(soft music begins) - [Mike] The state Senate unveiled its two year budget proposal addressing school funding and further slashing taxes.

A controversial punishment for a player rocks a storied high school football program in Canton.

The coach and six assistants have been fired.

And organizers have a Memorial day ceremony in Hudson are getting criticism for cutting off the microphone of a veteran as he detailed the involvement of freed slaves and honoring the fallen.

Ideas is next.

(soft music plays) - [Announcer] Brought to you by Westfield, offering insurance to protect what's yours.

Grow your business and achieve your dreams.

(soft piano music begins) (deep instrumental music begins) - Hello and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre, Ideastream's Executive Editor.

The Ohio Senate says its school funding proposal is more sustainable than the school funding overhaul and the house version of the budget.

Critics though say the Senate plan does not address the current funding formulas over-reliance on property taxes.

Which has been deemed unconstitutional four times because it's inequitable.

New winners announced in the state's Vax-a-Million Lottery, include, a Northeast Ohio teen with career aspirations in the medical field.

A full ride to college oughta help.

But even as participation in the lottery grows, the bump in vaccinations seems to have hit a lull.

Football coaches at a big name Northeast Ohio high school, lost their jobs this week following allegations that they violated a student athlete's first amendment religious rights by forcing him to consume a pepperoni pizza as punishment.

A violation of the student's religious dietary tenets.

And the Ohio chapter of the American Legion, is investigating after its members in Hudson, shut off the microphone of a veteran on Memorial day as he spoke about the role of freed slaves in honoring the fallen.

Joining me to discuss these stories and more, Ideas stream managing producer for health Marlene Harris-Taylor and education reporter Jenny Hamel.

And in Columbus, statehouse news bureau chief, Karen Kasler whose microphone no one had better turn off.

Let's get ready to round table.

Karen, lets talk about this.

Does the Senate's version of school funding do away with this fair school funding plan, or the Cupp-Patterson proposal, the house originally had incorporated?

- Yeah, it basically blows it up.

I mean, these are two totally different plans here, when you start to look at the specifics of it.

I mean, what's called the fair school funding plan, what was house bill one, what was Cupp-Patterson, all of that's the same thing essentially.

And very very simply put, it calculates state aid based on 60% property taxes, 40% income.

And the cost of this was going to be tremendous.

$1.8 billion on top of the more than $10 billion that the state already spends on public education.

And so that's why when the house bill, when house bill, when the Cupp-Patterson bill passed last year it didn't go anywhere in the Senate.

Well then, they started over this year folded it into the budget, passed it in the house, and Democrats actually joined with Republicans in voting for the budget because of this school funding piece in the house version of the budget.

When it got over to the Senate, senators had said that they were very concerned about the cost.

They were concerned about some of the numbers in that cost.

And so they basically ripped the whole thing apart and went back to a formula that's for a two-year budget cycle.

Whereas, the other plan would be a six year phase-in.

And the Senate's formula is based on 80% of a teacher's salary, plus benefits divided by a student teacher ratio of 20 to one, adding some extra money in.

So it's less money than the house budget would be in terms of student aid, but it's more money spent.

It's very, very complicated, but the important thing to remember here, these are two totally different plans.

School groups and education advocates had supported the one out of the house.

They have serious concerns about the one in the Senate.

- Jenny, it sounds like if you could figure out what Karen just said you would get an A in whatever math class they put in front of you.

What a complicated formula.

And yet this version, the main criticism coming from teachers unions and others, is that it doesn't deal with the whole property tax thing.

- Yeah.

And that's the whole fundamental reason why the Ohio Supreme court has several times deemed the way that we fund our public schools unconstitutional.

Because it over relies on property taxes.

I mean, we report all the time on people shouting from the rooftops of the homes they own, that levies are too high.

They're too frequent.

That property taxes in this state are too high.

And, you know, the reality is in some areas, people can pay for taxes like that, you know, and others cannot.

