Speaker’s maneuver ensures vote today on stricter standards for high-schoolers

The Columbus Dispatch

12/14/2006

Mark Niquette

The Ohio House is expected to vote today on Gov. Bob Taft’s plan to require a more rigorous high-school curriculum after legislative maneuvering helped it pass the House Education Committee last night.

The Ohio Core bill was approved 12-8 after Speaker Jon A. Husted replaced five Republican committee members with three members of the GOP House leadership team and two others who backed the legislation.

Committee Chairwoman Rep. Arlene J. Setzer, R-Vandalia, said the replacements were needed because the members were absent. Democrats said it was to ensure the bill passed.

Supporters of the Ohio Core plan, including state business leaders, say it is needed to better prepare high-school graduates whether they go to college or directly into the work force because of the demands of today’s global economy.

Among other things, the plan would require that students, starting with the graduating class of 2012, complete four math classes instead of the current three, including Algebra 2, and would make science classes lab-based.

Students could opt out of the Ohio Core under certain circumstances, but that would make them ineligible to attend most of the four-year state universities without remedial classes.

Critics of the plan say it is imposing new requirements on districts without giving them the money for the additional teachers required.

Democrats also have urged that the bill be delayed to give Democratic Gov.-elect Ted Strickland a chance to have input on the plan. Strickland previously has raised concerns about the bill creating a two-tiered education system in the state.

The House Education Committee approved four amendments to the bill, including one that would give local school boards the authority to exempt students on a technical-career path from taking the fine-arts classes required.

All proposed Democratic amendments were tabled, including one to allow students who opt out of the Ohio Core to opt back in and another to require an analysis of its cost.

All of the Democrats on the committee voted against the bill, and Rep. W. Scott Oelslager of Canton was the only Republican to vote against it.

In other legislative action:

• Two state senators, Republican J. Kirk Schuring of Canton and Democrat Teresa Fedor of Toledo sought to head off an attempt to include charter school amendments to House Bill 79.

The bill, under consideration by a joint House-Senate conference committee, would, among other things, require more criminal-background checking before a license to teach school is renewed. White Hat Management, Inc., a large Ohio charter-school company owned by GOP benefactor David Brennan of Akron, is seeking amendments to the bill.

But Schuring and Fedor issued a news release saying the charter-school amendments should be rejected because there are too many “serious concerns about oversight deficiencies in state law” governing charter schools.

• The House Health Committee passed the mental-health parity bill, which requires some health-insurance plans to offer the same coverage for mental illness as they do for physical ailments. A full House vote is expected today.

• The Senate passed a bill requiring more training for government officials in public records laws and sets new penalties if legal records requests are not fulfilled.

However, the debate focused on access to records of concealed-carry gun permits.

Current law allows only journalists to access the records, but the bill says reporters may look at them but not get copies.

Two senators, one Democrat and one Republican, called the provision absurd. Even those who helped craft the language couldn’t agree on what it meant.

Sen. David Goodman, R-New Albany, said reporters would not be allowed to copy names in their notebooks. But Sen. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, said, “nothing prevents the reporter from writing down the information they need.”

Dispatch Senior Editor Joe Hallett and reporter Jim Siegel contributed to this story.