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Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bipartisan Ohio Senate bill aims to pay for public school breakfast and lunch
Students eat lunch at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake, Utah, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps/Utah News Dispatch) A co-sponsor of a new bipartisan bill to give Ohio public school students free meals is hoping to see it included as a priority in the state's two-year operating budget due July 1. State Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Twp., said the newest move to get the state to pay for all students to have free breakfast and lunch at school is similar to Senate Bill 342, which he and co-sponsor Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, introduced in the last General Assembly. 'It's such a great idea, it's a public good,' Blessing told the Capital Journal. S.B. 342 had other aims, such as increasing the Local Government Fund and modifying funding for the Low and Moderate-Income Housing Trust Fund, along with the goal of total eligibility for student meals, so when Blessing and Smith brought back the idea in the new General Assembly, simplicity won out. 'To me, this should be a no-brainer,' Blessing said. Under the new bill, Senate Bill 109, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce would be directed to reimburse public and chartered nonpublic schools who participated in the National School Breakfast Program to cover the gap between the federal reimbursements for free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches, along with covering those who would be required to pay because they don't qualify for meal assistance. The bill lists an appropriation of $300 million to support the reimbursements. Blessing and Smith plan to push for the bill to be included in the new two-year state operating budget due July 1, currently under negotiation in the Ohio House, though Blessing hopes to have at least one hearing in the Senate Finance Committee 'to say this is great policy.' Polling as recently as last year in Ohio showed vast public support for a universal free school breakfast and lunch program in a state where 1 in 6 children live in households that struggle to keep food on the table. A 2023 report from the advocacy group Children's Defense Fund Ohio found that 1 in 3 children who live in those homes don't qualify for free school meals. School nutrition administrators spoke to the legislature during the last round of budget negotiations, telling stories of student meal debt putting them in the difficult position of keeping students from receiving a hot meal, and perpetuating the stigma that comes with students identified as free or reduced-lunch eligible. Support for universal school breakfast and lunch comes as the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee contemplates cuts that could impact the Community Eligibility Provision, which works within the federal National School Lunch Program in high-poverty areas to provide no-cost meals to students who qualify. Schools qualify based on the rates of participation the school students and families have in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The national Food Research & Action Center found that the proposed changes to the eligibility provision on the federal level could impact more than 280,000 Ohio students and 728 schools. Blessing acknowledged there was pushback about paying for the state-level measure in the last operating budget. But he countered the argument by saying the measure could be paid for by increasing some taxes, such as the severance tax. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'I wouldn't be surprised if it's the House or the Senate that puts a significant income tax cut in (the new budget), and that's money out the door right there that could have paid for this,' Blessing said. In the previous state operating budget, $4 million was included to extend free meals to those who qualified for reduced-price breakfast and lunch for the 2023-2024 school year. But attempts at universal eligibility didn't make it to the final draft. For Blessing, a bill that gives school-aged kids two meals a day addresses campaign promises that were made to ease the costs for everyday Ohioans and Americans. 'Right, wrong or indifferent, Trump was elected because there was a cost-of-living crisis,' Blessing said. 'I would hope that we would deliver on this to help with that. It should matter to everyone.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio House Bill 26 would ‘defund sanctuary cities' amid Trump deportation efforts
[Watch related FOX 8 News coverage in the player above.] COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW) — Ohio communities like Cleveland stand to lose a chunk of their state funding if they refuse to comply with federal immigration enforcement directives, under a newly introduced House bill. House Bill 26, titled the Protecting Ohio Communities Act, 'defunds sanctuary cities in the state of Ohio,' and penalizes them for refusing to work with federal officers on immigration enforcement, said the bill's sponsor, new House Majority Whip Josh Williams of Sylvania Township, R-44th. Could Cleveland be declared a 'sanctuary city'? Federal authorities issue warning To stay in compliance under its proposed framework, law enforcement officers in the state must be able to inquire about a person's citizenship status during investigations and 'immediately' report them to federal authorities if they have 'reasonable cause to believe' they're in the country illegally. It also penalizes governmental entities for establishing so-called 'sanctuary' policies intended to shield undocumented migrants from federal immigration enforcement, and would require those communities to show they don't keep any such policies. The proposed rules aren't mandates, Williams said, but they come with a threat of penalty. If enacted, communities that don't comply risk losing 10% of their allotment from the state's Local Government Fund, which is discretionary spending, Williams said. 'We saw, just [last month], two of our major metropolitan mayors come out and publicly state they have sanctuary city policies in place,' he told FOX 8 News. Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, responding late last month to reports of increasing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations around the area, said: I fully condemn the concentrated effort to threaten and terrify our most vulnerable populations. Immigrants are human beings. They have elevated our home by contributing their talents and cultures here. They support our economy. They attend our churches. They are our neighbors. Immigrants have been integral to our city's story for generations. … My administration will not engage in the deportation of individuals who have not committed violent crimes. No law requires that we do so. Cleveland police are tasked with protecting public safety, and while we will take action against anybody who commits violent crimes, we are not enforcing general federal immigration law. Our police are not here to play politics or be used as a tool for fear. Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb Watch previous FOX 8 News coverage in the player below: There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. President Donald Trump, who made immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his campaign, has claimed this surging deportation effort is intended to target violent criminals who are in the country illegally. Since Jan. 23, ICE agents have arrested more than 8,200 people, the agency posted on social media. That includes several people who were being held in the Geauga County jail last month. Five other people detained after an ICE raid at a local restaurant last month were released on bond on Tuesday. Immigration enforcement is Homeland Security's job, but state and local law enforcement agencies regularly work alongside ICE, detaining people under suspicion of being in the country illegally — at the federal government's request — and holding them in county-run jails for legal proceedings, said Aleksandar Cuic, partner at Brown Immigration Law in Cleveland. Cuic said he thinks the new bill 'kind of blurs the line of what local law enforcement's duties are,' compared to the duties of ICE agents. He also thinks the bill's language could also invite racial profiling. 'The slippery slope is: Do we really want police to be profiling people based on how they look and their accents? Police are supposed to be profiling based on their actions,' Cuic said. Although Cuyahoga County sheriff's deputies regularly work alongside local, state and federal authorities, 'immigration enforcement is not within the daily duties of the department and sheriff's deputies are not trained on federal immigration law,' said county spokesperson Jennifer Ciaccia. Federal detainees or people held due to immigration status aren't typically housed at the Cuyahoga County jail, she said. The jail in the last year did, however, receive one undocumented immigrant, who was arrested by another agency on something unrelated to their immigration status, she said. Many communities get Homeland Security funding for assisting with immigration enforcement, said Cuic. Under House Bill 26, communities that the attorney general determines are not in compliance would also lose that funding. When asked for comment on the new House bill, Bibb's office reiterated his administration won't help deport immigrants who haven't committed violent crimes. 'It's important to point out that we will not be doing the federal government's job for them,' the mayor's spokesperson Tyler Sinclair wrote in a statement to FOX 8 News. 'We do not ask the federal government to issue speeding tickets or fill potholes, nor should the federal government ask us to administer Social Security or — in this case — enforce general federal immigration law. That is their responsibility and is exactly what the mayor said earlier this week.' Newly installed U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Cleveland, R-Westlake, a Colombian immigrant, has threatened withholding of federal funds from sanctuary cities — down to the penny — as well as 'personal criminal liability' for anyone who impedes federal deportation action, FOX 8 News reported this week. In Northeast Ohio, 19,000 people, including 4,000 convicted criminals, have active deportation orders, Moreno said. Clevelanders have called for the city to declare itself a sanctuary city, said city councilperson Jasmin Santana, Ward 14, in a Facebook post. 'We hear you and are looking into it,' she wrote. A spokesperson later told FOX 8 News her office is 'evaluating the pros and cons … to ensure this initiative benefits our city rather than causing any harm.' Sinclair said the mayor's administration is 'laser-focused on fighting violent crime' and intends to focus on arresting perpetrators of violence 'regardless of their immigration status,' Sinclair wrote. 'There, unfortunately, has been an intentional conflation between violent crimes and immigration status,' Sinclair wrote. 'Threatening to pull key funds that our community relies on — a majority of which goes to our public safety forces — goes beyond a political game as it would have dire consequences for our residents and others across the state.' 5 'undocumented individuals' detained after ICE raid at Cleveland Heights restaurant released on bond Williams said his bill doesn't conflict with home rule, and is 'one-thousand-percent' constitutionally sound. The state legislature, which holds Ohio's purse strings, is only constitutionally required to dole out casino revenue and portions of state income tax, Williams said. 'Everything else is good, free will.' 'They have the right to have local policies in place like this. The state of Ohio is not going to subsidize those policies,' he said. 'Don't take our good will as weakness. If you want to put these policies in place, that's fine — you fund it.' Were Cuyahoga County to run afoul of the law, if enacted, it would mean the loss of about $2.4 million in local government funding, according to Ciaccia. Sinclair did not estimate how much Cleveland could lose if penalized under HB 26, when asked. The bill would also require government entities that issue public benefits to verify recipients' immigration status, to determine whether non-citizens are eligible for the benefits under federal welfare laws. A previous iteration of HB 26 was introduced in September, during the 135th General Assembly, as House Bill 666. It was assigned to the House State and Local Government Committee in November, but never saw a hearing. House Bill 26 is now before the House Public Safety Committee. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
