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dollars. The Ohio Department of Education said the reason for the shortfall, according to the legislature, was budgetary limitations. By the way, we are aware that state and federal help for cities has been evaporating as well. We are also aware that Ohio's "rainy day fund" hit an all -time high last year, exceeding 1.5- Billion dollars. And while Ohio is short - changing school districts on mandates such as the one just mentioned, it continues to impose other under or unfunded mandates. Merits notwithstanding of programs like the 3`d Grade Reading Guarantee, Teacher and Principal Evaluations and the Common Core Standards, implementation of these directives, just to name a few, is very costly. I'd like to speak briefly here about the Common Core. I'm guessing you've heard news stories about these standards and you may be aware of proposed legislation to repeal them. This is Ohio HB 597. Michelle Kocar, North Olmsted's Learning Resource Supervisor, and I supplied testimony to the House committee considering this legislation and appeared at a hearing on August 27tH The North Olmsted City School District supports the Common Core, also known as the Ohio Learning Standards, because: 1) They allow districts to choose and approve courses of study that go beyond the standards adopted by the state of Ohio. 2) They allow districts to choose and approve the curricular resources that will be used to teach district approved courses of study. 3) They involved state level educators, education experts and community members in the writing of the standards, which did not include federal influence in funding or mandate. 4) They involved public comment and subsequent revisions that were shared previously with both the Ohio Senate and House Education subcommittees. Furthermore, according to the plan proposed in HB 597, our learning standards would change 2 or 3 times over the next 4 years while yet another set of standards is developed. This strategy would be harmful to children's educational development, needlessly stressful for teachers and administrators and costly for local tax payers. We invested approximately 1- million dollars to align to the Common Core. A similar expenditure would likely be necessary with each change in the standards. (Incidentally, the Common Core is showing gains in reading and math for students in Kentucky and reducing their need for remediation as they transition to post- secondary education.) Finally, we believe academic accountability and financial reporting standards must be uniform across all public schools, whether they are traditional or charter. A growing body of evidence shows that many charter schools in Ohio are providing an inadequate education for our children while inexperienced or unscrupulous operators are fleecing taxpayers. During recent chats and /or testimony with Congressman Renacci, Senator Patton, Representative Baker, other members of the Ohio House and Senate, and even lobbyists with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, I've been very clear that the North Olmsted City Schools do not oppose charter schools'