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The ESC Bridge - Week of 2/26/17

The ESC BRIDGE

Bridging Resources, Information, and Data from

Government and Education

For the Weeks of February 20^th, 2017

Featured News

Cleveland State receives $1 million gift for foster care youth support center The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland State University has received a $1 million gift to create a center to support students who have exited foster care. Barbara and Frank Sullivan's gift expands on their support for foster youth, who at 18 leave the system and must fend for themselves. A $2.3 million gift to CSU in 2014 from the Sullivans and Jenniffer and Daryl Deckard established a scholarship program that provides money for all expenses, including tuition, year-round housing and meals for foster youths.

National, Federal, US Department of Education

Trump Administration Court Filing May Signal Shift on Transgender Rights Education Week

The U.S. Department of Justice has withdrawn a motion made last November by the Obama administration asking a federal appeals court to scale back a nationwide injunction blocking the May 2016 guidance for schools to respect the restroom choices of transgender students. The move, in a short court filing on Feb. 10 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, signals that President Donald Trump's administration may be taking a different approach to transgender rights than his predecessor.

Key House Lawmaker Discusses What's Next for Federal Education Funding Education Week

Local school leaders worried about potential cuts to major federally funded education programs may find some comfort in the words of Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Department of Education budget. In a recent interview, Cole also stressed that while he has certain ideas about how federal spending on schools might shape up in the near future, he'll want to get a lot of input first from President Donald Trump's administration. And he highlighted the importance of federal spending on students with disabilities.

Imagine a World With an ESSA Statute—But No Accountability Regulations Education Week

The possible end of Every Student Succeeds Act accountability rules could have profound consequences for schools around the country. For much of the past year, state chiefs, district leaders, civil rights advocates, and others focused intently on trying to influence the shape of those rules, issued to govern ESSA state plans and school accountability. Such rules set the timeline for how schools are rated, measuring "consistently underperforming" students, and other key issues.

Betsy DeVos: I'll Look for Unnecessary Programs to Cut at the Education Dept. Education Week

For the third time since she was confirmed as education secretary, Betsy DeVos spoke with a Michigan media outlet to discuss her confirmation process and her priorities. And she made it clear she's looking for ways to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. Department of Education. In a Tuesday interview on the Michael Patrick Shiels radio program, DeVos said the confirmation was an "interesting and protracted" process, and that she was glad to get started as secretary.

DeVos Says Protesters Are a Sign of Hostility to Change in K-12 Education Week

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos kicked off her first public speech Wednesday by casting the protesters who sought to block her from visiting a Washington, D.C., middle school last week as part of a divisive opposition that's resistant to fresh ideas. "By keeping kids in and new thinking out, Friday's incident demonstrates just how hostile some people are to change and to new ideas," DeVos said in a roughly seven-minute speech at the Magnet Schools of America conference in downtown Washington. "Without realizing it, we, too, can fall victim to this trap of seeing our work in education.

Betsy DeVos Sees Choice-Friendly Florida as a K-12 Model for the Nation Education Week

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos may have helped to create the charter sector in her home state of Michigan. But in a recent interview she singled out another state—Florida—as offering a great blueprint for the country. "I would point to Florida as being one that has had a variety of options for the longest period of time," DeVos told Frank Beckmann, a conservative radio talk show host on WJR, based in Michigan. She said the state, which has charters, also offers both a tax credit scholarship, something DeVos and company may push.

Without Regulations for a Key ESSA Spending Rule, Here's What Could Happen Education Week

As we reported last month the Obama administration decided not to finalize a rule for the supplemental-money requirement in the Every Student Succeeds Act before President Donald Trump took office. So where does this leave this spending provision? A quick refresher: Like past versions of the federal education law, districts must use federal K-12 money to supplement, and not supplant, state and local spending on schools.

Justice Department Informs Supreme Court of Change in Transgender Policy Education Week

The Trump administration late Wednesday informed the U.S. Supreme Court of its withdrawal of guidance on transgender students in schools issued under President Barack Obama. Education Week's Evie Blad reports here on the "Dear Colleague" letter issued by the Departments of Education and Justice—also on Feb. 22—that rescinds the broad May 13, 2016, transgender guidance issued by the Obama administration as well as an earlier, more informal interpretation letter that has been central to a court case scheduled for arguments next month in the Supreme Court.

Betsy DeVos: 'Education Establishment' Has Blocked Efforts to Fix Schools Education Week

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos urged conservative activists Thursday to help her fight against the "education establishment," which she said has blocked students from getting access to school choice and quality schools. "Our nation's test scores have flatlined," DeVos told a roomful at the Conservative Political Action Conference, sponsored by the American Conservative Union.

