter said, getting cut off.

“Ish,” Huffman interrupted.

“We don’t know how the vouchers are being spent,” this reporter continued. “Should we have more accountability when it comes to that?”

“Yeah, I think there is a lot of accountability,” he responded. “Of course, there’s the private accountability — it’s the parents and the folks who go there.”

He added that the accountability also comes because, he claimed, vouchers are inexpensive in comparison to the per-pupil amount for public schools.

“One accountability measure is [if] they’re educating this Ohio child, if the cost of the voucher is $7,000… that accountability is it’s less expensive,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody who’s going to question that.”

He gave an example of how the state would know if Bishop Hartley, a Columbus Catholic school, is “doing the things that they want to do.”

“Well, there are lots of folks who are sending their kids to Bishop Hartley, or Temple Christian in Lima, or places like that,” he continued.

There are also a lot of people sending kids to public school — the vast majority of students in the state — Smialek argued.

“We are extremely fiscally responsible and we’re open to anyone’s inspection,” he said. “If you actually walk through our halls and you actually look at our books, what exactly would you cut? What exactly are we doing that doesn’t pass muster with our community?”

However, Huffman did add that it would be “appropriate” to have conversations about some form of accountability aspect for voucher programs.

Everyone can see how public schools spend money, especially for special needs programs. Jolly added that these are kids that many private schools can’t accommodate.

“We can’t say you don’t fit, go to another school,” he said, saying he would never do that to a child and that their district supports all learners.

Despite the immense backlash, the response to Huffman isn’t changing his mind.

“If people are upset about it, they still need to address the facts,” the speaker said. “I think the current system, especially if we did the third part of what some people are calling the plan, is really unsustainable.”

The animosity between how public schools and voucher-recipient schools function is palpable.

“When you have a lawmaker that’s basically marketing for them, marketing for those vouchers — of course, people who have not done this research will follow,” Jolly said.

The superintendents hope that lawmakers will actually fight against Huffman’s plan.

“It’s a marketing scheme that exists — as public schools have gotten a black eye across the board,” Jolly said.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed nearly 30 bills Wednesday, including legislation that would require schools to notify parents if the child identifies as LGBTQ+ as well as allow parents to opt out of so-called “sexuality” content. The GOP denies it is homophobic, saying it’s just a way for parents to stay informed.

State Reps. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, and Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, introduced House Bill 8, which requires schools and teachers to notify parents about any changes to their child’s mental, physical, or emotional being — including if they identify as LGBTQ+.

“If you’re a parent, you want to be informed of what’s going on in your child’s life,” DeWine said. “The parents are the best teachers, they’re the first teachers, they’re the best teachers.”

For over a year, transgender advocacy groups have been warning against it.

Only four Republicans voted against this legislation.

State Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, voted against it twice in the House.

“Passing legislation that has the potential to out a child who’s deeply questioning their place in the world — I think — is just dangerous for those kids and it’s really really bad public policy,” Callender said during lame duck session.

The legislation also has a provision to require public schools to allow kids to leave class to go to religious instruction.

“This is another step in making sure that that the diversity of options, the way parents want their children to be educated, is available to them in this free country,” Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said.

State Reps. Andrea White, R-Kettering, and Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, also voted no. State Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, was the only Republican senator to vote against it.

“Sounds to me like the state interfering with local control of a school board,” Callender said. “It’s also a problem that the classes that will get missed are most likely arts and foreign language.”

Civil rights advocates tell me they plan to file a lawsuit.

Other bills

H.B. 206

It would allow schools to expel for longer based on “imminent and severe endangerment.”

This includes bringing a gun or knife to a school, committing a criminal offense that results in harm to another or property, making bomb threats — or any other written or verbal threat such as a hit list, manifesto or malicious social media post.

To be reinstated, the student must go through a psychological evaluation. Even after the evaluation, the school superintendent can deny the student if they don’t think they have been “rehabilitated” enough. From there, the superintendent can reevaluate the student after 90 days. If they fail, again, they can be prohibited from the school for another 90 — and that would continue on.

H.B. 322

It creates the offense of grooming, prohibiting an adult from engaging in a “pattern of conduct” with a minor that would cause a “reasonable adult” to believe that the adult has a “purpose to entice, coerce, solicit, or prepare the minor to engage in “sexual activity.”

