*E-Schools

-CHANGE. Reinstates the 20:1 pupil teacher ration for e-schools rather than the 100:1 in the Executive Budget.

-CHANGE. Restores the same per pupil amount in the school funding formula for e-schools as school districts and community schools.

*Physical Education Standards

-CHANGE.  Removes the provision in the Executive Budget that required the State Board of Education to adopt the most recent standards for physical education in grades K-12 developed by the National Association for Sports and Physical Education.

*Special Education Voucher Program

-NEW.  Creates the Special Education Scholarship Pilot Program to provide scholarships for children with Individual Education Plans in grades K-12 to attend alternative public or private special education programs in fiscal years 2008 through 2013.

*Educational Choice Scholarship

-CHANGE.  Removes language that repealed the Educational Choice Scholarship Pilot Program R.C. 3310.01, 3310.02 through 3310.14, 3310.17.  This program provides a voucher of up to $5,200 for eligible students in grades 1-12 and up to $2,700 for students in Kindergarten to attend eligible private schools.

*Community School Facilities

-CHANGE.  Removes the provision that repealed the process for community schools to purchase school district property.   Revises current law to require that a school district offer property suitable for classroom space for sale to start-up community schools in the district if the district (a) has not used at least 75 percent of a building for "academic instruction" for at least 75 percent of a school year, and (b) has not adopted a plan to use at least 75 percent of it for academic instruction for at least 75 percent of the next year (rather than a plan to use the whole building within the next three years as under current law).  This will eliminate an option to use the building for other "educational purposes," including administration or storage.

*Community School Operators

-CHANGE.  Removes the provision in the Executive Budget that required operators of community schools to be nonprofit entities, and a provision that required community schools to select operators through a competitive bidding process established by ODE. 151 community schools currently have contracts with operators, and 68 community schools contract with for-profit operators. There are a total of six for-profit and seven nonprofit operators of community schools in Ohio.

*Community School Moratorium

-CHANGE.  Removes the moratorium to open new community schools in the Executive Budget on "brick and mortar" community schools.  Permits the opening of new schools after June 30, 2007, but only if they contract with an operator that has schools in Ohio or other states that perform at a level higher than academic watch.  The current moratorium on e-school remains.

*Community School Minimum Enrollment

-CHANGE.  Eliminates the provision in the Executive Budget that increased the minimum enrollment for community schools from 25 students to 100 students, and the requirement for the ODE to develop criteria to grant waivers.  Currently there are 114 community schools with a total average daily membership (ADM) of less than 100.  For these schools formula ADM totals 6,608 and total state aid is $58.7 million.  The State Board of Education has recommended an increase in the minimum enrollment of community schools.

*Community School Minimum School Year

-CHANGE.  Eliminates the provision that required community schools to provide students with 180 days, instead of 920 hours, of learning opportunities each school year.  Currently in statute and administrative code school districts are required to provide 182 days of instruction:  five days per week; five hours for grades 1-6 and 5.5 hours for grades 7-12.  Five hours are required in law for grades 7-12, but the State Board of Education has set 5.5 hours in rule for grades 7-12 for school districts. Community schools are required to operate 920 hours.

*Community School Attendance

-CHANGE. Eliminates the provision in the Executive Budget that required a community school to withdraw a student who fails to participate in 21 consecutive days of learning opportunities without excuse, and, unless the school primarily serves dropouts, prohibits the community school from re-enrolling the student for the duration of the school year. Current law states that the student must miss 105 consecutive hours of instruction in order to be withdrawn.

*Compliance with State Education Laws and Rules

-CHANGE.  Eliminates the provision in the Executive Budget that required community schools to comply with all state laws and rules pertaining to other public schools, school districts, and boards of education, such as providing a curriculum that includes the arts, foreign languages, family and consumer science, etc.; assigning qualified staff; minimum standards covering instructional materials,  equipment, and facilities (such as library facilities and school grounds); requirements for admission and promotion of students; instructional requirements (such as phonics and energy and resource conservation); reporting requirements, and other laws and rules from which community schools are currently exempt.  The cost of operation for many community schools may have increased if they were held to the same operating standards as public schools.

*Community School Payments

-CHANGE. Restores parity aid and poverty-based assistance for dropout prevention and community outreach to "brick and mortar" community schools. Under continuing law, e-schools do not receive parity aid or any poverty-based assistance.

*Community School Enrollment Disputes

-NEW.  Prohibits the ODE from withholding payment to a community school when a district presents a challenge concerning a student's enrollment until after the district proves that the student should not be included in the community school's enrollment.

