Reforming Ohio's Education Bureaucracy to Meet 21st Century Challenges — The Buckeye Institute

Summary

Greg R. Lawson, Research Fellow at The Buckeye Institute, submitted interested party testimony on Ohio Senate Bill 1 to the Ohio House Economic and Workforce Development Committee on May 9, 2023, as prepared for delivery. The testimony says Senate Bill 1 pursues reforms that should help, and that the 19-member State Board of Education has hindered responsiveness and effectiveness. It says less than 10 percent of the 250,000 students had received appropriated funds under the Afterschool Child Enrichment Program. It says the Ohio Senate must approve the new director and deputy directors.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

                    Reforming Ohio’s Education Bureaucracy
                             to Meet 21st Century Challenges


                                                  Interested Party Testimony
                   Ohio House Economic and Workforce Development Committee
                                                            Ohio Senate Bill 1


                                                    Greg R. Lawson, Research Fellow
                                                               The Buckeye Institute


                                                                           May 9, 2023


                                                             As Prepared for Delivery




88 East Broad Street, Suite 1300 • Columbus, Ohio 43215 • (614) 224-4422 • BuckeyeInstitute.org
                                   THE BUCKEYE INSTITUTE



Thank you, Chair Swearingen, Vice Chair Santucci, Ranking Member Upchurch, and members of
the Committee, for the opportunity to submit written testimony regarding Ohio Senate Bill 1.

My name is Greg R. Lawson. I am a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, an independent
research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to advance free-market
public policy in the states.

State, local, and business leaders have long complained that Ohio’s education system does not
sufficiently prepare high school graduates for the workforce, leaving employers without skilled
employees and many young people without the knowledge they need to earn a living, afford a
house, or support a family. Senate Bill 1 pursues reforms that should help.

The Ohio Constitution requires a State Board of Education, but it leaves the selection of
members and the enumeration of its powers and duties up to the General Assembly. Currently,
the 19-member board is comprised of voter-elected members and several gubernatorial
appointees. It enjoys a broad purview over a range of issues such as academic standards,
instructional materials, school buildings, transportation, and administrative responsibilities.
Unfortunately, the board’s hybrid composition and extensive responsibilities have hindered its
responsiveness and effectiveness in a rapidly changing environment. More than 16 months have
lapsed, for example, since the last state superintendent announced retirement in September 2021
and the board still (still!) has not hired a permanent replacement. Governor Voinovich observed
more than three decades ago that the State Board of Education has too much on its plate, and the
plate has only gotten fuller since then. The time for reform is now.

The board has also become increasingly mired in politically charged discussions rather than
attending to the important matters at-hand, namely closing learning gaps and preparing
graduates for productive employment. The board’s distractions are particularly worrisome in the
wake of historically poor performance and academic decline following the COVID school
closures.

Ohio State University researchers, for example, determined that between March 2020 (when
schools began closing due to the pandemic) through April 2021, K-12 students lost the equivalent
of between one-half and one full year of learning in math, and between one-third and one-half of
a year of learning in English language arts (ELA). Students already performing below grade level
prior to the shutdown lost more than those performing at or above grade level. Hybrid instruction
that included limited in-classroom as well as remote instruction led to a significant 10 percent
drop in ELA performance. And students who remained in fully remote learning environments
suffered nearly three times the learning loss as those who maintained in-person instruction. A
subsequent study found ELA improvement for some students in the fall of 2021, but many
students remained months behind, and the achievement gaps with minority students persisted.

Even before the pandemic, eighth grade black students scored 10 percent lower in 2003 and 12
percent lower in 2019 than white students in math, with a similar gap in reading according to the
National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card.
Hispanic eighth-grade math students scored six percent below white students in 2003 and 2019,

2 Reforming Ohio’s Education Bureaucracy to Meet 21st Century Challenges
                                     THE BUCKEYE INSTITUTE



and the gap in reading grew from one percent in 2003 to five percent in 2019. Closing these
learning gaps and regaining lost ground will be critical to Ohio’s new economic development and
making the most of corporate investments.

Continued underperformance in K-12 education will mean a weaker workforce in the future. Intel
and Honda EV batter plants have given Ohio tremendous job growth opportunities that must not
be squandered. Ohio must improve K-12 education to keep pace with 21st century employers and
remain a major player in America’s increasingly hi-tech economy.

Further, the board’s mismanaged oversight of the Afterschool Child Enrichment Program (ACE)
raises eyebrows. ACE’s $500 education savings accounts were intentionally designed to deliver
financial resources to help parents pay for tutoring and curriculum enhancements so that students
can overcome some of the academic setbacks suffered during the pandemic. The State Board of
Education is responsible to oversee the program and ensure that parents receive the funds. That
oversight has largely failed so far, with less than 10 percent of the 250,000 students receiving the
appropriated funds.

Senate Bill 1 will not solve all the problems facing our public schools, but it can help address them
in several ways.

First, the bill trims the school board’s over-extended responsibilities, redirecting its attention to
the critical functions of teacher licensure and administrative issues. Second, Senate Bill 1
empowers a revamped Department of Education and Workforce to concentrate on administering
programs like ACE, resolving lingering transportation issues across school districts, and
preparing students for their futures. Third, upon enactment, the reconfigured Department of
Education will be directly accountable to the governor—who can then apply the necessary
pressure to the education bureaucracy to get results.

Senate Bill 1 splits the board into two divisions: one focusing on traditional K-12 education; the
other focusing on students pursuing careers in technology or the trades. Wisely, each division will
be run by deputy directors that sit on the Governor’s Executive Workforce Board, creating a
meaningful connection between Ohio’s public education system and the businesses that will be
hiring its students. Given some concerns about how these reforms will affect accountability, it is
important to make clear that the Ohio Senate must approve the new director and deputy directors,
which will help ensure that the voters will have a say in these appointments.

Finally, it may be helpful to clarify the bill’s language regarding how a new focus on career
readiness will be integrated in the new department.

Thank you for your time and attention. I would be happy to answer any questions that the
Committee might have.




3 Reforming Ohio’s Education Bureaucracy to Meet 21st Century Challenges
                                   THE BUCKEYE INSTITUTE



About The Buckeye Institute

Founded in 1989, The Buckeye Institute is an independent research and educational institution
– a think tank – whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states.

The Buckeye Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit, and tax-exempt organization, as defined by
section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. As such, it relies on support from individuals,
corporations, and foundations that share a commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise,
personal responsibility, and limited government. The Buckeye Institute does not seek or accept
government funding.




4 Reforming Ohio’s Education Bureaucracy to Meet 21st Century Challenges


File and source

File

2023-05-09_econ-workforce-dev_testimony_05-09thebuckeyeinstitutetestimonyonohiosenatebill1.pdf

Size

1,392,814 bytes

SHA-256

e89e0d1d56a9feebb0ff3f90afbaca6d1104aa6a46e3575638972c588f0493d3

Our copy

2023-05-09_econ-workforce-dev_testimony_05-09thebuckeyeinstitutetestimonyonohiosenatebill1.pdf

Original

No public link identified.