From The Cincinnati Enquirer A four-page bill is causing a stink in Cincinnati. It's a back-and-forth battle about parents’ right to know versus private schools’ right to independent operation.
The bill would require private schools to publish some information on their websites, including enrollment and financial data. Other information – reading lists and school bylaws, for example – would have to be accessible to parents of enrolled students.
“Transparency is the only thing that’s going to save us,” said Rep. Thomas Brinkman, Jr., R-Mount Lookout, the bill’s primary sponsor. “Things get hidden, and things happen behind the scenes. And the only way we’re going to be able to make informed decisions and know what’s going on is if we require our institutions to be transparent in their operations.”
Opponents have a different take.
Heidi Huber, who is running against Brinkman this election, said the bill is an affront to the very definition of private schooling. She called it an overreach and the “antitheses of liberty and education.”
Huber said the bill, which hasn’t made it out of committee yet for a full House vote, was the final straw in her decision to run against Brinkman. The two will face off in the March primary.