Kent Smith News

State Reps. Michele Lepore-Hagan (D-Youngstown), Kent Smith (D-Euclid), and Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) today joined Community Leadership Coalition on Education (CLCE) members during their legislative advocacy day urging the passage of House Bill (HB) 626, legislation to halt state takeover of public schools. CLCE is a group of advocates from Youngstown, Lorain, East Cleveland, and other communities around Ohio whose local school districts are or may soon be subject to state takeover as implemented under HB 70.

State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) today responded to the Ohio House Republicans’ rejection of a Democratic amendment to increase transparency and accountability of JobsOhio, a nonprofit corporation funded by Ohio taxpayers that remains shrouded in secrecy and unbound by Ohio transparency laws.

“HB 40 would create something that already exists, it’s called the state budget and it’s available online. Instead of throwing taxpayer money around to duplicate current systems, let’s use this opportunity to increase transparency and accountability at JobsOhio, a nonprofit corporation funded by taxpayers and shrouded in secrecy,” said Smith.

Smith offered the amendment during debate on House Bill (HB) 40, a Republican-sponsored bill to create a new Ohio State Government Expenditure Database on the state treasurer’s website. The legislation specifically carves out JobsOhio to prevent public scrutiny instead of holding it to the same standard as every other state agency.

“With dozens of JobsOhio employees making six figures and Ohio’s jobs numbers lagging behind the rest of the country over the past five years, JobsOhio needs more oversight not less,” Smith said. “But time and again, the GOP has allowed JobsOhio to operate in the cloak of darkness, and that must end.”

State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) today voted against House Bill (HB) 228, the so-called Stand Your Ground bill, a Republican-sponsored effort to loosen gun safety standards by reducing firearm offenses, making it harder to prosecute gun violence cases and preempting local authority to enact commonsense safety protections for Ohio families.

“HB 228 is based on fear and not facts,” said Smith. “Speaker Smith should not have ended debate early when other representatives, myself included, were waiting to add to the debate on this important issue.”

State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) today announced legislation with the Ohio Environmental Council, Clean Fuels Ohio and Smart Columbus to establish a statewide Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Study that will chart a course for Ohio to stay competitive in meeting developing EV standards and charging needs.

State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) today responded to inaccurate report card grades given to East Cleveland schools by state education officials. The false information was uncovered by a WEWS investigative news report late Tuesday.

“The school district report cards are not just confusing and inaccurate, they are often times just plain wrong,” said Smith. “That is why there is bipartisan support to end the state takeover of local schools that relies on such a faulty measure.”

State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) today announced his election to represent Ohio on the binational, nonpartisan Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Legislative Caucus (GLLC), a group that provides a forum for the regional exchange of ideas and information on key issues that impact the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. At its annual meeting on September 22^nd, the GLLC unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by Reps. Smith and John Rogers (D-Mentor-on-the-Lake) introduced in the Ohio Legislature to support federal funding for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in its efforts to stop Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes. The legislation has only received one committee hearing in the Ohio House.

State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) today responded to the release of Ohio’s School Report Cards, which gave East Cleveland City Schools its third consecutive “F,” setting the stage for a state takeover under the legislature’s hastily-passed, party-line amendment to House Bill 70 in 2016.

“Today's release of the state report card is further evidence that the biggest hindrance to student performance in Ohio's public schools is not the district leadership of East Cleveland but the politicians of Columbus who take campaign contributions from the charter school industry with one hand as they give public school dollars to charter school operators with the other hand,” said Smith, a member of the House Education Committee.

East Cleveland Schools have lost over $5 million to failing, for-profit charter schools like ECOT while the state has cut the schools by millions of dollars in previous state budgets.

The district is also considered to be the poorest community in the state and the fourth poorest in the nation, with 100 percent of students being considered economically disadvantaged according to ODE data. 

“In spite of these substantial challenges East Cleveland City Schools have made tremendous progress, due in part to the extremely talented core of teachers, most of whom have a master’s degree and average 15 years of classroom experience,” said Smith.

The first half of this week (July 16-18), State Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) participated in the #LiveTheWage or #$17ADay Challenge. In September 2015, 18 members of the Florida Legislature attempted to live five days on $17 a day.  In Ohio, workers earning minimum wage have $17 a day on which to live after paying rent and taxes if their rent is $674. Rep. Smith is the sponsor of House Bill 86 with Rep. Hearcel Craig (D-Columbus), which would raise the state's current minimum wage from $8.30 per hour to $10.10 per hour.

Three years after it was exposed that Gov. John Kasich’s handpicked charter-czar David Hansen, husband of Kasich’s chief of staff, was illegally changing charter school grades to allow failing charter schools to draw down on more taxpayer funding, little has happened at the Republican-controlled Statehouse to crack down, once and for all, on Ohio’s largely unregulated charter school industry.

“Three years after Governor Kasich’s handpicked charter school head was caught defrauding taxpayers, an historic amount of tax dollars continue to flow to Ohio charter schools,” said Rep. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo), the lead Democrat on the House Education Committee. “Instead of wholesale changes to hold Ohio charters accountable to the same standards and rules as traditional schools, the legislature has, in effect, loosened standards.”

Just recently, it came to light that the now-defunct ECOT, the largest online charter that bankrolled numerous GOP campaigns, was using tax dollars to pay off students for attending graduation ceremonies and taking required statewide tests.

“As this scandal unfolds and more problems come to light, the political will at the Statehouse to make substantive reforms is overshadowed by the failure to act during the last three years,” said Rep. Kent Smith (D-Euclid), a member of the House Education Committee. “Operating in a system where charter school operators bankroll the campaigns of elected officials tasked with holding them accountable has stalled any meaningful reform and opened to door to more corruption.”

Recently, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine Read Full Story