AGRICULTURE
The Agriculture Education Foundation is accepting applications for five $1,000 scholarships for college students enrolling in Ohio’s agriculture educator programs for the spring semester 2023. The scholarship is open to any student who meets the minimum qualifications and is enrolled or planning to enroll in an agriculture teaching major or 4-H extension major at any of Ohio’s three universities offering these programs or another two-year or four-year school in Ohio offering a two-plus-two program or another pathway to become an agriculture teacher or extension educator. The deadline for applications is Monday, Nov. 28, 2022 at 5 p.m. Awards will be made no later than Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2022. Official application documents and requirements are available at www.agised.org.
BALLOT ISSUES
Attorney General Dave Yost Friday approved the petition summary for a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2028. Under the proposed “Raise the Wage Ohio” amendment, the state minimum wage that was effective Jan. 1, 2007, would be raised to $10.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2025. After 2025, the amendment would increase the state minimum wage rate in equal increments annually for three years until it reaches $15 per hour on Jan. 1, 2028. The minimum wage would continue to increase annually to reflect inflation, but the adjusted annual increases from 2025-2028 would be replaced by fixed dollar amounts, before the inflation adjusted wage increases would begin again on Jan. 1, 2029. The issue now heads to the Ohio Ballot Board on Monday, Nov. 7, which must determine if the proposal contains one or more proposed constitutional amendments.
EDUCATION
Calling it a “success story of collaboration,” the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio departments of transportation (ODOT) and education (ODE) announced Friday a partnership that has created new reflectors for school buses in an effort to improve safety for students and motorists. Under the partnership, ODOT will produce new red and black reflective “STOP” decals for the back of school buses that will be put out to school districts for use on the nearly 20,000 school buses used to transport students in the state. Already, nine school districts in the state have participated in a pilot and reported their results to the state. All believed that the new reflective decals were more effective than the standard, non-reflective STOP decal currently displayed on the rear of school buses. Districts that participated in the pilot include Centerville City, Chagrin Falls Exempted Village, Columbus City, Dublin City, Green Local, Huber Heights City, Marysville Exempted Village, Massillon City and Union-Scioto Local schools.
State Board of Education (SBOE) members debated at length but did not reach a decision Monday on a resolution opposing draft Biden administration Title IX regulations regarding gender identity. They ultimately agreed to lead off their regular November meeting with further discussion. After two months of tense debate and emotional public testimony on board member Brendan Shea’s resolution, the board voted earlier in October to send the topic to its Executive Committee. Shea’s resolution states biological sex assigned at birth is an objective fact, saying denial of that “destroys foundational truths upon which education rests and irreparably damages children.” The resolution also supports Attorney General Dave Yost’s litigation against the federal government over the draft regulations as well as legislative efforts to bar trans girls from participating in girls’ school sports. It further would direct the state superintendent to send a letter to local schools stating the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) considers the regulations unenforceable.
The state lacks justification to freeze the assets of Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) founder William Lager, his attorneys argued in court filings, also saying the supposed urgency of the situation is belied by the fact the attorney general is seeking the freeze four years after the case was filed. Lager and ECOT vendors affiliated with him were found by Judge Kimberly Cocroft to have illegally profited from contracts with the school, which shut down in early 2018 after the state started withholding money to recoup past overpayments. ECOT lost a battle in the Ohio Supreme Court challenging the Ohio Department of Education and State Board of Education’s determination that it could not substantiate the enrollment of thousands of students and owed the state tens of millions of dollars.
INTEL
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority (TCA) Monday approved assistance for Honda’s electric vehicle (EV) project and two other projects, while also updating the percentage rate for Intel’s assistance from 3.101 percent to 3.99 percent. The term for Intel’s assistance remains 30 years, and the estimated value has increased from $475 million to $557.8 million, according to the Ohio Department of Development (DOD). The plan to update the rate had been announced by DOD after the September TCA meeting when the lower rate had been incorrectly approved.
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