The offense would also be seen on background checks, meaning a coach who was fired for grooming behaviors could be prevented from getting a job at another school.

H.B. 531

This bill makes sexual extortion a crime.

If the crime results in bodily harm or death, a court could impose an additional 10 years.

This legislation provides immunity to victims for sending explicit images.

The bill would also allow a parent or guardian to gain access to a phone or device belonging to a deceased minor within 30 days.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Ohio Republican leaders are looking at cutting spending for public education, calling the current formula — a policy that was created after the state had unconstitutional funding for three decades — “unsustainable.”

House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, a champion of sending taxpayer dollars to private schools through the EdChoice voucher system, questions how well public schools are spending their money.

Two Northeast Ohio superintendents beg him to reconsider but also question how accountable the voucher system is.

Public money for public schools

The vast majority of Ohio students go to public schools. And for a good education, Parma City Schools Superintendent Charles Smialek says K-12 needs to be fully funded.

Seventy-five percent of PCSD’s funding comes from property taxes, while the rest comes from the state. That’s thanks to the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the way the state funds schools is unconstitutional, relying too much on property taxes.

House Bill 1, introduced by state Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, and Jamie Callender, R-Concord, in 2021, required $333 million additional dollars a year for K-12 education funding — or about $2 billion overall over the course of six years.

Their bill mirrored the policy that passed the House but not the Senate in the General Assembly prior, which was created by former Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, and former state Rep. John Patterson, D-Jefferson. House Bill 1 was passed and signed into law.

The rollout was supposed to take six years and is meant to change how public dollars are provided to K-12 schools. It would give additional support to local districts so they can rely less on property taxes.

The first two years were partially fully-funded, the second two years were fully-funded, and there are just two years left to go. But under new leadership, that may not happen.

“I don’t think there is a third phase to Cupp-Patterson,” Huffman told reporters Monday evening. “As to the expectation that those things are gonna go in… I guess the clear statement I can say is I think those increases in spending are unsustainable.”

The G.A. from four years ago shouldn’t be able to “bind” what the future lawmakers can do, he said.

Huffman explained that this year’s budget is going to have significantly less money due to the federal COVID dollars drying up. And for him, public education is on the chopping block.

“That’s often how a lot of projects go — early on it doesn’t cost very [much] money — but some other governor or General Assembly will have to figure out how to pay for it,” he continued. “As it turns out, I am the other General Assembly years in the future, or possibly am, and I don’t think the spending is sustainable.”

So what happens if the FSFP is decreased or is cut entirely?

“Where they think we can come up with this money — I’m just not sure other than, again, to go to the local taxpayers,” Smialek said to me. “And as you indicated, (the local taxpayers) already feel they’re overburdened.”

For the past few years, schools around the area have struggled to pass levies. Parma’s have failed four times. This is hard on the superintendent and the entire district.

“We can’t sustain the program that we offer for students with reduced funding,” he said. “We have to come back to our local taxpayers or we have to make cuts, and those cuts will absolutely impact our students and our families.”

Parma would have to cut jobs, require fees to participate in extracurriculars, cut down the amount of hours in class for high school students, or increase class sizes to 30 kids, the superintendent said.

One of the few levies to succeed last November was Medina City Schools’ — after their third try.

“It’s not to build any new buildings or facilities,” Medina Schools Superintendent Aaron Sable said. “It was simply to maintain what we have in place.”

Sable’s schools also rely on the state for 20% of their funding, he said. It would be detrimental to lose, the superintendent continued.

Despite the levy passing, Sable understands why it was such a close vote.

“It’s about people being in a financially difficult situation — property values drastically increasing, a lack of understanding as to why their property values are increasing and how those tax dollars are being spent,” he continued.

A common misconception in the area was that when property taxes went up, more automatically went to the schools. That isn’t true since they are flatlined, he said.

Had the levy not passed, they would have been looking at at least an additional $8 million in reductions going into the next school year, so doubling what reductions they made into this school year, the superintendent added.

“It would be a complete restructuring and dismantling of the district,” he said.

Both superintendents think this is Huffman’s goal.

“Do you believe this is an effort to privatize education?” we asked Sable.

