UPDATE: HB 512 Education power grab

This Action Alert is from several liberty groups in Ohio.

The GAO Committee Chairman Lou Blessing has scheduled HB512 for opponent testimony. This is the third hearing.

Wednesday March 7, 9:30 am

Ohio Statehouse, Columbus - Room 114

If possible, please plan to attend.

SHARE

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ATTEND

Please plan to attend!  It is critical to overflow the room (it is not a large room), spill into the hallway and over to the Rotunda. So, if you attend but do not plan to testify, please know you are making a difference with your presence.

DATE / TIME / PLACE

Wednesday, March 7, 9:30 am

Ohio Statehouse - Room 114,  77 South High Street, Columbus 43215

PARKING

There is parking under the Statehouse. If it is full, there are other parking lots downtown. Please plan to arrive downtown with plenty of time to find parking.

AGENDA

Note that the agenda specifies that this will also include hearings on other pending legislation.  HB512 is listed as being for proponent, opponent, and interested parties (these are usually neutral). It is common practice that by inviting all parties to testify, this could indicate it is the final hearing....although this is at Chairman Blessing's discretion.

TESTIMONY

For those who would like to offer testimony, the Chair respectfully requests that testifying parties submit testimony to his office 24 hours prior to committee.  Testimony can be emailed to the Government Accountability & Oversight Committee Chairman.

If it is not possible to attend, please consider submitting written testimony and specify it is "written testimony only" that you would like entered into the Committee record.  FYI, proper protocol for written testimony or similar wording to begin your testimony is as follows.

"Chairman Blessing, Vice Chair Reineke, Ranking Member Clyde, and members of the House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee, my name is -------- and I appreciate the opportunity to offer testimony today in opposition to HB 512. ..."

Additional Information about this bill:

Here is the 28-minute House Press Conference on Feb. 14.

Here is the HB 512 Bill Summary.

Here is the 2,430 page bill location and its status. (You can download current version.)

The State Board of Education, which includes 11 regionally elected members, would no longer have any voice in state education policy.  This includes a wide range of state regulations, such as:

- Education Standards in all subjects

- Education Assessment selection at the state level

- Determination of Achievement/Proficiency Levels

- State Report Cards

- Teacher/Student Ratio's

- Private School Regulations

- Religious School Regulations

- Home Education Regulations

- Public School Operating Standards

- Career Technical Regulations

Currently all of these items (and many more) go through a public hearing process.  Under the proposed legislation, it appears that all policy making function would be further bureaucratized and no longer created through a transparent, accountable process.

This legislation also imposes on our Constitutional separation of powers by giving the administrative branch (Governor) legislative authority.  Our founders knew that people are more likely to lose their rights when the same body is creating and enforcing the laws.  HB512 aligns all education entities solely under the administrative branch and gives the new mega-agency the ability to create and enforce regulations with no accountability.

This needs to be stopped.  This would eliminate any effective representation that we have through the State School Board, Board of Regents, etc.  This is a full-on power grab by Kasich.  

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Related: Last week, cleveland.com reported on Gov. Kasich’s dismantling of the Ohio Board of Regents:

The Ohio Board of Regents, an advisory board to the Ohio Department of Higher Education, has not met in more than a year because it currently has only two members, three members shy of a quorum.

Gov. John Kasich, who is responsible for appointments to the nine-member board, has not replaced members whose terms have expired for at least five years.

Kasich supports a bill [that would be HB 512] recently introduced in the Ohio House to combine the state's school, university and workforce development systems into a single new Department of Learning and Achievement.

The rest of this report is here.

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