House delays vote on budget

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio House has called off floor sessions again next week as members try to sort out details of the governor’s $54 billion budget proposal.

The House also announced it would delay final action on the budget until after its spring break, pushing expected passage from late March into mid-April. The spending plan has to make it through both the House and Senate before July 1.

One frustrated member of the House Finance committee, Republican Seth Morgan, filed a second public records request with Gov. Ted Strickland seeking a road map to understanding his “evidence-based” school-funding formula.

Morgan’s first request was met with an almost-400-source bibliography of studies and reports upon which the formula is based.

“Providing a bibliography is not full transparency and we remain unsatisfied,” said Morgan, who represents minority House Republicans.

Strickland is pushing for a dramatic overhaul of Ohio’s school funding formula that would boost the state’s share of the cost and reduce what taxpayers are expected to contribute to their local schools.

His proposed “evidence-based” education system would require schools to use programs based on research findings and would set standards for students, teachers and districts. Districts would be audited annually and could be shut down for repeated failure to meet academic and operating standards.

He proposed the idea in his State of the State address in January as his way of fixing Ohio’s school funding formula. The state Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled the current formula is unconstitutional because it creates disparities between rich and poor districts.