Ohio Legislation Update (recent bill action in red)

132^nd General Assembly

House

HB3 DATAOHIO BOARD CREATION (Rep. Mike Duffey, Rep. Christina Hagan) To create the DataOhio Board, to specify requirements for posting public records online, to require the Auditor of State to adopt rules regarding a uniform accounting system for public offices, to establish an online catalog of public data at data.Ohio.gov, to establish the Local Government Information Exchange Grant Program, and to make appropriations

STATUS: Referred to House Finance Committee

HB21 COMMUNITY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT VERIFICATION (Rep. Steve Hambley) Regarding verification of community school enrollments

STATUS: Referred to House Education & Career Readiness Committee

HB37 SCHOOL SAFETY-STRUCTURES (Rep. Steve Arndt) To require the Ohio School Facilities Commission to establish a program assisting school districts in purchasing technology and making physical alterations to improve technology infrastructure and school safety and security

STATUS: Introduced; Referred to House Education & Career Readiness Committee

HB47 STUDENTS IN MILITARY (Rep. John Boccieri) To enact the "Students to Soldiers Support Act (S3A)" regarding the participation of students who are serving in the uniformed services in extracurricular activities at public and nonpublic schools and public and private colleges

STATUS: Referred to House Education & Career Readiness Committee

HB49 OPERATING BUDGET (Rep. Ryan Smith) Creates FY 2018-2019 main operating budget

STATUS: Referred to House Finance Committee

HB53 PUBLIC EMPLOYEES-MEMBER DUES (Rep. John Becker) To remove any requirement under the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Law that public employees join or pay dues to any employee organization, to prohibit public employers from requiring public employees to join or pay dues to any employee organization, to prohibit an employee organization from being required to represent public employees who are not members of the employee organization, and to make an appropriation

STATUS: Introduced; Referred to House Finance Committee

HB58 CURSIVE HANDWRITING INSTRUCTION (Rep. Andrew Brenner, Rep. Marilyn Slaby) To require instruction in cursive handwriting

STATUS: Referred to Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee

HB66 TENURED TEACHING REQUIREMENTS (Rep. Ron Young) To require permanently tenured state university or college faculty members to teach at least three credit hours of undergraduate courses per semester

STATUS: Referred to Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee

HB74 INCREASE COLLEGE TAX DEDUCTION (Rep. Stephen Huffman, Rep. Theresa Gavarone) To increase the maximum income tax deduction for contributions to the state's 529 college savings program from $2,000 to $3,000 per beneficiary per year

STATUS: Introduced

HB77 SICK-CHILD CARE LICENSURE (Rep. Wes Retherford) To provide for the licensure of sick-child care centers

STATUS: Introduced

HB80 SCHOOL FOOD-SUMMER INTERVENTION (Rep. Sarah LaTourette, Rep. Kent Smith) To require school districts to allow approved summer food service program sponsors to use school facilities to provide food service for summer intervention services under certain conditions

STATUS: Introduced

HB87 COMMUNITY SCHOOL PUBLIC MONEYS (Rep. Kristina Roegner) Regarding public moneys returned to the state as a result of a finding for recovery issued pursuant to an audit of a community school

STATUS: Introduced

HB89 AUGUST SALES TAX HOLIDAY (Rep. John Patterson, Rep. Brigid Kelly) To provide for a three-day sales tax "holiday" in August 2017 during which sales of clothing and school supplies are exempt from sales and use taxes

STATUS: Introduced

Senate

SB3 WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT (Sen. Bill Beagle, Sen. Troy Balderson) To revise the laws governing the state's workforce development system, programs that may be offered by primary and secondary schools, certificates of qualification for employment, and the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Agency, and to designate the first week of May as In-Demand Jobs Week

STATUS: Senate Transportation, Commerce & Workforce Committee

SB5 INCREASING INCOME TAX DEDUCTIONS (Sen. Jay Hottinger, Sen. John Eklund) To increase the maximum income tax deduction for contributions to college savings accounts and disability expense savings accounts to $10,000 annually for each beneficiary, to create the Joint Committee on Ohio College Affordability, and to declare an emergency

STATUS: Senate Finance Committee

SB8 SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY (Sen. Randy Gardner, Sen. Louis Terhar) To require the Ohio School Facilities Commission to establish a program assisting school districts in purchasing technology and making physical alterations to improve technology infrastructure and school safety and security

STATUS: Introduced

SB9 AUGUST TAX HOLIDAY (Sen. Kevin Bacon) To provide for a three-day sales tax "holiday" in August 2017 during which sales of clothing and school supplies are exempt from sales and use taxes

STATUS: Senate Local Government, Public Safety & Veterans Affairs Committee – Reported out; Passed by Senate, Vote 32-1

