Oppose HB 512-Tell your representative to vote NO on HB 512 Oppose Removing Transparency from Ohio's State Education System
02-20-2018 UPDATE: Just last Wednesday, Representative Reineke announced legislation that would combine the Ohio Department of Education, Ohio Department of Higher Education, and Ohio Department of Workforce Transformation into a single new department organized under the governor. (See also: Plain Dealer Article) This legislation is moving very rapidly and has already been scheduled for its first hearing: sponsor testimony on Tuesday, February 20th!
Please call the committee members today! Contact information is below.
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! Talk about the fox guarding the hen house!
Immediate Action Needed! 1. CALL your state representative and ask them to OPPOSE HB512 Representative Reineke's "Workforce and Education Alignment Legislation." If you can make two calls, call the Speaker of the House as well. (Look up your representative here: http://www.ohiohouse.gov/)
2. CALL the members of the Government Accountability & Oversight Committee and ask them to OPPOSE HB 512. This is time sensitive and urgent! **Committee Contact Information is Below** If we do not have an overwhelming number of calls this week this legislation could remain priority legislation for the House Speaker, be railroaded through the legislative process and result in an elimination of voter's voices in education policy!
Government Accountability & Oversight 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 - (614) 466-2004 Keith Faber - (614) 466-6344 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 - (614) 466-1366 Martin J. Sweeney - (614) 466-3350
Thank you!
Sarah Fowler
State School Board member District 7
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