And so what you have again is this patchwork of unequal school districts.

That's why you've got the Beachwoods, and the Solons, and the Oranges, and then you've got east Cleveland, Cleveland or any urban district.

I mean, just huge disparities.

So that was the whole point of the Cupp-Patterson bill is, if we get more state funding into the mix and that's what the Cupp-Patterson bill or the fair school funding formula would do, is that, after that six year $2 billion infusion state funding would increase by 25%.

For what that means for like, you know, your common guy who maybe doesn't even care about public schools is that they would see less levies on the board.

And, you know, and not feel like they're not supporting their public school system if they don't want to vote to pass it.

Cause they know that the way that Ohio has been funding schools is both you know, this is what the public school advocates say it's wholly inadequate.

And it's just, the burden is too high on local taxpayer.

So it's not working out because you've got places like Euclid that keeps getting levies turned down.

So yeah, I mean, the people who have been working, you know for years on this Cupp-Patterson bill, they see the Senate plan and they're like, well, that's great.

It's the status quo.

As Karen says, it blows it up.

It shows no regard for the public school system.

And then, you know, part and parcel when you've got the Senate also saying, but we are gonna increase ed choice, scholarship amounts.

You know, they really see this as the Senate prioritizing a private voucher system, led kind of system, over the whole just survival or existence of public schools in the state.

- Karen, this isn't a final version though.

The Senate comes up with its plan.

First of all, there are a bunch of amendments that can be introduced in fact, by noon today there's a deadline for this omnibus amendment part of it.

And then they can still get some more in committee.

But once the Senate finally passes this, there's the house version too, and then it's gotta be reconciled.

Right?

- Right.

And that's gonna be the issue here because, these two plans like we've been saying, are just totally different.

And to try to find common ground in between them is gonna be very, very difficult.

That basically, lawmakers are gonna have to pick one direction or the other.

Will you go with the house plan, which is a six year phase-in, a totally different way of doing things?

Or are you gonna go with the Senate plan which is a two year formula, kind of a regular budget cycle thing?

Which like Jenny says, sticks closer to the status quo.

What's interesting about the Senate plan is not only is there more funding for vouchers, and both budgets have direct funding of vouchers in them, but the Senate plan actually lowers the student aid down to an, a number that's lower than the house budget but it actually spends more.

It spends, I've just been talking with Senator Matt Dolan the chair of the finance committee this morning.

And the Senate budget spends $428 million more than the house budget does, but yet, does something totally different.

So trying to reconcile these two things, I mean, maybe this is one reason why the Senate is planning a vote so soon after they introduced their budget this week.

The vote is next week.

Because the budget needs to be in place by the end of June.

So there's a lot of discussion that has to happen to try to figure out what to do going forward.

(deep instrumental music begins) - The Senate's budget proposal would also make a big change in early childhood education in Ohio.

Currently the state requires providers who accept children receiving state paid childcare assistance, to join the Step Up To Quality system.

Which awards stars based on the educational quality of the program.

The Senate budget eliminates the ratings.

To Marlene, the concern would be that removing the star quality program would potentially increase the educational inequity that already exists for lower income students, particularly.

- Yeah, and I think that's a really good argument actually.

Because if you think about it, it's a very complex issue.

Like all the things we're talking about here today.

It's not clearly black and white.

Obviously, when people have lower income, they have less money to pay for daycare.

So, you know, you're gonna go for the cheaper option, right?

And if there aren't these requirements in place, that there's at least some standards that your particular daycare has to offer.

Then you can come in with a really cheap option and not have to worry about, training for your staff, making sure that they're hitting these benchmarks.

But at the same time, then that leaves us in a situation where these kids who are going through daycare, are not prepared when they get to kindergarten.

I mean, and there has been research on top of research.

I mean, it's not even a question anymore, that those early childhood years are the prime time for helping kids to not only get ready to matriculate into kindergarten and do well, but also, that social emotional learning piece.

