Ohio: House

Taylor made her announcement at the Statehouse a week after informing the Ohio Republican Party central committee that she would not run for the U.S. Senate against former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman of Cincinnati in next May's GOP primary election.

"I want to continue the progress we've made helping to provide Ohio taxpayers with a more accountable and affordable government," Taylor said at a news conference.

Taylor, 43, said she "seriously considered" a Senate bid and denied receiving any pressure from the state GOP to run for re-election. Her decision, she said, was based on "where do I fit in to be of the best service" to Ohioans.

The auditor is one of five members of the State Apportionment Board, which will reconfigure Ohio's 99 House and 33 Senate districts for the next decade after the 2010 census.

Foremost among these are the misguided changes it would make in Ohio's academic standards, assessments and accountability system.

Nobody says the present arrangement is perfect. But the 2010-11 state budget, House Bill 1, would take it from fair to poor.

Dutifully following one of the hottest fads in American education, the measure gives dramatically more attention to "21st-century skills" than to the three R's and actual knowledge. It ignores some key reasons we send kids to school in the first place. It sets lofty goals for which there are no practical gauges of progress or performance. And by changing the assessment system, the bill would make it far more difficult to compare the future performance of Ohio's schools and students with their past performance.

House Speaker Armond Budish, a Beachwood Democrat who is more receptive to gamb-ling, has said he backs a referendum on the issue.

Yesterday, fans rallied for a proposal that would allow 14,000 video slot machines at the state's seven racetracks. Two of the tracks are in Franklin County: Scioto Downs south of Columbus and Beulah Park in Grove City.

The Ohio State Racing Commission, which endorses the proposal, estimates that it could provide as much as $625 million a year for public education by 2013.

The state is confronting a budget shortfall that could reach $3 billion in 2010-11. Backers of the slots-at-racetracks plan say gambling revenue won't fix the state budget but would provide a more attractive alternative to large tax increases or broad cuts in state services.

Last month's crop of applications for private-school vouchers for the next school year topped 13,000 for the first time, edging close to the 14,000-student limit put on the Educational Choice Scholarship Program by the legislature.

Most of those were from students already in the program, under which the state helps pay private-school tuition for students whose assigned public schools repeatedly have been rated in academic emergency or academic watch on the state's report card.

The number of first-time applicants, at 4,284, was down slightly from last year.

The high numbers of students who want to stay in the program are evidence that parents value it. Vouchers provide an alternative for families of children in failing public schools who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford private-school tuition.