WARREN — The Ohio Senate Education Committee did not vote to send house-passed legislation designed to eliminate academic distress commissions to the full Senate because a substitute version of the bill was introduced and accepted in an 8-3 vote Tuesday.

Democrats on the Senate Education Committee said they could not support the new Senate version of the legislation because it does not release the three districts under the academic distress commission from state control. The districts are Youngstown, East Cleveland and Lorain.

The Ohio Senate Education Committee members in a party-line vote accepted the new version, which would replace academic distress commissions with School Improvement Commissions, or SICs, and establish a state-level board to monitor struggling districts.

Republicans supported the introduction of the updated version of HB 154, while Democrats opposed the changes introduced in the proposed bill.

An “if needed” education committee meeting is scheduled to take place today, while the new version of the legislation is reviewed and amendments possibly added.

“This is a change from the House-passed version of the bill, originally introduced by Reps. Joe Miller, D-Amherst, and Don Jones, R-Freeport,” Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown said. “That language would have repealed and replaced House Bill 70 with state-provided supports and wraparound services for struggling districts, while returning complete local control.”

Lepore-Hagan is a member of the Ohio House.

The new version of the bill will not address current Academic Distress Commissions or the removal of school board members under the provisions of HB 70, which also is known as the Youngstown Plan, Lepore-Hagan suggested.

“I’m disappointed that the Senate failed to recognize a bipartisan effort to fix our schools” said Lepore-Hagan. “HB 70 is an absolute failure. We need to go in a new direction. We need an education strategy that will actually help our children.”

The Ohio House-passed version calls for the elimination of academic distress commissions and appointed CEOs.

Youngstown Board of Education member Ronald Shadd and board president Brenda Kimble testified in Columbus. along with Pastor Kenneth Simon of the Community Leadership Coalition on Education, noting the substitute bill’s failure to restore control to local districts.

Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, agreed the state takover model has not worked.

“Youngstown City Schools has been under state control for nearly 10 years and they just received another “F” grade on their state report card,” he said.

Aside from the lack of academic improvement these takeovers have shown, they sew division and erode trust between the local school boards, the appointed CEO, and the community at-large,” Sykes continued. “We must have local buy-in if we want to produce the level of change that is required to turn around these districts.”

Sykes hopes the Senate can agree on a compromise that protects local control, releases the three districts in Academic Distress Commission status, and puts all districts on a level playing field.

“It will be difficult to support any bill that does not dissolve the current Academic Distress Commissions in Lorain, Youngstown and East Cleveland, ” said State Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo. “We must stop this Republican false narrative that this is a solution. It is House Bill 70 2.0. The only way is to restore Democracy by returning local control.”