So yeah, it's, it's tough, but it seems obvious that you need some standards to me.

- But the balance that they're looking at is, on the one end, you're right.

The long-term success of a student relies on, that early a couple thousand days, you know, of their lives.

But the issue then is, if a parent wants to go to work they need to find childcare for their child.

- [Marlene] Right.

- And if there isn't enough childcare, if there aren't enough facilities, then they can't send their child there and go to work.

So then there's some sacrifices that are given.

So - [Marlene] Absolutely.

- What the political leaders are saying is, we need more of these places and they might not have to be that high quality.

They just have to be a place where your kid can safely be.

What about that argument?

- Well, I mean, there's, there's another argument that you could put there too.

Why not support these places and help them get to where they need to be?

In other words, instead of just, let's just remove all the regulations and just let everybody do what they wanna do, Why not direct some funding toward these daycare centers that we know will need some help to get where they need to be?

I mean, and this might argue against something like a tax cut, right?

I mean, I realize the argument that the leaders are making around, well we wanna be competitive with businesses cause businesses are gonna continue to run to the place that makes it the cheapest for them to operate, right.

But let's make a level playing field here.

Let's not make poor people make that choice that they cannot have quality.

Let's put some funding there.

That's an alternate argument to the one that they're making.

- And Karen, how is that argument playing out in Columbus?

What do we see with the Senate versus the house version, versus what the governor wanted, and what we might ultimately see in reconciliation?

- Well, I've been talking to some people in the childcare space and people who were formerly in the legislature.

And one described this to me as expected but still breathtaking in how it happened.

Senator Matt Huffman has said that, he wanted to get rid of Step Up To Quality last time, in the last budget.

Now he's the Senate president, so he's able to do that.

But one of the people who was key in the whole process of putting together the Step Up To Quality initiative said, "This is the wrong time to do this."

We've got a childcare crisis in this country."

Like Marlene just said, there's so much research that shows how important that early childhood education is.

And so to dismantle this program right now, is potentially devastating longterm.

And she's right, that there's really a struggle here between people who are trying to just find care for their kids while they go to work, versus people who are seeking out preschool opportunities so their kids can be ready to go to kindergarten.

Ideally you have both of those things together.

But Huffman has said that that costs a lot of money.

It's cost the state lower income providers.

There was a childcare provider who, or who spoke at the press conference, where they introduced the budget saying, "This is a program that's ruled by fear and not encouragement," which is interesting to hear.

I guess, the interactions with people from the state who were certifying those daycare providers and giving them one to five stars were scary to some providers.

So I think there's a lot to discuss here, but certainly there there's real concern from childcare advocates, from people who have been in the legislature, including Republicans who've said, this is not the time to do this.

In fact, there's a press conference happening this morning where they'll talk about their concerns and really try to push back on this (deep instrumental music plays) - A Mayfield Village, teenager, and a new dad from Toledo are the newest winners in the state's Vax-a-Million Lottery.

Marlene, Jonathan Carlyle's story is exactly the result the governor was hoping for with this lottery.

- Exactly.

Like wasn't he the perfect, you know, test case to put out there before the public?

Here he's a guy, he's a hard working guy, working for Amazon, I believe.

And he's like, yeah, I was gonna do it.

But then when I heard about that lottery, yeah.

I said, "Let me go ahead and do it."

And now he's got a million bucks, right.

- Which is great.

As we said, that's what the goal is.

But on the other hand, when we reported after the first week or leading up to the first week, the slide in vaccines had been halted and we had a sharp increase.

Now we're seeing that, a lull kind of in that.

- Yeah.

And in fact, the governor, I was I was actually shocked that the governor kind of admitted it yesterday.

I believe it was yesterday that, yeah, there was a big bump when the lottery was first announced.

But now it's coming down to pre-lottery numbers.

I think one thing that'll be interesting to watch, and I didn't look at the numbers this morning, It was like, each Wednesday, like after you have the big announcement, I wonder if there'll be mini bumps?

