Democratic News

State Rep. David Leland (D-Columbus) today called on the governor and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) nominating council to return bipartisanship to the utilities oversight commission by filling an upcoming vacancy with a Democratic commissioner.

The PUCO nominating council is accepting applications for the commission seat Chairman Andre Porter vacates today.

“Bipartisanship is vital to good government – it ensures we have checks and balances so that decisions are measured and fair,” Leland said. “With an agency like the PUCO, which makes multi-billion dollar decisions affecting millions of Ohioans, bipartisanship is absolutely essential.”

Without Porter, a Republican, the commission is comprised of two Republicans and two independents. Leland’s legislation, House Bill 122, would require that both major political parties be represented on the PUCO.

State Rep. Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent) joined former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and other elected officials and advocates for the Brennan Center at NYU’s “Automatic Voter Registration: Why and How” convening in New York earlier this week. The event detailed automatic registration efforts across the country and how these efforts are welcoming millions of Americans to the ballot box.

The highest ranking Democratic member of the House Education Committee, Rep. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo), today responded to a New York Times article which reported that “more students drop out of the Electronic Classroom (of Tomorrow) or fail to finish high school within four years than at any other school in the country."

“Today’s report confirms what so many of us in Ohio already know: failing charter schools continue to defraud taxpayers while our children fall further behind. Story after story from journalists in Ohio and throughout the country detail deep problems within Ohio’s charter school industry, yet the state refuses to take serious action,” Fedor said. “How many generations of kids must we fail before politicians find the political courage to crack down on profiteers that peddle broken promises to our taxpayers, parents, teachers and children?”

The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is Ohio’s largest online charter school and was founded by William Lager, a software executive with subsidiary education companies that took in nearly $23 million in tax dollars for providing ECOT services in 2014. ECOT received about $115 million in tax dollars that year.

State Rep. and Ohio Democratic Women’s Caucus President Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo), State Rep. and Vice Chair Greta Johnson (D-Akron) and members of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus today gathered with women from across the state to discuss and lobby for policy solutions to challenges Ohio women and families face. 

State Rep. Kevin Boyce (D-Columbus) last week provided sponsor testimony on House Bill 538, legislation to require cultural competency training for all deputy registrars and their employees in the state. The new training program, which will include education on the proper evaluation of documentation for obtaining a driver’s license, will help prevent legal immigrants from being improperly denied when applying for a driver’s license or state ID. 

State Rep. Michael Ashford (D-Toledo) today announced the release of $100,000  in state funds to the University of Toledo (UT) for their Technology Validation and Start-up Fund project. The project provides grants to transition technology developed by UT into the marketplace. 

The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC) today called on Governor John Kasich to veto House Bill 180, saying the legislation to ban local hiring goals will disproportionately harm African American workers and minority communities while jeopardizing infrastructure projects in Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron and Cleveland.

State Rep. Dan Ramos (D-Lorain) joined U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH 9th District) and federal officials at the White House this week to discuss the importance of filling the Supreme Court vacancy created by the passing of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. The Lorain lawmaker highlighted House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 34, state-level legislation he recently introduced urging the U.S. Senate to consider President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland. 

State Rep. John Patterson (D-Jefferson) introduced legislation last week to create the STEM Degree Loan Program, a state-level loan repayment plan aimed at keeping graduates working in Ohio after earning degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

State Rep. Kristin Boggs (D-Columbus) and State Rep. Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) this week introduced a resolution urging all state employees and officials to refrain from engaging in nonessential official state travel to North Carolina. The resolution comes in response to the passage of the controversial bathroom access law in North Carolina that critics, and now the U.S. Department of Justice, say allows discrimination against LGBT individuals.