Catholic School Funding in Ohio's State Budget

An update from Representative Denise Driehaus: Recently, Senator Bill Seitz, Representative Bob Mecklenborg, and Representative Lou Blessing sent out a letter about Catholic School funding in the recently passed State Budget. This letter was misleading and fails to fully address what happened with regard to this issue. Below is my response:

I read with disappointment the email sent out by Bill Seitz, Bob Mecklenborg and Lou Blessing regarding my vote in favor of the budget and the interpretation that my vote was a vote against Catholic School funding.

As all three of these legislators are aware, I worked hard on the House version of the budget to secure funding for chartered non-public (Catholic) schools. I have long been a supporter of Catholic Schools. I attended St. Antoninus and Seton High School. My children attended St. Teresa of Avila where I served as the President of the PTG and on Parish Council and where I continue to chair a booth at the parish festival. Catholic Schools are important not only because they provide a quality education to the students they serve, but because they anchor our communities.

When the budget process started, I met with parochial school principals as well as the legislative liaison for the Catholic Conference to better understand the importance of state funding for Catholic Schools. I was able to add language to the House version of the budget to raise the cap on the Administrative Cost Reimbursement line item so the funds in this line could be accessed by the Catholic Schools. Also, I was successful in securing an additional two million dollars in the Auxiliary Services line for chartered non-public schools. While I recognize that this amount did not bring the Catholic Schools back to their precut funding amounts, it was certainly a step in the right direction.

I feel compelled to point out that both Representatives Mecklenborg and Blessing voted against the House version of the budget and so, against increased funding for Catholic Schools. These two items survived the Senate, although no more money was added, and were in the budget before the 3.2 Billion dollar revenue shortfall was identified. The funding was eliminated in the framework that reflected the budget shortfall. I spoke with representatives of the Catholic Conference, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and most importantly members of the conference committee to get the funding restored.

I know that Senator Seitz did the same on the Senate side, but neither one of us was successful in convincing our colleagues to put the funding back into the budget. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer pointing out the irony of funding chartered public schools to a higher degree than chartered non-publics (as they have nowhere near the successful track record), but the letter went unpublished. I agree that this is the most significant flaw in the budget, and have said so publicly - most recently in an article published in the Community Press. I have pledged to work on this issue, and will do so in a bipartisan way... which leads to my disappointment regarding the tenor of the email sent by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

I worked hard to fund Catholic Schools in this budget, unlike Representatives Mecklenborg and Blessing, who offered nothing during the budget process on the House side to assist Catholic Schools. It is a wonder that no additional money was added to the Senate version of the budget for the Catholic Schools, if this was Senator Seitz's number one priority - he is a strong member of the majority party there. In fact, of the four of us, I am the only one who garnered additional funding for chartered non-public schools at any point in the process. My final vote on the budget in no way indicates that I was pleased with the cuts to Catholic Schools and I regret that it is being characterized in this way.

Sincerely,

Denise Driehaus

State Representative

Please feel free to forward this letter to others. It is important that people understand the whole story.