You know, after people hear about the numbers.

But I gotta say this though, I mean, you know, didn't it just fill your heart to see Zoe talking about- - [Mike] She's awesome.

- I mean, who, who could watch that press conference with this young girl who just won this free ride to college and just not be happy.

And in fact, the other student also who won a week ago, I mean, even more so than the $1,000,000 watching those students, it's just been so inspirational to me.

And I'm like, "Oh my God hopefully she'll be a doctor one day, right.

- [Jenny] That's awesome.

- It's so awesome.

But yeah, but overall you're right though, Mike.

I mean, it's, it appears that the the big excitement is over and now we're going to have to make some adjustments and do something new.

I mean, like Lisa Ryan, did a story earlier this week about how Cuyahoga county is starting to go out to people who are home bound and deliver the vaccine.

In Wood County, they're doing even more than that.

You don't necessarily have to be like unable to get outta your house, in Wood County, if you just say, I need it at my house, they'll come.

Cuyahoga, hasn't gone that far.

- [Mike] Right.

- But interventions like that, and other creative ideas is what's gonna have to happen now.

Because I don't know if gettin' a beer is workin', Mike.

- It does work.

I don't know if it works with a vaccine, but.

(Marlene and Mike chuckle) - And by the way, you mentioned Wood County- - [Jenny] Oh yeah, and what's- - And so, I have to give a shout out to the Harvard of Wood County, my Alma mater, Bowling Green.

- Bowling Green, all hail.

- [Karen] In West Virginia- - All hail your Alma mater.

- In West Virginia, they're giving away guns, so.

- [Mike] Oh boy.

- [Marlene] Oh, I heard about that one.

- [Mike] Hopefully they just, hopefully they just- - Yeah, so ya know, there's all sorts of incentives.

- They're hunting rifles is what I understand.

- I hope they shoot, I hope they shoot the vaccine darts.

That would be great.

(all laughing) - Yeah.

The guns, my work.

Hey, you never know.

- Let's hear from Zoe, Zoe Vincent.

Her story is an interesting one.

She's someone who's already had COVID-19.

- I feel like it was honestly the most sick I've ever been, but I obviously came out of it.

And I do think that it played like a significant role in my decision to get the vaccination, because like it was like, if I can somehow like guaranteed that I'll never feel this way again.

Or like, my family won't have to feel this way again.

Like I felt like, I would definitely take it.

And so I did get the vaccine.

- So in her case, it wasn't the lottery that prompt her.

It was the fact that she'd already had the, virus.

- Yeah.

And so, they're hoping that there'll be a number of factors that will make people go ahead and do it.

I mean, you've got some people who are on the fence and just can't maybe take off work to go and get the shot.

We've heard people say, "Well, you know, I'm concerned that I might get sick.

And is my employer going to let me stay off if I'm sick?"

There's funding out there from the feds.

And I think even from the state to help employers cover that.

But what I think, Mike, I think we're at that stage where you know, it's gotta move from the carrot to the stick.

And I know people have been reticent to do that, to say, "Well, you can't work here if you don't get the shot."

But hospitals have done this.

For example, with the flu shot with employees.

If you don't get the flu shot, you can't work here.

So, and there are many even healthcare workers who haven't gotten the shot.

So we might be moving into that phase where we start to see more sticks now.

(deep instrumental music plays) - Canton's McKinley high school head football coach, and six assistant coaches were fired by unanimous vote of the school board Thursday night.

After allegations that they forced a student athlete to violate his religious beliefs as punishment for a missed workout session.

The 17 year old students lawyer says, "The coaches forced the teen to consume a pepperoni pizza to punish him."

The teen is a Hebrew Israelite, whose religion forbids the consumption of pork and pork residue.

Jenny you've been following this story.

In fact, wrote the story as it was breaking last night.

The family intends to pursue a first amendment case.

