Week in Review 04-02-2021

CORONAVIRUS

Ohio’s centralized scheduling website for the COVID-19 vaccination removed most screening criteria Friday to allow anyone age 16 and up to start looking for appointments, as the state made all adults and older teenagers eligible starting Monday, March 29. 

The state saw an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations Tuesday that was well above the 21-day average, according to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).

Rep. Al Cutrona (R-Canfield) said Tuesday that he will be introducing legislation to prohibit “vaccine passports,” the term given to documentation to show that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19 that could be used to access certain services not otherwise available. Rep. Mike Loychik (R-Bazetta) said he plans to join the legislation as a cosponsor.

DeWine and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Chief Medical Officer Bruce Vanderhoff said Ohio’s COVID-19 case count, positivity rate and hospitalization numbers have been increasing over the last week, making efforts to vaccinate as many people as quickly and efficiently as possible even more critical. About 30 percent of all Ohioans have received at least one dose of the vaccine so far, according to ODH.

EDUCATION

Education experts told the City Club of Cleveland during a virtual meeting Tuesday that students have experienced negative learning outcomes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning provisions, and the best way to bring students back up to speed is through a series of intensive remediations, including tutoring, extra school hours and other methods.

The chair of the Senate’s Primary and Secondary Education Committee unveiled a report card reform measure Wednesday that would convert the A-F grading system to a five-star scale and make other modifications to how school performance is measured and reported. Sen. Andrew Brenner’s (R-Powell) SB145 drew initial support Wednesday in testimony from Ohio Excels, a business coalition focused on education issues, as well as the Alliance for High Quality Education (AHQE), an association representing dozens of districts. Brenner said the legislation represents input from numerous stakeholders beyond AHQE and Ohio Excels, with work starting a few years ago. He said more groups are expected to testify in the coming weeks.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Shawnee State University violated the free speech rights of one of its philosophy professors when it disciplined him for refusing to refer to a transgender student by her preferred pronouns, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

Ohio University (OU) announced Thursday it is collaborating with 16 other Ohio colleges on a letter-writing campaign in support of SB126 (Kunze-Gavarone), otherwise known as Collin’s Law. The campaign kicked off Monday, March 29, at 8 p.m. with a Zoom program to provide participants with background on the bill. It featured Sen. Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard) and Kathleen Wiant, mother of Collin Wiant, who was a freshman member of Sigma Pi at OU when he lost his life in connection with a hazing incident.