COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio public school students may soon be spending more time in the classroom.
Ohio requires public school students, grades 7-12, to be in the classroom for 1,001 hours per school year, putting Ohio behind some other states:
- Kentucky: 1062 hours
- Michigan: 1098 hours
- Texas: 1260 hours
- Wisconsin: 1050 hours
Ohio lawmakers want to increase the required number by 53 hours, bringing the total requirement up to 1,054 hours in the classroom per school year.
“I would say that most of the schools are probably already there,” Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) said. “And so, the intent of the bill is not to allow further slippage in the wrong direction.”
“We care about kids getting good educational outcomes and we see that Ohio is lagging behind our competitive peers here, not only in the Midwest, but across the nation and across the world,” Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) said.
Parents like Sam Shim, who has an 11th grader in a central Ohio public school system, said their school currently is in session longer than is required, but he worries about that changing.
“In theory, our superintendent has said our kids can be out of school at the beginning of April,” Shim said. “They don’t do that. But it’s a concern that the hours have been reduced so much that if a school district is in distress, that they can cut hours.”
Bird said even with this bill, the number of hours in the classroom will still not be where we were back in 2014, but said it is a step in the right direction.
“The point is the time matters,” Bird said.
Bird was a superintendent at a middle school during the COVID-19 pandemic and said students still need to make up for that lost time in school, and parents like Shim agreed.
“I am worried that students are still behind so this may be a great opportunity to catch up,” Shim said.
So how will schools make up the extra time? The legislation does not prescribe that, and as it stands, that decision would be up to local districts.
“Simply extending the school day a little bit more may do it,” Williams said. “One less field trip may be able to add to that instructional time. One less professional development day may be able to accomplish some of those hours. We don’t have to add weeks, months at the end of the school year.”
“They’ve increased spring break,” Bird said. “They’ve now added a fall break. They’ve now added a lengthier winter break, and there are more three-day weekends. And so, I want to stop the decline.”
The Ohio Education Association has some concerns. In a statement, the organization said it “has not yet seen the full language of this bill, so we are still working to analyze its potential impacts. That said, OEA is concerned by any proposal to create another large unfunded mandate on Ohio’s public schools – especially when many Ohio districts face a large decrease in state funding in the state budget, House Bill 96.”
Bird said the cost really should not be too much and points out the millions of dollars that are being considered, but not yet enacted, for school transportation.
“When you have a teacher workday, as opposed to an instructional day with students, it’s not going to cost you any more in paying that teacher,” Bird said. “You’re going to pay the teacher the same whether they’ve got students in front of them or not. What’s going to cost you a little bit more is the transportation, perhaps the food service of that day.”
Williams said more time in the classroom could help students who struggle to get homework done after hours.
“Instead of giving five sheets of paper to go home for the kid to do at home when they’re struggling to eat, when they’re struggling to deal with abuse that’s in the household, how about an extra half an hour in front of a teacher who can help them with their homework,” Williams said.
Bird said this legislation will help make sure students who are away from their campus, for “valid reasons” like 4-H programs or religious release, also do not fall behind.
As far as union agreements go, Bird said teachers will be able to carry out their current contracts and maximum teaching hours, for now.
“We are, at some point, going to introduce an amendment that would make sure that this bill does not come into conflict with any current collective bargaining agreement with teacher unions,” Bird said. “Any current collective bargaining agreement can continue and when that expires, then they would have to comply with the bill.”
Shim said he does not expect his student, or others, to be too thrown off by an extra hour requirement if it becomes law. He said it is “very reasonable” but it will also be about making sure students are informed that things won’t change too much.
“Not disrupting your extracurriculars,” he said. “It’s just restoring some of the standards that used to be in place in Ohio.”
The bill has not yet been assigned a number or Ohio House committee to be heard in.
Read the language proposed for the bill below.
