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Local News

Monday, March 10, 2008

License fees for teachers skyrocket

Legacy Kitchen & Bath
By JOHN GRABER

STAFF WRITER

The cost of being a teacher just went up and local educators aren't happy about it.

Starting this month, the state Department of Education increased five-year license fees from $60 to $200.

Teachers are also required to pay a $24 fee for a background check from the FBI, plus a $22 fee for a background check from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI). Add it all together and the cost jumps from $60 every five years to $246.

“That's over 300 percent,” said state Rep. Cliff Hite of Findlay, a retired teacher and coach.

It's even more expensive for teachers who want to coach after-school sports. The three-year pupil activity supervisory permit fee recently went from $21 to $45.

That will probably deter some people from coaching, said Hite, who received more than 180 e-mails from teachers around the state on the fee issue in a single day.

“You start thinking, well, I don't really get paid a lot to be a middle school coach, do I really want to spend all the extra money?” Hite said.

The fee increases were necessary to pay for extra administrative costs put on the state Department of Education by legislation requiring the new background checks, department spokesman Scott Blake said.

“Really, for the length of the license, it is comparable or often less than license fees for other professions with comparable salaries,” Blake said.

He said the state's two teachers unions were involved in the decision to hike the fees.

“Throughout the process the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers had representatives present,” he said.

The FBI and BCI checks aren't new to all teachers.

In the past, Ohio teachers who had lived out of state within the past five years were required to get an FBI background check.

The BCI background check used to be required the first time a teacher sought certification. Now it's required every time he or she applies for recertification.

Hite doesn't disagree with the new fees as much as the fact they were created unilaterally by the education department without any oversight from the Legislature or Gov. Ted Strickland's office.

“It came without any major announcement and caught everybody off guard,” he said.

Peter Zaras, a fifth grade teacher at Bigelow Hill Intermediate School and chairman of the professional development committee for Findlay City Schools, found out about the increase in January, then organized 74 local teachers to get their recertification before the rates went up.

“Nobody was thrilled about it,” Zaras said about the fee hikes.

“When I first started teaching, my license cost me $2,” Zaras said.

Contact staff writer John Graber at: (419) 427-8417

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