Latest news with #SarahFowlerArthur
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Renovated Lake Shore Park pond opened
ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — The upper pond at Lake Shore Park was officially reopened Friday morning after renovations were completed earlier this spring. 'Today we want to thank all of the you who are responsible for the renovation of the upper pond,' Ashtabula Township Park Commission Chairman Brian Hubbard said. More than 20 people attended the event, which included a ribbon cutting at the pond entrance. Hubbard gave a brief history of the park that started in 1906, and also discussed Indian Trails and Cederquist Park, which are owned by the commission. Hubbard said the two ponds have been at the park since its inception, but the last real work done on the ponds occurred in the 1930s, when members of the Civilian Conservation Corps worked on the ponds. He said the two ponds are signature elements of the park, and the lower one was overhauled in 2001. Plans were made for the upper pond shortly thereafter. The park faced some challenges and it was delayed. He said plans were prepared in 2018-19 but the coronavirus pandemic created challenges for the park, with supply and labor costs skyrocketing. Finances for the project were finally secured in 2024, with a donation from Civic Development Corporation, assistance from Smolen Engineering and capital from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Capital Improvement Fund secured with the help from State Representative Sarah Fowler Arthur, Hubbard said. Andover Bank also provided funds to make sure the project happened, he said. Hubbard said a new lighted water fountain has been delivered and will hopefully be installed in the next several weeks. He said two black swans have been welcomed to the pond and more birds are likely to be added in the future.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Child care measures pass Ohio House committee
Children at day care.(Getty Images) An Ohio House committee approved two different bills targeting help for child care in the state, though members of the committee expressed concerns about state funding on the topic. Ohio House Bill 2, proposed legislation that creates a cost-sharing model for child care, passed the House Children and Human Services Committee on Tuesday, moving the measure for possible full House vote. The language of the bill is the same as language included in the House version of the budget, passed last month. That budget proposal is still awaiting final approval, as the Senate works on its own draft before the two chambers come together to reconcile their drafts and create a final draft to send to the governor by the end of June. House Bill 2 would cap child care assistance at 400% of the federal poverty level. The cost-sharing model in the bill would split the cost between the employer, employee, and the state, after an employer applies for the financial assistance. The state would put in 20% of the cost, and the employer and employee would each pay 40%, according to the bill. Child care providers are not required to be a part of Step Up to Quality, the state's child care and early learning provider rating system, under the bill. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The bill was passed 12 to 1, with only state Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, R-Ashtabula, voting against it. 'I do still have some significant concerns with the fact we incentivized, through Step Up to Quality, a number of providers to not be providers for the last period of time,' she told the committee. She added that she stood against the bill 'because I have concerns about the state subsidizing child care going forward.' Fellow Republican state Rep. Tracy Richardson, of Marysville, voted in favor of the bill, but looked to the future of the measure and the language in the budget for needed changes. 'I will support the bill, but I want to publicly state that I believe that our finance committee may have some work to do on this bill, maybe look at perhaps some potential reduction in overall funding,' Richardson said. She said the same thing about a second bill passed by the committee on Tuesday, a bill which would appropriate $10.25 million each for the next two years for grants aimed at expanding 'child care capacity' and establishing an employer-based child care learning lab, among other resources for grant applicants. Ohio House Bill 41 would require the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to oversee a grant program 'to assist employers in retrofitting or equipping their onsite or near-site child care facilities, in building new child care facilities, or in partnering with child care providers, government entities, nonprofit organizations or others on initiatives to create child care capacity within their communities to support the workforce,' according to an analysis of the bill by the Legislative Service Commission. 'I see this being a potential, really strong pilot program, providing dollars necessary for those facilities that matter, particularly in areas where we are most impoverished,' Richardson told the committee before voting in favor of the bill. 'I do think, fiscally, our finance committee should take a closer look at the overall appropriation.' Fowler Arthur voted against the bill, along with Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, but neither made statements as to why they were voting against the second child care measure. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio House Education Committee lays out priorities, prepares for budget talks
