In the state budget, legislators have agreed to a one year moratorium on state takeovers of failing school districts. That means districts like Dayton and Canton will not be put under the control of academic distress commissions.
But, it’s not clear yet what that means for three school districts that have been under state control since 2015 when House Bill 70 was approved.
Those districts include Youngstown, East Cleveland, and Lorain. Lorain School Board President Mark Ballardsaid he hopes local control will be restored.
“We’ve seen how slow this ship turns around at the state legislature. But, we do have their attention. They do know that the systems that they have taken over are worse off than before they took them over. And, they are all aware that they need to do something about this,” he said.
Ballard said that he hopes the Senate will propose an emergency clause to restore local control within the next 30 days. But he expects that there will not be a final decision before the school year starts.
