Representing Akron Teachers sinc

Ohio Supreme Court Rules Charter Schools Constitutional in 4 to 3 Decision

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Ohio's charter school law is constitutional. The court ok'd diverting funds from districts without local control, charter school exemption from more than 150 state education mandates that all districts must follow and other counts. The court upheld the Legislature's authority in creating schools. The majority opinion reads, "As the statewide body, the General Assembly has the legislative authority and latitude to set the standards and requirements for common schools, including different standards for community schools."

In her dissenting opinion, Justice Resnick noted that the charter school law "produces a hodgepodge of uncommon schools financed by the state." She called it "an assemblage of divergent and deregulated privately owned and managed community schools competes against public schools for public funds." She also said that the authors of the Ohio constitution choose the phrase "common schools" to describe a uniform system and that the charter school program "re-creates much of the mischief that the clause intended to avoid."

The Coalition for Public Education--of which AEA is a member--filed suit in 2001. The coalition includes: Ohio PTA, League of Women Voters of Ohio, Ohio Association of School Business Officials, Ohio School Boards Association, Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, Buckeye Association of School Administrators, Ohio Association of Public School Employees, Cleveland Teachers Union, Akron Education Association, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Columbus Education Association, Ohio AFL-CIO, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Toledo Federation of Teachers, Ohio Education Association, Ohio Retired Teachers Association.

Read the entire court decision--majority and dissenting-- here

Columbus Dispatch article

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=221997

Ohio School Employee Health Care Plan-- HB66

Presently, the Ohio School Employee Health Care Board is empowered to establish best practice standards which Ohio School District health plans will need to meet.

The SEHCB has established a committee to study what those practices should be. Their Best Practice Standards Committee has begun discussions about the standards to be developed by the SEHCB. Such concepts as preventive care and wellness programs were discussed at the November 14th meeting.

The minutes from both the Board and the Best Practices Committee can be seen at http://sehcb.ohio.gov/