Columbus Dispatch...
Agreements reached on Ohio budget
Changes to affect charter schools, teachers’ pay; votes this week
By Jim Siegel

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 

A major overhaul of Ohio’s public-construction law, authority for the state Department of Education to sponsor charter schools and a new system to evaluate teachers were among the agreements reached last night by the state-budget conference committee. 

Charter-school oversight was a major area of disagreement between House and Senate Republicans. Although majorities in both chambers support school choice, the chambers clashed over a number of House-added provisions that would have significantly increased the power of for-profit operators and, critics said, weakened oversight. 

In the final compromise, school choice is to expand, but much of the House language was stripped from the bill, including a controversial provision allowing for the establishment of for-profit charter schools that was pushed by major GOP donor and charter operator David Brennan.

The compromise included a form of a House-added provision that would allow people or groups to establish as many as 20 charter schools a year over the next five years through the Department of Education instead of a traditional nonprofit sponsor. 

Senate Republicans stressed that the department, which was criticized a decade ago for failing to properly oversee charter schools and later was stripped of the duty, will get proper funding and the authority to act as any other charter-school sponsor does today. 

“There could be some benefit for the department to be engaged as a sponsor,” said Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro. “We may be able to do some innovative things that only the department can do.” 

After several delays, the conference committee voted 4-2 along party lines just before midnight to report the final budget, setting up a likely vote by the full Senate today, and a House vote Wednesday. Gov. John Kasich plans to sign the two-year, $55.8 billion budget Thursday so it can take effect Friday, when the fiscal year starts. 

Under changes yesterday, every district by the start of the 2013-14 school year must adopt a new teacher-evaluation system that conforms to a framework the state Department of Education is to develop this year. That framework will require that 50 percent of an evaluation must be tied to student academic performance, a provision that follows a key element of the federal Race to the Top program. More than half of Ohio districts are participating in that program, sharing in about $400 million in funding. 

However, only schools participating in the Race to the Top program would be required to pay teachers according to a performance-based system, based on the evaluation ratings, level of license and whether the teacher is “highly qualified” under federal law. 

For schools not in Race to the Top, merit pay would be optional. They could continue to pay teachers based on experience and educational training. 

The budget bill also would prohibit all districts from using seniority as the preference when determining the order of layoffs. 

Sen. Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood, a member of the committee, objected to the evaluation provision, arguing that it did not get sufficient debate and was too similar to merit-pay language that was part of Senate Bill 5, which weakens collective-bargaining power for public workers and is likely to be challenged on the November ballot. 

Republicans also agreed to largely go along with a Kasich-proposed expansion of the options that government builders will have on major construction projects. Critics, including Ohio State University leaders, say the state’s construction law is outdated and costly. 

Although current law requires public construction projects to include four separate prime contractors, the budget will allow other options, including “single prime,” in which only one general contractor is hired. 

The committee approved an amendment that Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, said would “add transparency to the process.” 

Republicans also agreed to increase the threshold for paying prevailing wages on new public construction projects from $80,000 to $125,000 next year and to $250,000 on July 1, 2013. The amounts, proposed by the Senate, were far below the $5 million threshold originally proposed by Kasich and the $3.5 million in the budget the House passed. 

Republicans weren’t expected to add much money to the budget, sticking with conservative revenue estimates from Kasich’s budget office. Nursing homes picked up about $87 million in state and federal funds, reducing their cuts to $340 million. Cuts totaled about $585million for local governments, $700 million for schools and nearly $250 million for universities. 

Read it at the Columbus Dispatch