LEGISLATIVE
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EDUCATION POLICY AND THE STATE BUDGET BILL BY BARBARA SHANER
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hen this issue of the Navigator went to print, the Ohio General Assembly was still in the process of finalizing the 2-year state budget bill for Fiscal Years (FY) 2020 and 2021, House Bill (HB) 166. For OAESA members, the important thing to know is that FY translates into “school year.” In other words, state funding for Ohio schools is distributed to districts on a school year basis beginning on July 1 every year. The deadline for the new 2-year budget is June 30 in the second year of a current budget. This time, the House and Senate had trouble agreeing on the bill’s provisions, and had to utilize the authority to extend the June 30 deadline.
when the state budget is debated, there is little time to stay informed about legislation. However, it may come as a surprise that increasingly, the legislature has been using the biennial budget bill to enact education policy changes that could affect the education of students and the operation of your school building. It is much easier to adopt new laws for education policy through a massive budget bill than it is to pass a single subject bill. Lawmakers who might not support an individual law change may still be inclined to approve a budget bill. And, the bill is so big that some lawmakers may not know about everything contained in its pages.
“The social and emotional needs of students may well be the concern of the larger community; not just the leaders responsible for their educational success.”
That’s right, every two years districts don’t know for sure how much money they’ll receive from the state until a few days before the school year starts. This school year, that deadline was postponed so the school year started with some financial uncertainty for school districts. Fortunately, even though lawmakers in the House and Senate had a hard time agreeing on the state budget as a whole, they weren’t far apart in their views about school funding. In fact, throughout the budget process (which began on March 15th), the school funding provisions in the bill didn’t change much. As a school administrator you may be thinking how fortunate that the state budget process isn’t something you need to follow closely. For the most part, there are others in your district whose responsibility it is to follow those proceedings. Given the many challenges administrators face, particularly during the months
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education topics considered.
In the most recent budget bill, a range of education policy changes were debated. Everything from report card changes to new restrictions on decisions by the Ohio High School Athletic Association could be found within its pages. New school breakfast requirements, testing changes, and graduation requirement changes are all among the many
Perhaps the topic of most interest to OAESA members is both funding and policy related. In March, Governor DeWine proposed through HB 166, funds to be used to address the noneducation barriers for kids in poverty called Student Wellness and Success Funds (SWSFs). This is one portion of the budget bill on which both the House and the Senate could agree and the governor’s proposal remained intact.