Getty Images Budget discussions on education have begun in the Ohio General Assembly, along with the reconvening of the House Education Committee, which is preparing to take a hard look at the state's school regulation and funding as it establishes legislative priorities on the topic. State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, R-Ashtabula, is the new chair of the committee, which has several former educators in its ranks. The former Ohio State Board of Education member and homeschooling supporter focused on 'disenfranchised' parents and the elimination of what she sees as overregulation in the state education system as she explained what she hopes to see from the committee over the next two years. 'Over the past two or three decades, I think Ohio's education system has been weighed down with bureaucracy and red tape, and often those have come in the form of well-intentioned policies, regulations, laws, unintentionally stealing the joy of learning from many of Ohio's students and teachers,' Fowler Arthur said in last week's committee meeting. Fellow committee member state Rep. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, also brought up an oversaturation of roles, particularly for teachers in the state system, saying the screenings, parent reporting, health intervention plans, and school safety plans, among many other roles given to teachers through laws and regulations, have given educators a full plate. 'We need to remind ourselves that we have created all this extra work for teachers, and again, it's not bad stuff, it's good things, but we need to temper some of our expectations and whatever regulations we contemplate adding to their list,' Bird told the committee. Fowler Arthur also expressed hope that the committee would 'look ahead to the potential flexibilities that we can extend to our local schools and districts' and cited Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, in saying 'our true policy priorities are realized through the budget and with what the legislature collectively chooses to fund.' Gov. Mike DeWine released his executive budget proposal early last week, which included recommendations for $12.4 billion in state funding to schools in 2026, along with $12.6 billion in fiscal year 2027. It includes the implementation of the final two years of a public school funding model known as the Fair School Funding Plan, which is meant to focus on the real-time costs of educating a child in individual districts rather than giving blanket funding without regard to the nuances of different school district needs. But whether that will stay in the legislative budget is up in the air, as some in the Republican supermajority have expressed skepticism over continuing with the plan. Republicans in the legislature have stood behind state support of the private school voucher system. DeWine's budget supports universal access to the voucher program, along with the recommendation to fund the public school funding model. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Public school advocates praised DeWine's inclusion of the Fair School Funding Plan in the executive proposal, but also scrutinized the education budget because of it's failure to account for inflation in the public school funding model and a plan to 'scale down' funding guarantees in some districts. The education advocacy coalition All In For Ohio Kids said DeWine's proposal, based on 2022 education costs, 'means the state would be funding public schools at a lower level than it did in 1997, when the (Ohio) Supreme Court declared the school funding system unconstitutional.' 'As a parent, I can't base my budget for groceries on 2022 prices, so how can our lawmakers budget for our school districts using 2022 costs,' asked Jason Marshall, a Pickerington Local School District parent and 'parent leader' for All In for Ohio Kids, in a statement. 'The result will be that school districts like mine will have fewer dollars from the state to work with and will be forced to ask voters to raise their property taxes – in the midst of sky-rocketing property valuations.' In discussions about the executive budget happening in the House Finance Committee last week, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Stephen Dackin said DeWine's recommendations are a good starting point, but he and the department 'do think there's some elements of the funding formula that could be adjusted,' including addressing the Temporary Transitional Aid Guarantee, a provision in state education funding that makes sure funding levels for any district don't fall below the previous year's funding base. DeWine's executive budget looks to cut that guarantee by 5% in each of the next two years, down to 90% by 2027. During the House Education Committee, Fowler Arthur also mentioned the uncertainty at the federal level when it comes to the efficacy and future existence of the U.S. Department of Education. But she took a positive tone when it came to potential changes, including those that could be made by an organization created through a Trump executive order and run by Tesla and SpaceX leader Elon Musk. 'The Department of Government Efficiency is taking a hard look at the federal government policies, and I think we're all expecting at least some level of change to the federal K-12 education scene,' Fowler Arthur said. 'And so, hopefully this will make it the right time for Ohio to do the same.' Fowler Arthur said she plans to convene the House Education Committee every week until Easter. The committee will see the education provisions of the budget as part of their business, amid negotiations by the House to develop its own budget document. The Senate will also create a document, and both will need to be reconciled with the governor's recommendations to create one unified budget ready for the governor's signature by July 1. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