*Community School Student Enrollment in Career-Technical Program

-NEW.  Permits a community school student to enroll in the career-technical program of the student's resident district. Permits both the district and the community school to receive state funds for the student for the proportion of the time the student attends each school.

*E-school Teachers

-CHANGE.  Eliminates the requirement in the Executive Budget that each e-school employ (rather than retain an affiliation with, as under current law) at least one full-time teacher of record for up to 125 students.  Currently e-school teachers may be affiliated with more than one school, and so they could be responsible for up to 125 students in each of those schools.

*Unauditable Community Schools

-NEW. Requires the Auditor of State to provide written notification of a finding that a community school is unauditable to the school, its sponsor, and ODE, and to post the notification on the Auditor's web site.

-NEW:  Prohibits the sponsor of an unauditable community school from entering into contracts with additional community schools until the Auditor completes a financial audit of the school.

-NEW:  Requires the sponsor of an unauditable community school to respond to the Auditor with a description of the actions it will take as a result of the finding that the school is unauditable.

-NEW:  Requires ODE to cease all state payments to a community school that fails to make progress in bringing its records into auditable condition within 90 days after being declared unauditable.

-NEW:  Requires ODE to release the withheld funds when the Auditor is able to complete an audit of the school.

*Staff Qualifications for Early Childhood Education Programs

-CHANGE:  Eliminates the provision in the Executive Budget that postponed from FY08 until FY10 and set new dates to implement the requirement that staff for state-funded early childhood education programs established prior to July 1, 2006, have at least an associate degree and teachers have bachelor's degrees.

*School District and Building Performance Ratings

-CHANGE:  Limits the highest performance rating a school district or building may receive based on the percentage of its students who do not take all required achievement tests according to the following:
(1) to continuous improvement if 10 percent to 15 percent of the students are not tested,
(2) to academic watch if more than 15 percent but not more than 20 percent of the students are not tested, and
(3) to academic emergency if more than 20 percent of the students are not tested.

-NEW:  Exempts from R.C. 3302.03 (the provision above) community schools in which a majority of the students are enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program.

-CHANGE:  Removes the earmark of $601,165 in each fiscal year to support educational media centers to provide Ohio public schools with instructional resources and services.

-CHANGE:  Reduces to $236,250 in each year the earmark Project GRAD.

-CHANGE:  Increases the earmark to $75,000 in FY08 and FY09 to Southern State Community College for the Pilot Post-Secondary Enrollment Options Program with Miami Trace High School.

*Literacy Improvement-Professional Development

-CHANGE:  Reduces earmark to $9,690,000 in each fiscal year for educator training in literacy for classroom teachers, administrators, and literacy specialists.

-CHANGE:  Removes an earmark of up to $25,000 in each fiscal year of GRF appropriation item 200-320, Maintenance and Equipment, for State Board of Education out-of-state travel.

*Teacher on Loan Programs

-CHANGE.  Removes the earmark of $747,912 in each fiscal year to provide funds to school districts that have teachers participating in the teacher-on-loan program.

*Entry Year

-CHANGE:  Increases from $8,715,817 in each fiscal year to $9,515,817 for entry year programs for beginning teachers in school districts and chartered nonpublic schools, and permits the earmark to be used for entry year programs for principals as well as teachers.

*Alternative Education Programs

-CHANGE:  Removes the earmark of $100,000 in each fiscal year to be used for Youth Opportunities United, Inc.

-CHANGE.  Removes the earmark of $250,000 in each fiscal year to support Amer-I-Can.

-NEW.  Earmarks $100,000 in each fiscal year for the Cincinnati Arts and Technology Center to increase program support for high-risk teens and unemployed urban adults.

-NEW.  Earmarks $2,000,000 in FY08 to support Improved Solutions for Urban Students (ISUS) in Dayton/Sinclair Youth Initiative.

*Educator Preparation

-CHANGE.  Removes the earmark $100,000 in each fiscal year for the Teacher Quality Partnership project.

*Improving Teacher Quality

-NEW.  Requires ODE to provide $600,000 in each fiscal year from FED Fund 3Y6 appropriation item 200-635, Improving Teach Quality, to the Columbiana County Educational Service Center for the Ohio Wyami Appalachian Teacher Cohorts Program.

-CHANGE.  Makes chartered nonpublic schools eligible for funding as well as school districts for earmarks up to $3,600,000 in each fiscal year to be distributed to school districts to be used to obtain contracted instruction with institutions of higher education in advance mathematics, laboratory-based science, or foreign language for public high school students that results in dual high school and college credit.

-CHANGE.  Eliminates an earmark of up to $2,000,000 in FY08 for National Aeronautics and Space Administration resource centers.

