Opinion: 'Ensuring the Success of Ohio’s Students'

The following column by State Representative Marlene Anielski was submitted by her office to Patch:

Ensuring the Success of Ohio’s Students

Over the past seven months, members of the Ohio House have been working hard on legislation that will reduce spending, keep taxes down, create jobs and grow our economy. But much of this legislation has also been aimed at improving our schools, and as a member of the House Education Committee, I’m very proud of what we have accomplished.

With the month of August having snuck up on us, school will soon be back in session for children across the state. The start of the school year is a great reminder of what legislation the Ohio House has passed to help our schools since we began this General Assembly in January.

We started out by removing many of the unfunded mandates that our schools couldn’t afford as part of the evidence-based model. These included provisions such as requiring all-day, every-day kindergarten — a wonderful option that many schools already offer, but also something that many school districts cannot afford at the present time. There were also problems such as allowing only three calamity days for the school year, which is not feasible with the harsh winter weather northeast Ohio receives, so we passed legislation to restore the five calamity days that our schools need to keep our children safe. 

For schools in both urban and rural settings, the House passed legislation that will allow the Teach For America program to come to Ohio. This program takes top college grads from around the nation who have innovative ideas and the motivation to help students in struggling districts. By allowing them to teach in Ohio, our students from low-income communities will have one more advantage as they pursue their education.

Because teaching is a profession that plays such a vital role in the future of our children, it’s important that our schools have the capability to have the best teachers in the classroom. We’ve improved this by allowing schools more financial flexibility by reforming the relationship between public sector unions and their employees, ensuring that there is an even playing field, where taxpayer dollars can be used efficiently and mass layoffs of teachers can be avoided.

Part of the reason that it’s important our schools have financial flexibility is because of how cash-strapped our schools are during this economic crunch. That’s why as we were crafting the state budget this year — without the use of one-time federal money to use for on-going expenses — we increased state aid through the school foundation formula, ensuring that all school districts would also receive at least the amount in the state aid that they received last year. In addition, we have expanded school choice and fought to make sure that college tuition can remain affordable through capping annual tuition rates at 3.5 percent.

When the bell rings and Ohio’s students hit the books again this fall, our schools will be in a better position to ensure the success of our young people thanks to much of the legislation the Ohio House has worked on this year.