- Yeah.

First amendment violation of, you know, his his religious rights.

I mean, the teen is a Hebrew Israelite, they do not eat pork.

You know, the father and the attorney said, "The head coach certainly knew that."

There had been many team dinners where he would say, "Is there pork, you know, included in this meal?

I can't eat it because of my religion."

And I guess what makes it just as, you know, as an observer, particularly, I don't know, there's something very troubling about this.

It is that, you know, the coach didn't dole out any punishment.

It was specifically, you know, he had a pepperoni pizza waiting for this guy as punishment for missing a prior voluntary practice.

Because the kid, you know, says he had a shoulder injury and wanted to stay at home.

And of all the punishments he could have doled out.

It was one, that was specifically targeted towards the fact that his religious beliefs precluded him from eating pork.

- Canton McKinley high school is a football- - Behemoth.

- Legendary, football place.

It's right next to the national football hall of fame.

Canton itself, the cradle of football.

So this is a bigger deal, especially because it's a football program there, than it might be in another school, or if it was another sport, even.

- Yeah.

And I'm sure this was just like, the worst week of the Canton school districts history.

I mean, they, like you said, this is, football is synonymous with, with those schools and with that area.

And I'm sure the coach and his whole coaching staff, and the way that they're training these guys and, you know, the whole, it ... You know, these are prized individuals.

And so to make the decision to cut them all and to say, we're starting fresh.

I mean, I'm sure that this was not an easy decision for the board or the administrators to make.

Because you know, they do have to start from scratch and football is so valuable to them.

And I'm sure that staff has a lot of supporters too, from the community.

But at some point, they have to say, what does the school district allow as behavior by the people that we pay to oversee our children.

And- - [Marlene] Jenny, you made a great point about this particular punishment because, you know, they could've had 'em do 100 pushups.

- [Jenny] Right.

- They could've had him run the length of the field 50 times.

- It was a voluntary workout that he missed.

It was supposed to be a voluntary.

- It was voluntary, yeah.

- So maybe lay off.

- So lay off, in the first place.

That's a great point, Mike.

But even if you decide I'm gonna punish this kid, so many choices of punishments.

- [Jenny] What- - So, it's as though they were particularly cruel- - [Jenny] Targeting the religion.

- It was a very cruel decision.

- Yeah, and the teammates were there, and they were saying, if you don't, you know, according to him, if you don't eat this pizza your teammates are all gonna have to do a bunch of extra exercises or whatever it was.

So they would be punished if you don't do the thing that- - [Mike] Right.

- You know, you're telling us, violates your religion.

- I do, I do wanna lay out there that that's the allegation, the coaches and the coaching staff would probably have another story.

And that's something that'll play out in court, in regards to, whether it was a purposeful violation of someone's religion as you laid it out.

- [Jenny] Yeah, sure.

- Clearly those points are there but that's gonna be a matter for court as well.

In the meanwhile, what a fast decision by the school board.

I know you were monitoring it last night, thinking, okay I'll call in the morning and see what, where they where they moved it to.

And, and then suddenly it was a bulletin.

They took action.

I mean, you almost never hear something happening that quickly.

- Yeah, I mean, it made me think that they had decided this well before this, you know, special meeting on Thursday.

And they were just coming in to make that public announcement.

I think just the extremity of what happened, and, you know, just this kid feeling, you know in some respects, if you know the allegations are true, targeted.

And he's a minor and these are people that you know, you're supposed to look up to and protect you.

I think it was a very clear decision for them.

(deep instrumental music plays) - The Ohio American Legion, is investigating a Hudson Memorial day commemoration.

During which, a veteran had his mic muted while describing the origins of the national day of remembrance.

In his speech, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Barney Kempter, was talking about how formerly enslaved African-Americans honored fallen union soldiers in Charleston, South Carolina, shortly after the end of the civil war - They were carrying armfuls of flowers and went to decorate at the graves.

