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We would prefer state Rep. Gary Click and other lawmakers in Columbus focus on the state budget and how public schools are funded instead of proposing and approving laws that undermine public education and diminish it.
Click, R-Vickery, and other Republicans in the supermajority statehouse have accomplished nearly nothing to establish public confidence that they care about public schools.
They have done the opposite of that with school vouchers and so-called "school choice" programs that take money away from public programming and funnel it to private interest schools. They are masters at mistitling these laws to misrepresent their causes and effects.
Click has proposed that all of Ohio's nearly 700 public school districts have specific plans for including school daytime programming plans for student families that want to worship during the school day.
House Bill 445 is not specifically written to make it easier for a group called LifeWise to offer Bible classes to public school students but that would be a "great outcome," Click said. The measure applies to all forms of religious instruction, not just one group, Click said.
But Click has an interest, a deeply personal one. A Christian pastor, if churches were businesses, he might very well be subject to ethics questions for promoting this proposal that will have a direct impact on his own church in Fremont.
But a church is not a business, and a family's choice about where to worship and what to believe is a highly personal one that the state has no business promoting or requiring it to be promoted. That is exactly what Click's proposal would do.
We believe in home rule for public school districts, and we believe it's Click's responsibility and the responsibility of every lawmaker to protect and promote the interests of our public schools. He's failed to do that and, instead, Click and others diminish its importance in our communities.
House Bill 445, co-authored by state Rep. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, would require all school boards to adopt policies for letting students attend religious classes. The measure has been assigned to the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee, which hasn't voted on it yet. Current law already allows school districts to allow students time to worship, during the school day; this change, if it's adopted would require them to have programs.
Home rule for our schools should not be micromanaged by pastor lawmakers, or politicians with an agenda to circumvent traditional boundaries to appease a gerrymandered electorate. This bill should be defeated.
* Guest editorial by The Sandusky Register.