The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Many bills died as the most recent Ohio General Assembly recently wrapped up.
Some of these bills would have made drastic changes to Ohio colleges and universities (Senate Bill 83), banned the sale of intoxicating hemp products (Senate Bill 326), added low-performing public schools to the state’s school closure law (Senate Bill 295) and given property tax relief (House Bill 274).
These bills — and all the others that didn’t pass — would have to be re-introduced in the next General Assembly, which starts this month.
Senate Bill 83
Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced Senate Bill 83 and it quickly passed the Senate, but stalled in the House. Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitt Hills, never brought the bill to the floor, saying “we’ve got a lot of other things that are a lot more important than that.”
The bill went through nearly a dozen revisions — including removing an anti-striking provision that was replaced with a retrenchment provision which would prevented unions from negotiating on tenure.
Cirino said he plans on re-introducing the bill in its original form — likely with some additions — in the next General Assembly. Not having Stephens as House Speaker could help forward Cirino’s bill. Senate President Matt Huffman is the speaker-elect.
The latest version of S.B. 83 would ban mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training unless it is required to comply with state and federal law, professional licensure requirements or receiving accreditation or grants.
The bill’s retrenchment provision would have allowed universities to fire tenured professors for a broad list of reasons including reduction in the student population. Faculty with 30-35 years of tenure would be protected.
S.B. 83 defined controversial beliefs or policy as “any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including issues such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion.”
The bill would have allow students to “reach their own conclusions about all controversial beliefs or policies and shall not seek to indoctrinate any social, political or religious point of view.”
S.B. 83 was wildly unpopular as hundreds of people submitted opponent testimony against it.
Senate Bill 326
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has been asking lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products, so State Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, introduced a bill that would have banned the sale of intoxicating hemp products.
The bill had four hearings in the Senate General Government Committee, but never went up for a vote.
“I’m certainly very disappointed, if that’s the outcome,” DeWine told reporters before the General Assembly ended when asked about S.B. 326 likely not passing.
DeWine was optimistic something would happen during the lame duck session, but that wasn’t the case.
“I’m fine to ban it, but if they want to put it through the mechanism that we have and the process that we have with a sale for marijuana, I’m fine with that as well,” DeWine said. “… It needs to be done. You have kids that can buy this junk now.”
Senate Bill 295
State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, introduced Senate Bill 295, which would have revised the state’s automatic school closure language and automatically shut down low-performing Ohio public schools.
He told reporters he plans on re-introducing the bill during the next General Assembly and will meet with organizations including Ohio School Boards Association “to see if we can come to some better agreement on some of that language.”
S.B. 295 defined a poor performing school as a school, serving grades four and older, that has performed in the bottom 5% among public schools based on their Performance Index Score for three consecutive years. A school would also be considered a poor performing school if they are in the bottom 10% based on their Value-Added Progress for three consecutive years.
As an alternative to closing, a school could have replaced the principal and 60% of their licensed staff, according to the bill.
The bill had a handful of hearings in the Senate Education Committee, but never was up for a vote.
Property tax relief bill
A property tax relief bill that would have established an enhanced homestead of $50,000 for certain homeowners who have lived in their homes for 20 years or more passed earlier this month in the Ohio House, but didn’t see much movement in the Senate.
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, was disappointed the bill didn’t get across the finish line.
“Property tax relief, that’s a big piece for us,” she said. “There’s much more that we could have done and should have done, but we’ll keep pushing for that.”
