Article published March 02, 2008
License-fee hike for check of background irks Ohio teachers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS - Some Ohio teachers are complaining about the rising cost of a teaching license - now up to $200 - but the state Department of Education says it needs the extra money to cover the cost of more thorough background checks required by a new law.
The State Board of Education raised the fee last month to cover the costs associated with new, more stringent rules designed to root out criminal and ethical infractions among teachers.
The five-year license will cost $200 instead of $60.
"That's quite a wallop all at once," said Debbie Tully, director of professional issues for the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the state's second-largest teachers' union with about 20,000 members.
Similar increases will affect principals, teachers' aides, and other educators.
"Everyone, at some point, will be affected, if not this year, in the next few years," said Heather Anderson, an art teacher at Pleasant Run Middle School in Cincinnati."Justified? Absolutely not! Where is this extra money going? Is it going to help anyone? I certainly doubt it."
Under a law the state legislature passed last year, nearly all employees of a school - public and private - must have a criminal-history check by the FBI and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
Licensed teachers can wait until they are up for license renewal, but most employees in other classifications have to get their checks done by Sept. 5.
The legislation added the FBI to the background checks.
The new regulation will affect more than 90,000 license renewals each year, according to the Department of Education.
Keeping track of the additional reports and investigating when necessary will mean more work for the office that oversees licensing and professional conduct, said Education Department spokesman Karla Carruthers.
The state board also expects to pass a new professional-conduct code this month, and part of the fee increase will be used to follow up on reported infractions.
The last substantial fee increase was 14 years ago, although a small increase was enacted in 2000, Ms. Carruthers said.
By law, the licensing office has to be self-supporting, Ms. Carruthers said.
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