Update on HB 512 and Alert

Second Hearing for Opposition Testimony

This Week ~ Wednesday, March 14 @ 9:30am

Cleveland Tea Party blogged on March 4 about HB 512 – the state’s education power-grab – click here. A short overview is at The Petition Site here. Today’s Alert is based on e-Alerts from other Ohio liberty groups.

Reasons to oppose HB 512:

• ·         Would establish the largest educational bureaucracy in the nation
• ·         Would take away the right of citizens to effectively have a say in education and concentrate power in the hands of the Governor. HB 512 will further weaken local control of schools.
• ·         An unresponsive education bureaucracy would lead to more rule making authority, and allow the state government to act unilaterally -- without a check and balance by an elected Board of Education, as specified by law.
• ·         With today’s need for education to focus more on skilled trades and non-college jobs, a department with a K-16 focus can only make education more expensive and more difficult to prepare students for future employment and careers.  

If you were unable to travel to Columbus last week, here’s a second opportunity to attend the hearing on HB 512 on Wednesday, March 14th.  Come for as long as you can, depending on the amount of testimony for each bill (there are seven prior to HB512). 

The hearing room was moved to 313 - the largest available so we will need more people to attend.

Additional Action Alerts:

Continue to both call and write to your state representative.

Submit "written only" testimony to  GovernmentAccountability&OversightCommittee@ohiohouse.gov

Offer written and oral testimony (be prepared for questions from Committee Members) by sending prepared remarks to the e-mail address above 24 hours in advance of the hearing and completing a witness slip as requested through the chairman's office.

Attend the hearing to quietly demonstrate your opposition to the massive overhaul of Ohio's education system, consolidation of power under the governor and elimination of voter's voice in education policy!  

Note: HB 512 is listed on the March 14 schedule as being for proponent, opponent, and interested parties. 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.

 

Additional Information:

Address: Ohio State House, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus, OH 43215

Parking cost: $7-20 depending on location, if the Statehouse Parking Garage is full, Columbus Commons is the next best option.

Complete this form when submitting testimony:  GAOCWitnessInformationform

Email testimony & witness form to Chairman Blessing:  GovernmentAccountability&OversightCommittee@ohiohouse.gov

Contact information for Committee Members:

Chairman Louis Blessing III – (Co-Sponsor of HB 512) (614) 466-9091

Vice Chairman Bill Reineke (Sponsor of HB 512) – (614) 466-1374

Kathleen Clyde (Running for State Office) – (614) 466-2004

Riordan McClain (replacing Keith Faber 2/22) – (614) 644-6265

Timothy Ginter – (614) 466-8022

Dave Greenspan – (614) 466-0961

Brigid Kelly – (614) 466-5786

Bernadine Kennedy Kent – (614) 466-5343

P. Scott Lipps – (614) 644-6023

Dorothy Pelanda (Co-Sponsor of HB 512) – (614) 466-8147

Bill Sietz – (614) 466-8258

Ryan Smith (Running for House Speaker) – (614) 466-1366

Martin J. Sweeney – (614) 466-3350

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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

Spread the word taking full advantage of social media.  SHARE this event on Facebook by clicking here.

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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Gov. Kasich: do you mean legal or illegal immigration?

art credit: beforeitsnews.com

Breitbart reports on Gov. Kasich’s appearance on Fox News Sunday (warning: GOPe Weasel Words Alert):

. . . Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said the “bulk” of the Republican party was pro-immigration and not moving towards nationalism.

Kasich said, “I think the bulk of the Republican Party — and I’ve been in the party since I was a college student — it’s one that believes in the fact that America has a place in the world, Reagan talked about it, it advances humanity. I agree. I think the bulk of the Republican Party does believe that immigration provides energy to our country.”

He continued, “I think the bulk of the Republican party believes that America is special and has a place in the world to advance freedom and free enterprise and all those things. I think that this move towards nationalism where we are looking inward, has a lot of loud voices but I don’t think it’s the bulk.”

Speak for yourself, Gov. Kasich. You are not speaking for Americans who support LEGAL immigration, not ILLEGAL immigration or amnesty.

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After Dallas: More security needed during RNC week

photo credit: pinterest.com

The Dallas shootings were horrific. How many citizens are aware that the murders of 5 cops were in part fueled by a false narrative of the Minnesota shooting that was promoted in the media. The misreporting of those circumstances  amounts to yet another instance of media malpractice.  The media has blood on its hands. 

And now there is more bad news from St. Paul (Black Lives Matter violence) and San Antonio (police under attack). What are the prospects for a violence-free RNC week in Cleveland? Not looking good.

On June 30, the convention committee published a news release that lists the various law enforcement and public safety agencies working on the RNC week. The good news: I am relieved to see that among the participating partners is The Ohio National Guard. I did not see any out-of-state National Guard units on the list, so that remains a question. Nor did I see that Mayor Jackson requested that Gov. Kasich actually activate the Ohio National Guard so they can be in place if/when needed. No good if it takes over 24 hours after the rioting begins to transport and put them where they were needed.

Thus far, I can find no report that the Ohio National Guard has been activated in advance. There is ample precedence for activating National Guard troops in advance for emergency preparations (e.g., here and here). It's my question for Tuesday's meeting at the Convention Center with, among others, CPD.

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Off-Script Ohio

h/t Flopping Aces

A cartoon that all you OSU TBDBITL fans will appreciate.

Scotland votes no: any lessons for Gov. Kasich?

art credit: zazzle.com

On Breitbart London, James Delingpole commented on yesterday's vote in Scotland for or against independence from Great Britain. 

With hindsight, we can all tell ourselves that last night's victory for the "No" vote was inevitable. With almost the entire British political establishment - including three prime ministers - behind it, not to mention an exceedingly rare and unlikely union of the left and right media (and The Daily Mail shall lie down with The Guardian and the BBC...), as well as three hundred years of history, the continuation of the Union ought to have been a foregone conclusion.

But that is certainly not how it has felt in the last fortnight. Hence the unseemly scramble we witnessed in the last few days as Cameron and co headed north to grovel and abase themselves on broken glass promising Scotland anything and everything just so long as it remained in the Union.

And so it has come to pass: a small tactical victory has been gained at the expense of a massive strategic defeat.

. . . 

Great Britain could emulate the federal system of the US, with its newly Balkanised states granted the freedom to set their own local tax levels, either running themselves into the ground on the high-tax, overregulated, socialistic California model or emulating the can-do spirit of Texas and become thriving models of free-market capitalism.

Gov. Kasich: are you paying attention? Where is your “can-do spirit” to get off the federal dole and lead the effort to turn Ohio into a thriving model of free-market capitalism? Ohio can’t get there with Common Core, Obamacare, and expanded Medicare dragging it down.  

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