-CHANGE.  Reduces earmark of $6,425,000 in FY09 to be distributed topublic school districts for supplemental postsecondary enrollment options participation.

-CHANGE.  Earmarks up to $400,000 in each fiscal year to be used for the Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project.

-NEW. Earmarks $325,000 in each fiscal year for OCALI to contract with the Delaware-Union ESC to provide autism transition services.

-NEW.  Earmarks $75,000 in each fiscal year for Leaf Lake/Geauga Educational Assistance Funding.

*School District Reductions in Force

-CHANGE.  Eliminates the provision in the Executive Budget that removed the phrase "for financial reasons" from the list of statutory reasons a school district or education service center (ESC) may make reductions in force in its teaching staff.

*Transportation of Nonpublic School Students

-NEW.  Permits a school district, upon request, to transport a student in grades K through 12 who does not reside in the district to a nonpublic school the student attends, if (1) the student's resident district is not required to transport the student because the travel time is more than 30 minutes, and (2) the parent agrees to reimburse the nonresident district for the costs that exceed the amount the district receives from the state for transporting the student. If the nonresident district declines the request, requires the district to state in writing its reasons.

*Higher Education Compact

-CHANGE.  Removes language in the Executive Budget referring to the Higher Education Compact.

*Choose Ohio First Scholarship

-NEW.  Specifies that it is the intent of the House of Representatives to work with the Senate and the Governor to design the criteria for the Choose Ohio First Scholarship funded under GRF appropriation item, 235-569, Choose Ohio First Scholarship.

*Eligibility for Student Choice Grants.

-CHANGE.  Removes the provision in the Executive Budget that narrows the eligibility for student choice grants specified in section 3333.27 of the Revised Code by adding a requirement that a student must also qualify for a needs-based Ohio College Opportunity Grant.

-CHANGE.  Requires that GRF appropriation item 235-531, Student Choice Grants, be awarded only to students who have family incomes of $95,000 or less.

-CHANGE.   Increases the student choice grant appropriations to $38.5 million in each year.

*Co-located Technical Colleges

-NEW. Allows technical colleges that are co-located with other state institutions of higher education to offer baccalaureate oriented programs intended to enable students to receive associate degrees or transfer to colleges and universities for the pursuit of baccalaureate degrees.

*Distribution of Challenge Funds

-NEW.  Requires Board of Regents (BOR) to study the effectiveness and appropriateness the Jobs Challenge, Access Challenge, Success Challenge, and Economic Growth Challenge programs. The study is to focus on the student-based funding, the current workforce development needs, and incentives for student success in the context of a knowledge-based economy. Requires the BOR to recommend a distribution of the funds provided for FY09 and seek Controlling Board's approval for the recommended distribution by May 1, 2008.

*STEM Initiatives

-NEW.  Requires that GRF appropriation item 235-437, STEM Initiatives, be used for STEM academies.

*State Share of Instruction (SSI) for FY08 and 09 increases two percent in FY08 and ten percent in FY09.

-NEW.   Limits the increase in instate undergraduate fees (including instructional, general and all other fees) to no more than 3 percent in FY08 and prohibits any increase in instate undergraduate fees in FY09.

-NEW.  Guarantees each institution in FY08 and FY09 to receive the same amount of SSI funding as received in the prior year, notwithstanding the SSI distribution formulas outlined in Section 275.30.20.

-NEW.  Specifies that in each fiscal year, each institution also receive its proportional share of total SSI appropriation increase for that year (2.0 percent for FY 08 and 10.0 percent for FY09) if the institution meets savings requirements of 1 percent for FY08 and 3 percent for FY09.

-NEW.  Requires BOR, in consultation with the Department of Development, to commission a study on the needs of the business community relative to higher education in Ohio, including necessary skills and talents required by the business community. The study is to be completed by December 31, 2007.

-NEW.  Requires BOR, in consultation with state-supported institutions of higher education, to develop a plan that addresses five specific areas of higher education: access, success, affordability, research and development support, and higher education awareness. The plan, which is to be completed by December 31, 2007, is to include outcome measures and progress indicators for each area.

-NEW.  Institutions are required to commit to increasing interinstitutional collaborations and partnerships with the goal of increasing savings.

-NEW.  Requires BOR, in consultation with state-supported institutions of higher education, to study the feasibility of establishing and implementing a tuition flexibility plan. The study is to be completed by December 31, 2007.

*Community Project Transfer

-CHANGE.   Removes language from the Executive Budget that would have transferred two community project appropriation items from Cleveland State University to Cuyahoga Community College: CAP-166, Playhouse Square Center-Hanna Theatre, in the amount of $750,000, and CAP-169, Cleveland Museum of Art, in the amount of $3,000,000.