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Council Minutes of 2-20-2018 in D.C. he urged Federal legislators to set a gradual 10 year path to get to the 40% mark originally promised. Mr. Groden said the Carl D, Perkin's Act is a law that aims to increase the quality of technical education. Mr. Groden talked about how North Olmsted utilizes this program through the Polaris Career Center. He said the group urged the Senators to finalize the reauthorization of this Act, which the House of Representatives passed last June. Mr. Groden also said because of the costs of meeting under and unfunded mandates, public school districts can ill afford to have resources diverted to educational options that produce dubious results. He said the North Olmsted City Schools do not oppose school choice, however, independent reports by researchers say that voucher students have significant losses in math and no benefit in reading compared to those in public schools. He said the 2019 Federal Budget proposes a $3.6 billion reduction to public education and a $1.5 billion increase in funding for school choice programs. Councilman Kearney made a motion to extend Mr. Groden's time by five minutes. The motion was seconded by Councilman Schumann and passed unanimously. Mr. Groden's time extended for five minutes by a vote of 7-0. Mr. Gorden said one of the reason's he is addressing Council is he believes local councils can exert influence on State and Federal legislators. He said it would be helpful to have Councilmembers let the legislators they interact with know how important these issues are to the City. Mr. Groden also said he had an opportunity to meet with Elaine Duke, the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security while he was in Washington. She is a 1976 graduate of North Olmsted High School. He presented her with a plaque recognizing her accomplishments and the school district's pride for how she has represented the City of North Olmsted and North Olmsted Public Schools. Finally, Mr. Groden closed by making sure that Council was aware the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act recently passed by Congress eliminated the ability to refinance certain bonds in order to reduce interest costs as of January 1, 2018. He said the District Treasurer quickly moved to refinance what he was able before the provision expired. He said the District was able to refinance approximately $48 million dollars of the bonds in time to provide a $4.5 million savings to the tax payers of North Olmsted. Tim Smith 6053 Sherwood Drive Mr. Smith said when he served on Council a few years ago he brought up the idea of televising Council Meetings like most of the surrounding communities. He said he was immediately met with a no we do not want to do that by a former Councilmember. He just wanted to bring it up again to see if Council would consider as there are several new members. Mr. Smith said it would be a great public service to have for the City. LEGISLATION M