Roughly $2 billion will be spent phasing in a universal school voucher program in Ohio over the next two years, providing income-based scholarships on a sliding scale for any Ohio child to attend private school, with scholarship amounts decreasing as income increases.

That’s just one of the significant educational provisions included in the state’s $86.1 billion two-year budget approved in recent days by state officials.

The bill is voluminous, but a broad overview has us favoring some of the educational items, and less than lukewarm about some others.

We believe enactment of the voucher provision could help make all Ohio schools better by providing every student with access to different types of schools.

Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Lenox, who represents northeast Ohio, including Trumbull County, is a sponsor of the Parent Educational Freedom Act, or “backpack bill.” She argues the legislation offers the best educational opportunity for students of both public and private schools by giving parents the ability to choose the school that best fits their child’s needs.

However, as we’ve said before in this space, the key to making this work is also to ensure that if public tax dollars are going to be directed to private schools or even home-schooling efforts in an “educational marketplace,” then there must be assurances that these private schools are held to the same educational standards as public schools.

Additionally, private schools currently have no financial accountability to taxpayers and are free to accept or deny admittance to students as they choose, including basing such decisions on gender, religion, sexuality and / or academic ability. They also may reject admissions to students with special needs.

If these schools choose to accept public funds via vouchers, then their enrollment standards and other restrictions must come under close scrutiny.

Likewise, we are pleased to see the budget bill continue efforts to implement a fairer, more reliable school funding formula started in the previous budget. It factors in updated costs for teacher salaries, transportation and technology, adding another $1.5 billion to public education funding over two years.

Also, spelled out in the budget bill is a new guideline increasing the minimum base salary for teachers in Ohio to $35,000 a year. Previous to the bill’s passage, the minimum teacher’s salary was $30,000. Indeed, good teachers who educate our children are invaluable. This increase in the minimum teacher salary is woefully needed.

WHAT WE DISLIKE

Among education provisions included in the budget bill that we do not like is a plan to shift K-12 education oversight from the Ohio State Board of Education to an official appointed by the governor. That means drastic changes to those making decisions about academic standards, curriculum and district ratings.

Supporters, including Gov. Mike DeWine, believe it will revamp a failing, disorganized system bogged down with political infighting among school board members and too slow to address issues like declining student achievement during the pandemic, transportation shortages and chronic student absenteeism.

Opponents of the measure, including current school board members and the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said giving more control to the governor’s office will result in partisan oversight over the state’s education, not more accountability.

We dislike the measure because we, here in the Mahoning Valley, have seen firsthand what happens when local board control of a school district is turned over to one person unilaterally. Attempts to improve the quality of education and student performance in Youngstown City Schools placed the city school district under control of a district CEO who did not answer to the locally elected board. Under that state-imposed program, we saw little or no improvements in student performance, but we did see significant spending without accountability.

We would not be surprised if the similar decision to strip power away from a duly elected state board and transfer it instead to one appointed official on the state level ended equally poorly.

Additionally, we disagree with a budget provision that eliminates a guideline under the “third-grade reading guarantee” which made kids repeat third grade if they didn’t pass a reading exam. The exam under the guarantee remains in place.

While we understand that not all students test well, we realize everything in life is based on evaluations. If children don’t read successfully in the third grade, then they must not be promoted and pushed through. Let’s face it, reading is the basis of everything in life. The bar must be held at reasonably high levels in order for kids to learn and to excel.