Ohio House delays budget vote

By Julie Carr Smyth
Wire Service Correspondent

COLUMBUS, OH (AP) – The Ohio House has called off floor sessions again as members try to sort out details of the governor’s $54 billion budget proposal.
The House also an­nounced it would de­lay final action on the bud­get until after its spring break, pushing expected passage from late March into mid-April. The spending plan has to make it through both the House and Senate before July 1.
One frustrated member of the House Finance committee, Rep­ubli­can Seth Morgan, filed a second public records request with Gov. Ted Strickland seek­ing a road map to understanding his “evidence-based” school-funding formula.
Morgan’s first request was met with an almost 400-source bibliography of studies and reports upon which the formula is based.
“Providing a bibliography is not full transparency and we remain unsatisfied,” said Morgan, who represents minority House Republicans.
Strickland is pushing for a dramatic overhaul of Ohio’s school funding formula that would boost the state’s share of the cost and reduce what taxpayers are expected to contribute to their local schools.
His proposed “evidence-based” education system would require schools to use programs based on research findings and would set standards for students, teachers and districts. Districts would be audited annually and could be shut down for repeated failure to meet academic and operating standards.
He proposed the idea in his State of the State address in January as his way of fixing Ohio’s school funding formula. The state Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled the current formula is unconstitutional because it creates disparities between rich and poor districts.
The administration produced a document during a budget subcommittee meeting Thursday, but would require lawmakers to seek out hundreds of sources in order to understand the formula, Morgan said.
The administration indicated to Morgan that there is only one copy of the documentation behind Strickl-and’s landmark evidence-based system and that it is in the home of a state employee.
“If this is the case, it is completely unacceptable for the only copy of such important documentation to be handled in such a manner,” Morgan said.
The administration faced questions on how federal stimulus funds for education have been accounted for in the budget. The U.S. Department of Education recently announced that it would be making available Title I poverty assistance money for Ohio districts within 30 to 45 days, well ahead of the start of the fiscal year in which Strickland has budgeted the money.
Strickland spokeswoman Ama-nda Wurst said the administration has been working with Washington on how to use the money.