The Ohio State Legislature isn’t done with us. On Tuesday, the House Workforce and Higher Education committee will be holding a hearing on H.B. 698. H.B. 698, the S.B. 1 Compliance Supplemental Appropriation Act, has a slew of policies that will make our work harder:
- The governor would be required to set aside a proportion of our funding as a threat for any SB1 compliance issues.
- Universities would have to submit annual reports from every employee that had worked on “DEI” issues prior to SB1. These reports would specify what their current job looks like, and how it differs from their previous jobs, and would be public records so anyone could request them.
- University boards would be required to adopt a very aggressive retrenchment policy which would go so far as to allow retrenchment for ‘program stagnation.’
- Instructional work load policies would need to maintain a “primary emphasis” on undergraduate instruction.
- The salary and title of all employees at institutions of higher education would be added to https://checkbook.ohio.gov/.
We need you to submit testimony in opposition to HB 698. The House Workforce and Higher Education committee needs to hear that they need to stop adding more unfunded mandates on higher education in Ohio and should instead work on real problems like lowering the cost of tuition. We are tired of having state legislators interfering in our classrooms.
You can submit testimony now by going here and selecting HB 698 from Agenda Item dropdown. If you want advice on what to write, the Ohio Federation of Teachers (our Ohio affiliate) has some advice here. The testimony must be submitted by Monday, May 11th at 10am.
If you can make it to Columbus on Tuesday, there will be plenty of faculty and students testifying in person. Email info@famiami.org and we can put you in touch with others.
Solidarity,
Your FAM Political Education Committee
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