Ohio Senate passes bill stripping most of State School Board’s authority
Is racial equity the elephant in the room? Almost immediately after Ohio SB 1 was approved by committee last week, it was passed by the Ohio Senate. Now heading to the House, this bill will end he state School Board’s authority over curriculum and programs in Ohio’s public schools. Supporters, including Senate President Matt Huffman, cite SB 1 as a way to speed up reform of failing schools, but opponents fear it will end the public input and accountability which the School Board’s rules provide.
Eleven members of the Ohio School Board are elected by voters, while eight are appointed. How the history of US race relations is taught has become a giant issue at every level, from local school districts to state educational policy. Two members of Ohio’s School Board resigned in 2021 under pressure from the Ohio Senate and Governor after refusing to vote to rescind the anti-racism resolution they adopted in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. This resolution emphasized the need to work for equity and opportunity for students of color. One of the members who resigned, Board President Laura Kohler of New Albany, is a Republican who called the rising impact of politics on public education “heartbreaking.” A majority of Ohio School Board members did vote in 2021 to rescind the anti-racism resolution.
In touting SB 1 this year, Senate President Matt Huffman cited concerns about the School Board’s inefficiency, but during the pressure campaign on Kohler in 2021, here’s what he said: “When I just became president [in January], my first concern was this diversity thing.”
Our granddaughters are students in Anderson Township’s Forest Hills Schools, whose board voted last May to ban Turpin High School from holding Diversity Day during school hours or using taxpayer resources. In her story about the state school board resignations, Karen Kasler reported that “the departures of the board members also come at a time of increased interest in local school board races. The Ohio School Boards Association reports 2,628 candidates are running for school boards this year. And that’s more than a 50% increase from the number of candidates running for school boards four years ago.”
This reinforces the point brought up at the diocese’s Absalom Jones conference last month that churches can become safe space for teaching American history honestly and constructively. Last night NPR’s “Marketplace” aired an inspiring interview with economic policy expert Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. They discussed McGhee’s adaptation of the book for middle school readers. This remark by McGhee resonates with our faith’s testimony about God’s abundant love for everyone and the call to build Beloved Community:
“It’s a very common worldview in the U.S. It’s this idea that there’s sort of a fixed pie of well-being. And if one racial and ethnic group gets a bigger slice, then the other groups must get a smaller slice. Black folks, brown folks, generally speaking, don’t tend to think that our progress as people of color has to come at white folks’ expense. But according to the data, the opposite isn’t true. And so it’s this zero-sum thinking that makes us often at odds with one another, when we would all be better off if we were looking for common solutions to our common problems.”
I remember getting an hour off from public school every Wednesday to attend religious education at my Catholic parish. Anyone want to explore the idea of Freedom School in our parishes? Let’s talk! Please email me if you want to join a diocesan team to advocate as the Ohio Legislature makes major decisions curriculum and funding for public schools this spring, or work out how we can teach history and civics in our churches.
East Palestine and Clark County derailments wake public up to toxic waste, rail safety
The controlled burn of chemicals from the derailed Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine could lead to soil contamination with dioxins, which take years to break down and could be absorbed by cattle and crops. Inside Climate News reported on the anger of Greater Houston residents that a mixture of unburnt chemicals from the trains and firefighting foam from the emergency response was being trucked to their region to be injected underground. Some waste is being injected in Ohio and Michigan.
Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance are co-sponsoring the Railway Safety Act, and the Ohio House added a number of rail safety measures to the two-year transportation budget bill it passed last week. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO), invited to testify to Congress, is concerned that its water quality monitoring equipment is obsolete. Policy makers (perhaps only briefly) are looking at the whole system of rail transport.
Do you remember the rail unions’ pleas last year for greater safety, adequate staffing, and a realistic and fair paid sick leave policy? This led some unions to reject the mediated contract deal last year, with a crippling strike only being averted by a Congressional vote. The workers’ concerns grew after railroads adopted a policy called “precision schedule railroading” based on assembling much longer trains that travel at greater speed. New reports last year cited record railroad profits partly due to deferred maintenance on rails and signals and savings from cutting 40,000 jobs from 2018 to 2020, while imposing an inhumane on-call schedule. (Read more)[/vc_column_text][crocal_empty_space][vc_column_text el_id=”Block4″]
Webinar on solar power for churches and nonprofits March 16
The 7 p.m. webinar is a chance to learn about Solar Faithful and how your congregation or faith-based nonprofit can install clean, renewable solar power, do your part to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, and save money Three non-profits – the Climate Witness Project, Michigan Interfaith Power and Light, and solar developer Chart House Energy– have teamed up with impact investor SunWealth to launch a new non-profit: Solar Faithful. Ken Wright of the diocese’s Creation Care and Environmental Justice Commission notes that this team has set up Power Purchase Agreements to place solar on several congregations in Michigan and recommends the webinar as a good way to explore this option. Click here to register for the webinar.
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com