SB15 COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS (Sen. Charleta Tavares) To require community colleges, state community colleges, technical colleges, and university branches to comply with minority business enterprise set-aside requirements, and to require the Director of Administrative Services to establish guidelines for these entities, and the Northeast Ohio Medical University, to establish procurement goals for contracting with EDGE business enterprises

STATUS: Senate Government Oversight & Reform Committee

SB17 LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUND ALLOCATION (Sen. Charleta Tavares) To increase monthly allocations to the Local Government Fund from 1.66% to 3.68% of the total tax revenue credited to the General Revenue Fund each month

STATUS: Senate Finance Committee

SB34 SCHOOL YEARS (Sen. Gayle Manning) To generally require public and chartered nonpublic schools to open for instruction after Labor Day

STATUS: Introduced

SB39 COMMUNITY SCHOOL OPERATION (Sen. Joe Schiavoni) Regarding community school operator contracts, the operation of Internet- and computer-based community schools, and performance metrics for blended learning schools

STATUS: Introduced

STATUS: Referred to Senate Education Committee

SB54 SUMMER FOOD PROGRAMS (Sen. Edna Brown, Sen. Peggy Lehner) To require school districts to allow approved summer food service program sponsors to use school facilities to provide food service for summer intervention services under certain conditions

STATUS: Introduced; Referred to Senate Government Oversight & Reform Committee

Ohio Budget and Politics

Ohio schools should report drug prevention efforts to state, Attorney General Mike DeWine says The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Ohio schools are required by law to teach students about the dangers of drug abuse, but there's no way of knowing exactly what they teach. A panel of lawmakers and behavioral health officials want schools to report that information to the Ohio Department of Education. The recommendation is one of 15 to improve drug use prevention education made in a report released Friday by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

State task force recommends schools educate all grade levels on substance abuse Columbus Dispatch

Teaching students of all ages social and emotional learning is a crucial step toward combating Ohio's drug addiction crisis, Attorney General Mike DeWine suggests. The Ohio Joint Study Committee on Drug Use Prevention Education issued 15 recommendations Friday for schools across the state. These include requiring schools to report how they are teaching students to resist drug abuse.

Hambley Bill Aims for Better Tracking of Where Charter Students Live Hannah

Charter schools would have more responsibility to keep track of students' addresses of residence under legislation proposed by Rep. Stephen Hambley (R-Brunswick), who says it's needed to ensure funding for charter students flows from the correct source. Hambley presented his HB21 to the House Education and Career Readiness Committee on Tuesday. He said the law makes identifying charter students' residents "almost exclusively" the responsibility of traditional school districts, even in situations where they never interact with the students, such as with e-school students.

Ohio teachers would have to job shadow at a business to renew licenses under Gov. John Kasich's budget The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Ohio teachers would have to job shadow someone in a local business to renew their licenses under a provision in Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal. The "externship" would be completed with a local business or chamber of commerce and could count toward required continuing education courses.

Most vocational schools would lose funding under Kasich proposal Columbus Dispatch

Like Ohio's libraries and K-12 school districts, vocational schools soon could be feeling the squeeze of Ohio's tightening purse strings. Of the state's 49 career-technical schools, 35 would receive less state funding next year under Gov. John Kasich's proposed 2018-19 budget. That includes Tolles in Plain City, Tri-Rivers in Marion, C-TEC in Newark and Eastland-Fairfield schools in Groveport and Carroll.

Kasich wants teachers to learn another job, or lose theirs Akron Beacon Journal

Ohio Gov. John Kasich wants public school teachers to see what it’s like to work outside the classroom so they can better match their students to the needs of local employers.

Tucked on page 1,056 of Kasich’s 3,512-page 2018-19 state budget is a new education mandate. If the Ohio House and Senate accepts the proposal, educators looking to get or renew a teaching license this fall would have to work at or, more likely, tour a local business.

Cleveland would lose $2 million under Kasich's proposal for local aid; 51 other Ohio cities would also lose out The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland would lose more than $2 million annually from the state's local government fund under a provision in Gov. John Kasich's budget proposal. Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Canton would also lose money under Kasich's plan, which bases some funding on a jurisdiction's ability to raise local revenues, according to estimates released this week by the Office of Budget and Management.

Ohio's tuition vouchers could soon give more money to more middle class, suburban students The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Ohio's complicated tuition voucher programs would be combined and expanded to offer more money to more middle class and suburban students under a bill that will be announced next week. The bill to be proposed by State Sen. Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, would combine three existing voucher programs - one with strict income requirements, one for students in "failing" schools and one for only Cleveland residents -into a single program.

Huffman Floats Unified School Voucher, Education Savings Accounts Hannah

Three Ohio school voucher programs would merge into one income-based scholarship with greater flexibility under a proposal from Sen. Matt Huffman (R-Lima). Huffman said he expects to introduce legislation this week establishing the Ohio Opportunity Scholarship to combine the Cleveland, traditional EdChoice and EdChoice expansion programs, with higher scholarship amounts that adjust on a sliding scale with income. Ohio's Autism Scholarship and Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship programs would not be affected by his proposal.

