Ohio’s K-12 students would have to spend a little over two weeks more in school if a pair of Republican Ohio lawmakers get their way.
The bill sponsored by Reps. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) and Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) would add 53 hours of instructional time to a school year. It’s just been introduced and doesn’t have a number yet.
Bird said K-12 students are currently required to spend a minimum of 1001 hours in instructional classes, but this proposal would raise that to 1054. As state law says a school day is five hours, this would add more than 10 additional days.
“The more time that students spend in meaningful learning, the better they are going to perform academically,” Bird said.
Bird said in 2014, K-12 students spent 180 days in class but now spend 160 days. He added schools need to make sure students are spending enough time in the classroom.
“They have increased spring break. They’ve now added a fall break. They’ve now entered a winter break or a lengthier winter break and there are more three day weekends,” Bird said.
In many districts, there’s also more time for religious instruction like the Ohio-based Bible education program Lifewise – which nearly all GOP lawmakers support. A law that takes effect in April requires all public school districts to create a policy to allow students to go off-campus during the school day for religious education. Williams said while he supports that, he thinks this increase in hours would help offset that and any other time off task.
“We want to see them maximize their time inside of the classroom,” Williams said. “Time and time again, we are seeing more time spent outside of the classroom, more and more professional days by teachers, longer breaks.”
The addition of more than two weeks of added time will mean only minor additional costs, said Bird, who also said many schools are already meeting the increased number of hours required by this new bill.
“It's not going to cost you any more in paying that teacher. You’re going to pay the teacher the same whether they've got students in front of them or not,” Bird said. “What's going to cost you a little bit more is the transportation, perhaps the food service of that day. And so there are some of those kinds of things and we've not studied that issue. But I would remind the folks in this room that the governor's budget had almost $1 billion for public school transportation.”
And Bird said there’s flexibility for school districts to determine how to increase instructional hours.
“Simply extending the school day a little bit more may do it. One less field trip may be able to add to that instructional time, one less professional development. They may be able to accomplish some of those hours. We don't have to add weeks, months at the end of the school year,” Bird said.
Teachers unions have doubts
Ohio’s teachers unions are not embracing the legislation.
“Adding hours to the calendar does not necessarily translate into more instructional time or better outcomes, said Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
“Instead of arbitrarily adding time, the state needs to focus on eliminating unnecessary work that detracts from student instructional time and does nothing to improve student outcomes,” Cropper said. “In addition, our schools need to be fairly and fully funded so that districts have resources to meet the needs of all students. Until those things happen, adding more time will not be productive.”
Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association said his organization is still working to analyze the potential impacts of this legislation.
“That said, OEA is concerned by any proposal to create another large unfunded mandate on Ohio’s public schools - especially at a time when many Ohio districts are facing a large decrease in state funding in the state budget,” DiMauro said. The Fair School Funding Plan in Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget uses salary and other financial inputs from 2022, which DiMauro said means “the formula is broken.”
“Ohio’s lawmakers must keep their promise to Ohio’s kids by fully and fairly funding our public schools in a way that reflects the actual cost of providing the world-class education our students deserve and that has the state paying its fair share of that,” DiMauro said.
It’s unclear whether private schools and charter schools will be covered by this bill.
