News Summary

HAMILTON — Ohio educators will pay three times more for a five-year teaching license — from $60 to $200 — after a recent decision by the Ohio Department of Education.

Similar increases will affect principals, educational aides, substitutes and other educators.

Under a law the state legislature passed last year, nearly all employees of a school — public and private — must have a criminal-history background check from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the FBI each time they renew their license.

Typically the ODE reviews and processes about 7,000 licenses a year. With the new law, that number will jump to 100,000 which will include the background checks, said Karla Carruthers, spokeswoman for the ODE.

"ODE may have additional operating expenses but their expenses are being tacked on to us ... it is totally ridiculous to go from $60 to $200," said Deloris Rome Hudson, who has served as president of the Hamilton Classroom Teachers' Association for more than ten years.

Hudson, a Life Skills teacher at the Hamilton Freshman School and a member of the Ohio Education Association Board of Directors, said she learned of the fee increases in February, which were effective Sunday, March 1, and passed the information on to HCTA members.

"Which gave us less than a month to meet the deadline to renew our certification at the lower fee," she said.

"Because of the things happening in society all employers are trying to make sure they have the best employees," Hudson said. "We are going to drive that group of people who think 'I might like to teach' away because they can get other jobs paying more without the additional stress and expense being placed on educators because of No Child Left Behind.

"And now paying a higher license fee and for a background check and not getting larger raises ... educators are not even breaking even."

Ohio law requires the Offices of Educator Licensure and Professional Conduct be self-supporting through licensure fees and not supported by taxpayer dollars. Except for a $2 increase in fees eight years ago, this is the first increase in fees in more than 14 years.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2158 or lebbing@coxohio.com.