Ohio higher education bill undergoes changes, still awaits House vote

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Compromises are being made to Senate Bill 83, a higher education bill that brought out hundreds to testify at the Ohio Statehouse.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland), is on its eleventh version.  

“I feel very good that the core principles of my bill remain intact and that we’ve also shown great flexibility in trying to accommodate concerns that other stakeholders had,” he said. “I think we have the right balance here and I don’t think it requires anymore amendments. We need this in Ohio. We need this badly.” 

The bill changes the way public universities operate in several ways. The legislation, among other things, touches on diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) training, requires schools to report more administrative things online, and would create an American government course requirement.  

“Higher education is very, very complex,” Cirino said. “And one or two bills is not going to correct it to the extent it needs to be, so we will see what’s going to happen.” 

The bill passed the Senate in May and has since been in the House. During the bill’s last House Higher Education Committee hearing, Cirino introduced several changes to it.  

The new version of the bill gives presidents of the universities the opportunity to design the government courses, and allows the schools to recognize courses taken in high school.  

University staff against the bill said things like the reporting requirements would create an unfunded mandate that would ultimately cost the university. The new version of the bill “cleans up” a lot of the reporting requirements as well as cleans up language about what needs to be posted regarding syllabi and lesson plans.  

The new version also does not limit what universities can do to lobby for policy or budget requests at the statehouse.  

“I don’t have a problem if someone wants to take a DEI course and they want to pay for it, that’s fine, but they should not be required to do that,” Cirino said. “If they don’t believe in the DEI principles and they’re being forced to do it, that is compelled speech and compelled speech is just as egregious as restricted speech is.” 

The original bill also prohibited faculty from striking, something Cirino took out of the new version in hopes it would make the legislation more likely to pass from the house.  

“It became clear that that was going to become an impediment in the house,” Cirino said. “I still believe that students should not have their instruction ever put at risk, certainly because some faculty people want a better dentist plan or a better policy on vacation.” 

Since the bill passed the Senate and made it to the House, Speaker of the Ohio House Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) has said repeatedly that the bill still needs “a lot of work.” 

“I have not looked at the detail of that sub-bill, I know the committee members are working hard on it, so we’ll see how that committee process goes on that bill,” Stephens said.  

But across chambers, Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said if the House does not move forward with the bill by the end of this General Assembly, this won’t be the last time it’s introduced.  

“And probably, the next iteration is not going to have all of the concessions,” Huffman said. “When you make concessions and the folks who say, ‘If you make these concessions and we’ll vote for it,’ but they don’t, well then, the concessions don’t end up getting made in the future.” 

Lawmakers do have until the end of 2024, which is when this General Assembly ends, to pass the bill before having to reintroduce a new version.