Ohio Department of Education/State Board of Education

Gunlock Leaves School Board; Kasich Picks Analytics Expert as Replacement Hannah

Tom Gunlock, who recently stepped down as State Board of Education president after declining to seek the office again, left the board this week, and Gov. John Kasich named Kara Morgan of Union County to replace him. According to Kasich's office, Gunlock resigned the board Thursday.

School Board Discusses ESSA Plan, Testing Reduction Hannah

State Board of Education members heard from Superintendent Paolo DeMaria and staff Monday on how Ohio plans to implement a new federal law, with much of the discussion and board members' questions focused on testing. DeMaria, senior adviser Colleen Grady and lead accountability official Chris Woolard presented an overview of Ohio's draft plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). DeMaria stressed that the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) solicited thousands and thousands of comments before releasing the draft plan and is taking further public feedback for another round of possible revisions before submitting the plan to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) in April.

DeMaria Briefs Joint Education Committee on ESSA Plan Hannah

Superintendent Paolo DeMaria faced the Joint Education Oversight Committee on Thursday to present the state's draft plan to implement the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The committee also announced plans for two hearings in March for others to offer feedback to the committee on the ESSA plan: 2:30 p.m.-4 p.m. Thursday, March 2; and 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 9. DeMaria opened his remarks by seeking to put the plan in context, noting it's a way to provide "assurances and representations" to Congress and the federal administration that it's meeting the strictures of ESSA, and not a "comprehensive" plan for education as a whole in Ohio. While federal education funding exceeds $1 billion in the budget, that's a small slice of the $22 billion annually provided by federal, state and local sources, he said.

Early Childhood

Think Tank Offers Policy Prescriptions on Early Childhood Education Week

Allowing states to use combined state and federal funds to offer child care and preschool, and expanding the Child and Dependent Care Credit so that more money goes to poor families are among the early-childhood proposals outlined in a policy blueprint released this month from the American Enterprise Institute.

Head Start Could Be Innovator for Early-Childhood Workforce, Ed. Group Says Education Week

Head Start, the venerable 52-year-old federal preschool program for children from low-income families, could be serve a role in improving the early-education workforce as a whole, says a new report from Bellwether Education Partners, a Washington-based consulting firm. In The Best Teachers for our Littlest Learners: Lessons from Head Start's Last Decade, authors Marnie Kaplan and Sara Mead note that Head Start has led the way in requiring its teachers to have bachelor's degrees; currently 74 percent of Head Start teachers have a bachelor's degree or beyond in early childhood or a related field.

College and Career Readiness

Learn how much a new college savings proposal in Ohio could save you The Cleveland Plain Dealer

A proposal introduced in Ohio Senate last month could sharply increase state income tax savings for some people contributing to 529 Ohio college saving plans. Use the calculator with this story to estimate the potential tax savings for you.

Nearly half of community college students say they may drop out because of finances, report says The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Nearly half of community college students say they might drop out because they don't have enough money, according to a new report. "Making sure students can pay their tuition -- and pay for housing, food, and other basic needs -- must be an integral part of the college completion agenda," said Evelyn Waiwaiole, director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement, which released "Making Ends Meet: The Role of Community Colleges in Student Financial Health" on Tuesday.

Higher Education Affordability Task Force Issues Progress Report Hannah

Ohio’s universities have seen a mixed bag in implementing plans aimed at making their institutions more efficient and affordable to Ohio families, according to a progress report issued by the Ohio Task Force on Affordability and Efficiency in Higher Education Thursday. The task force was put together by Gov. John Kasich in 2015 to make recommendations to Ohio’s institutions of higher education approaches to be more efficient in expense management and revenue generation in a way that will allow those institutions to offer a high quality education while decreasing costs to students and their families. The eight-member task force released its recommendations later that year.

Northeast Ohio Schools

Cuyahoga County

Cleveland to "phase out," but not close, eight schools after turnaround efforts flounder The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools Want Your Opinion On Preschool Cleveland Heights Patch

Fairview Park City Schools unveil salad bar for additional healthy food options Cleveland.Com

Independence Primary School recognized as a Quality Learning and Development Program: Community voices Independence Local Schools

North Royalton schools face significant operating cuts if voters reject May tax increase, school officials say Cleveland.Com

Rocky River schools hold information night about 4.9 mill levy on May ballot Cleveland.Com

Geauga County

Kenston Schools Geauga Maple Leaf

Lake County

Laketran helps students improve life skills through interactive travel training program Willoughby News-Herald