House Dems flex their majority muscle

COLUMBUS — The new Democratic House majority began showing off its muscle this week in a sure sign of things to come.

The occasion was the regular meeting of the state Controlling Board, the lawmaker panel that signs off on agency spending. There are three Republicans and three Democrats (split between the House and Senate) on the board, plus a president who is selected by the governor.

The agendas are usually lengthy, but most items are approved without question or comment. There are a few issues that lead to some longer questions and answers between the lawmakers and agency representatives, but most of the time (at least in the couple of years I’ve been at the Statehouse), requests are OK’d.

Last week was an exception for one item on the agenda: a request from the state School Facilities Commission for $1 million in spending authority to cover a loan guaranteed for a failed community school.

About seven years ago, lawmakers established the loan program, through which eligible community schools could secure state backing for loans toward their facilities needs. The schools would borrow the money from a bank, with the state guaranteeing a portion in cases of default (i.e. when a school went out of business).

Fifteen loans have been approved, seven of which have been repaid. There have been no payouts through the program to date, and the $10 million allocated for loan guarantees has grown to about $10.8 million since its creation.

Interest payments

But a Cincinnati community school recently bit the dust, and the state is on the hook for up to $1 million as a result. The final settlement won’t be known until the school’s assets are sold off, so the state portion may end up being lower. In the meantime, the School Facilities Commission has to make monthly interest payments to the bank until the situation is resolved.

There’s a definite difference in opinions among Democrats and Republicans about state support for community schools. Until now, the generally supportive Republicans have had the upper hand.

Enter the new House Democratic majority and the first Controlling Board meeting of the year. Reps. Clayton Luckie from Dayton and Vernon Sykes from Akron amended the School Facilities Commission request from $1 million to $60,000 (enough to cover the interest payments for the first half of the year), and the Democratic majority (counting the administration-picked president) passed it.

Which means the commission will have to come back before the board when the bank settlement is final for an additional approval to pay the balance.

Which means the Democrats will have another chance to smack down community schools.

“The thin oversight of this program now necessitates what amounts to a public bailout of this school,” Luckie said in a released statement afterward. “I believe the funding for this program might be better used to help our struggling public school systems that try to do more with less year after year. Continuing to set aside this large chunk of money for private companies to run unsuccessful schools is unfair to Ohio’s taxpayers and unfair to Ohio’s children.”

“It seems to me this program is over funded and under-scrutinized, and now taxpayers face the additional burden of paying off the debts for a failing school,” Rep. Sykes added. “I believe it’s worth revisiting this program outside the Controlling Board’s purview. It is prudent to re-examine this entire program and see whether this taxpayer money can be better utilized to realize the greatest overall benefit to families and students across Ohio.”

X Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s correspondent in Columbus. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com.