Week In Review
 
Each weekend, the BASA staff reviews the news affecting Ohio education and prepares and edits a short summary of the most important items.  The weekly one-page summary is designed to remind and inform busy school leaders of the issues about which they might be asked during the week.
Current and Historical Reviews (4 Weeks)
  • September 7, 2010 Legislative Update
    Week in Review
    Friday, September 3, 2010
    BUDGET
    In a report submitted to the Budget Planning and Management Commission, Policy Matters Ohio said Ohio can help bridge its multi-billion dollar shortfall in the next budget by undoing some recent income tax cuts, increasing business share of the tax burden, and eliminating a host of exemptions, deductions, and other tax breaks.
  • August 30, 2010 Legislative Update
    Week in Review
    Friday, August 27, 2010
    BUDGET
    The Budget Planning and Management Commission took up the issue of criminal sentencing reform by hearing the familiar back-and-forth of SB22 sponsor Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) and Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association Executive Director John Murphy.  Seitz said the reforms would save money and make inmates more able to rejoin society, and said the prosecutors’ opposition was misguided.  But Murphy said an earned-credit proposal in SB22 takes away judicial oversight and violates the principle of truth in sentencing. Also presenting was Marshall Clement of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, who said Ohio has a well-funded community corrections system but doesn’t have proper standards or data to utilize it most effectively.  In addition, the commission launched http://bpmc.legislature.state.oh.us, a website where anyone can create an account and submit budget-balancing ideas to the commission.
  • August 23, 2010 Legislative Update
    Week in Review
    Friday, August 20, 2010
    EDUCATION
    The U.S. Department of Education released the application and guidance information for states under the recent federal spending bill that provided $10 billion to preserve teaching jobs nationwide.  Also, the state made public its presentation to federal reviewers in the second round of the Race to the Top education     funding contest.
     
    The Ohio Department of Education said it was analyzing the new federal guidance on the $361 million      Ohio is to receive to preserve teaching jobs, and hopes to give feedback to local districts soon.
     
    The National Council on Teacher Quality gave Ohio a red-light ranking in its traffic-light grading of Race to the Top proposals, criticizing the state’s non-committal stance on how student performance will affect         teacher evaluations and its continued rewarding of higher-degree attainment despite lack of evidence that it improves teacher quality, among other concerns.
     
    The School Funding Advisory Council heard recommendations from three of its subcommittees on teacher pay, arts education, career technical programs, and charter-traditional school collaboration.  Among the     collaboration recommendations was a proposal that Ohio abandon its deduction-transfer system of funding charter schools in favor of direct payments to those schools for the students they educate.
     
    The State Board of Education's Budget Subcommittee met to begin deliberations on a proposed K-12        education budget.  Department of Education budget chief, Kelly Weir, laid out four possible options          for budget reductions, including an adjustment to the gain cap, adjustment to the funding guarantee,     elimination of the poverty and limited English proficiency guarantees, and changes to the phase-in of        certain evidence-based model (EBM) components.
     
    Ohio's ACT scores rose slightly in 2010 from a composite score of 21.7 in 2009 to 21.8.  This score placed    Ohio 23rd in the rankings nationwide, tied with Idaho, South Dakota and Utah.  In addition, the number of Ohio students taking the college entrance and placement exam also rose to 89,275 or 66 percent of the    state's high school graduates.  In 2009, 88,754 graduates or 64 percent took the exam.
  • August 16, 2010 Legislative Update
    Week in Review
    Friday, August 13, 2010
     
    FY12-13 BUDGET
    The Legislative Service Commission (LSC) told members of the Budget Planning and Management Commission that the state used a total of $8.4 billion in one-time funds in the FY10-11 state budget: $4.077 billion in FY10 and $4.323 billion in FY11. Prior to that, the highest recent use of one-time money occurred in the FY04-05 biennium, when the state relied on $3.59 billion in one-time money.