Ohio schools are one step closer to getting nearly $912 million in aid.
(The Center Square) – The Ohio Senate passed a pandemic relief bill designed to send financial aid to schools and other educational providers. The money, to be spread out over three years, is designed to provide a safe structure for Ohio students as schools make up for lost instructional time due to the pandemic.
“Our students have been through the ringer over the last school year,” State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, said in a statement. “This funding is vital to helping our schools, teachers and students resume in-person learning – which we know is imperative psychologically, mentally and pedagogically – as safely as possible.”
Brenner co-sponsored the bill in the Senate, along with Sen. Louis Blessing, R-Cincinnati. It passed in the full senate 33-0 earlier this week.
The relief bill allows $857 million to be used by the Ohio Department of Education. About 80% of it will go toward maintaining staff, buying new tech for classrooms and setting up new sanitary. An additional $173 million will go to the Ohio Department of Health, with much of it going toward COVID testing and vaccine distribution.
All of the money comes from the recent $1.9 trillion COVID relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this month.
“School districts need to be able to address the learning needs of all students, including students with special developmental needs, students with health challenges and students whose circumstances deprive them of access to technology, adequate nutrition, mental health support or other essential supports,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association. “Ohio can’t overcome these inequities without sufficient and reliable state funding. We must work together to support students in the best way possible.”
More than $683 million is earmarked to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund. Around $155 million goes to the Governor Emergency Education Relief fund, which will benefit non-public schools.
Any money not used in the forthcoming fiscal year will be carried over to the following year. Leftover money would again be carried over to a third year.
The bill is now in the House, where a similar version had been introduced earlier this month. The original version had been introduced by State Reps. Adam Bird, R-New Richmond, and Tracy Richardson, R-Marysville. It was reintroduced to the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee after the bill’s Senate passage.
“We want all the children in this state to be able to return to their normal lives,” Brenner said, “and this is the first step.”
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