Rep. McNally Legislation Demands State Give Community, Students in Youngstown Their Schools Back
COLUMBUS - State Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) today provided sponsor testimony in the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee on House Bill (HB) 387, legislation that will, once and for all, end state takeovers of public schools in Ohio and end Youngstown City School District’s (YCSD) requirements to complete an Academic Improvement Plan or face another state takeover if metrics in the plan aren’t met.
“Instead of supplementing the diminished resources that resulted from population and tax decline in the region, the actual root causes of the academic strain, lawmakers instead took power away from the school board and installed a CEO and Academic Distress Commission. HB 70 also removed any mechanism for taxpayer accountability in the management of the district,” said Rep. McNally during her sponsor testimony. “Because of them, Youngstown saw an already troubling school system run further into the ground. In almost every category of academic performance, Youngstown City School District scored lower under the ADC and CEO model, than they performed in the years prior to the state takeover.”
Jointly sponsored by Rep. Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland), HB 387 dissolves all current academic distress commissions (ADCs) and repeals the law on the establishment of new commissions and academic improvement plans for districts with ADCs. It restores all powers under the Revised Code to the boards of education of school districts under an ADC and declares an emergency. Since the takeover of YCSD and the 2015 passage of HB 70, East Cleveland and Lorain schools were also subject to an ADC. 10 other districts were one state report card away from a state takeover when state lawmakers passed a moratorium on ADCs.
Without any additional schools being added to state takeover, lawmakers allowed for YCSD, East Cleveland, and Lorain to create three-year academic improvement plans that, if approved by the then Department of Education and if the three-year metrics were met, would allow the schools to be free of the threat of additional state takeover. However, in the most recent General Assembly, state lawmakers released Lorain schools of any requirements to complete the remaining two years of their plan. Only YCSD and East Cleveland remain in the failed system.
“There is no one, not anyone, who can or even tries to say with an honest face that this experiment made things better. Not in Youngstown, not anywhere. So I ask the question - what was the goal of the ADC model? If it truly was to improve academics in Youngstown, we have the proof that it failed. And when your experiment fails, you’re supposed to clean up the mess, release your lab rats and go home. The ADC model is a complete failure, a failure that this body has acknowledged in its own part by stopping it from spreading to your communities,” said Rep. McNally during her sponsor testimony. “As lawmakers we have made several value statements about this state takeover of public schools: it doesn’t work, no other school should be victimized by it, and the schools in it should be released. We are overthinking about why the kids in Youngstown and East Cleveland should be forced to keep living like lab rats in an experiment that has been abandoned. Just let them go and be done with it already.”
HB 387 requires several readings in the Primary and Secondary Education Committee before a vote to all members of the Ohio House of Representatives. All legislation introduced in a General Assembly must become law before the end of the General Assembly. Rep. McNally intends to re-introduce legislation ending state takeovers of public schools in the 136th General Assembly if not made law by the end of the year.