Interesting that there would be a tie back to Hudson with that song, from John Brown.

Most importantly, whether Charleston's decoration date was the first- - And then you can hear it there.

The microphone was cut off as he was making that part of the speech.

Later, after two minutes, it was raised up again, the volume, and he finished his 11 minute speech.

The Ohio American Legion is asking for the resignations of the two organizers responsible for muting Kempter's mic, Cindy Suchan, the president of Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, and chair of the Memorial day parade committee, told the Akron Beacon Journal that, the content of the speech was "Not relevant to our program for the day."

And then added "The theme of the day was honoring Hudson's veterans."

Kempter did read the names of Hudson's veterans who died by the way, Kempter told the Beacon Journal, "This is not the same country I fought for."

So ... - I know Mike, I heard this one.

- Kempter said that?

- Yep, he did.

-[Jenny] Yeah.

- I just say wow.

And you know, it's interesting, because this is a part of our history.

And he was trying to educate us.

And I, as African-American woman don't even know that much about this particular part of history.

So I went and looked it up this morning when I heard about it.

And I saw that time magazine did a big piece about a year ago about this.

And they say that in May 1st, 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina, the commemoration was organized by freed slaves and some white missionaries.

And they went around this race track that had been used as a site where union soldiers had been kept prisoner.

And they, you know, dug new graves, they put new placards, they put flowers there.

And so a lot of people, attribute the beginning of the holiday to two years later, when this other general did it.

- [Jenny] Yeah.

- I think it was at Arlington National Cemetery.

But you know, so there's competing stories.

- [Jenny] Yeah.

- And that's okay.

But why not tell the full history?

Why- - Right.

- Why would this story need to be left out.

- And good on the Lieutenant Colonel for doing that?

- Yeah.

- In fact he even said, at the end, he says, it's like Paul Harvey, now you know the rest of the story.

Except people didn't cause his microphone was cut off.

- [Jenny] Yeah.

- [Marlene] Right.

- So why be afraid of hearing about stuff?

- And I wonder with Kempter, if he's saying, you know this isn't the country that I fought for.

I mean, I think he must be speaking to kind of this political divisiveness that has just grown, you know, as a part of this historic racial justice movement.

And where we're seeing, we're seeing also, a lot of pushback.

And people, I think, frankly, who, you know, especially kind of on the right, who are saying, I don't wanna talk about race anymore.

And it's sad because it's a part of our history.

It's in the very fabric of America.

And I think, you know, for him to be touching on this kind of like very beautiful and poignant moment, in which freed slaves are laying flowers to remember our fallen service members.

To say, that has what, you know, that diverts the focus from what we're here for.

Why can't that be included?

- [Mike] Yeah, why can't it be both?

- It seems almost childish.

And- - [Mike] Yeah.

- [Marlene] Yeah, that's a good word for it, childish.

- And so I can see why Kempter felt so rebuked.

- Well.

In fact, in fact, they asked him to edit it, and he said, no, I already wrote it.

I practiced it.

This is what I'm reading.

You invited me.

And so I'm going to do it.

And then they turned off his mic and he made light of it.

And he was like, "Oh, I guess the microphone's out.

That's why you guys are, I asked you to move closer."

And he continued the speech.

But- - [Jenny] Well good for him.

- [Marlene] Good on him, good on him, yeah.

- Yeah, and this is, this is getting attention.

The Washington Post and the Hill, and all kinds of places for again, not the right reasons.

- [Marlene] We're not lookin' good nationally this week.

- [Mike] Not good.

And that's going to wrap up our show.

Coming up Monday, on The Sound of Ideas on 90.3 WCPN, Rick Jackson digs into critical race theory and how it's become such a controversial topic lately.

I'm Mike MacIntyre.

Thanks for watching and stay safe.

(soft piano music plays) (vibrant music plays) - [Announcer] Brought to you by Westfield offering insurance to protect what's yours.

Grow your business and achieve your dreams.