“I think there’s been an ongoing effort by some legislators to privatize public education,” Sable responded.

We asked the same question to Smialek.

“You try not to be cynical, but ultimately, it has been,” Smialek responded. “If you look at the money that went into the voucher system, we’re almost at $1 billion. So when we talk about what isn’t sustainable, we’re not hearing that the $1 billion in EdChoice vouchers wasn’t sustainable.”

Public money for private schools

Huffman is one of, if not the most, vocal advocate in the legislature of EdChoice, Ohio’s private school voucher system. The state spent nearly $1 billion in public money to send kids to nonpublic schools in 2024. Parents of any income level can apply for “vouchers” to help pay private or other nonpublic schools’ tuition.

Huffman and many GOP lawmakers believe spending that much on EdChoice is necessary in order to have the money “follow the child” or have the students avoid poor-performing public schools.

“This program is designed to acknowledge the unique abilities and needs of Ohio’s student population and to foster an educational environment in which every student can have access to the best learning environment for them,” state Rep. Riordan McClain, R-Upper Sandusky, said in his testimony for one of his bills supporting vouchers.

A parent shouldn’t be forced to choose between moving to another school district for their child to go to a different school, he said.

“Ohio has made strides with the EdChoice Scholarship to provide new opportunities for financially challenged families as well as students in ‘failing’ districts,” he added.

If you can afford to pay out of pocket for education or you make a lower amount of income and are eligible for an EdChoice scholarship, you are able to have “educational options,” the lawmaker said.

“But, for most Ohioans who fall somewhere in between those two ends of the bell curve, the only option for your child’s education is determined by your home address,” he said.

The number of students receiving EdChoice Expansion vouchers increased from 23,272 students during the 2022-2023 school year to 82,946 students during the 2023-2024 school year, according to data provided by the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce (ODEW).

But the number of students enrolled in private schools during the 2023-24 school year only increased by 3,719 students, according to ODEW.

This means that the vast majority of new private school voucher spending went to students who were already attending private schools.

Some public schools don’t have what parents want, Huffman has said repeatedly for years.

“We have to look at whether these dollars are being spent wisely in some districts,” he said to reporters Monday. “We know they are in many.”

Smialek took offense to that, adding that he wishes his district could afford to put air conditioning in 11 out of 13 school buildings that don’t currently have it.

“To say that money is not being spent wisely is, essentially, a slap at your population,” the superintendent added.

Sable questioned how wisely the state was actually spending money.

“Public schools are held to a very high standard, not only financially and how we’re spending public dollars, but also how our students are performing, ensuring that our teachers and administrators are licensed and background checked,” he said.

Both he and Smialek questioned how Huffman could accuse public schools of not spending wisely when we don’t even know how private schools are spending voucher dollars.

“Those kinds of parameters and expectations are not in place for private schools,” Sable said. “I think it’s not responsible for Ohioans to not hold a sector responsible for how they’re spending our public tax dollars each year — but the legislators have determined that that’s not important.”

Throughout the lame duck session, lawmakers were hearing a handful of bills dedicated to increasing accountability for the private school voucher system.

H.B. 407, the one that was most likely to pass, was introduced by state Reps. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, and Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati.

Originally, it included provisions that would have required private schools participating in the EdChoice voucher program to submit an annual report to the state showing how state funds are being spent while also reporting information about the family income of each voucher scholarship student.

But state Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, R-Ashtabula — the lawmaker who received international backlash for saying that the Holocaust should be taught from “both sides” in school — stripped those provisions from the legislation.

Both House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, and former House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, said there should be an accountability aspect when it comes to this system.

Stephens, who is rivals with Huffman, wasn’t impressed by the new speaker’s direction when it comes to schools.

“There has always been three phases in the Cupp-Patterson funding plan. We funded the first phase in 2021, the second phase in 2023, and we should fund the final phase in 2025,” Stephens said.

We reached out to see how the other chamber was reacting to Huffman’s comments.

“Every two years the school funding formula is reviewed and evaluated as part of the budget,” Senate GOP spokesperson John Fortney said. “That will remain the case this year.”

When it comes to Smialek, he had one question for Huffman.

“What type of education do you want for the lesser privileged among us?” he asked.

The funding plan will be decided in the budget — which will be heard in the coming months.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.