The $63 billion budget proposal for the two-year period beginning July 1 includes some controversial measures, including a new school funding formula and a massive tax-shift plan. It would cut the state’s graduated income tax while increasing state sales tax revenue.

Gov. Kasich has billed it as a $1.4 billion overall tax cut, while a liberal think tank says the tax shift would increase the overall tax burden for many Ohioans.

Meanwhile, a House education committee this week begins looking into the attendance keeping practices of Ohio school districts. The review begins as Ohio Auditor Dave Yost releases the results of an audit by his office. The investigation began after reports of widespread record changing in Columbus City Schools and districts in Toledo and suburban Cincinnati.

Click the play button above for a full preview of the week ahead for lawmakers.

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost says in a statement that fieldwork has been completed. He says there are now consultations under way with the Ohio Department of Education and with school districts that appear to have “scrubbed” attendance data.

The audit began after an internal audit found irregular practices in Columbus City Schools, and questionable practices also surfaced at Toledo Public Schools and the Cincinnati-area Lockland City Schools.

The schools reportedly were trying to improve state performance ratings.

Yost’s office reviewed 81 buildings in a sampling of 47 districts with fall levy questions and found no evidence that any had scrubbed the rolls.

The Republican auditor said Tuesday he was “surprised and pleased” by the finding.

Yost is investigating whether schools removed poor-performing students from the books to improve performance ratings that can affect government payments and employee bonuses. The review was launched in response to unusual practices discovered in Columbus, Toledo and suburban Cincinnati districts.

Five districts that used questionable attendance methods were identified in the first round.

Tuesday’s announcement is the final update in the investigation until after the election.

Columbus City Schools attorney Buzz Trafford said school officials only had a few hours to go through the State Auditors interim report. But they took exception to much of what they read.

“There are two sides to every story,” Trafford said.

Trafford, Superintendent Gene Harris and school board president Carol Perkins say they were disappointed that more guidance had not been forthcoming from higher ups as to how to file information on students who were truant or who had withdrawn from school.

“We had expected that Columbus City Schools and other school districts across Ohio would be provided some specific guidelines and direction. We asked for recommendations so that we could begin the process to work on. And to date, no report or recommendations have been provided,” Perkins said.

Superintendent Gene Harris once again repeated her claim that she had never told anyone to change attendance figures – changes that would have improved school performance ratings.

“As superintendent, I have never issued any kind of directive to make changes to student records that are not authorized,” says Harris.

But Harris too insisted that data recording instructions were vague and that more information was needed.

“We are now a little bit more than a month into the new school year. If we need to implement more changes, we need direction now,” Harris said. “Not six months from now.”

“I really had very little to make a response and listen I understand that the auditor has what he believes are compelling reasons to move forward quickly,” Trafford said. “I would simply say to you that you should never sacrifice fairness for speed and we did not have, there has been no dialog between the auditor’s office and to my knowledge any of the representatives of the school districts certainly not this one. On this issue.”

Gene Harris added that she would provide information that at present cannot be located.

“While I am deeply troubled by the fact that the auditor report that some student’s files targeted for review could not be located I am deeply troubled by that. I would want to look at this issue further before drawing any conclusions.”

Yost today released the preliminary audit into attendance record-keeping practices at 75 Ohio districts. The investigation follows revelations that several Ohio districts may have withdrawn poorly-performing students, then re-enrolled them.

Doing so keeps their standardized test scores from factoring into district report card ratings, although Yost says today’s report did not deal with why the changes were made.

“In Columbus’ public school district, we looked at ten middle schools. In each of them, we found pervasive evidence of students who had been rolled up to the state, who had a break in enrollment, who was not supported by the documentation,” Yost said.

“Without the documentation, all we have is anyone’s word. This is more than nitpicking about pieces of paper. Without the records, there is no evidence that the actions were properly taken by the government.”

Yost says school districts in Cleveland, Toledo, Marion, and Campbell also showed evidence of scrubbing.

Yost defined scrubbing as the practice of removing students from enrollment without unlawful reason, although he says scrubbing by itself does not guarantee wrong-doing.

The full investigation is expected to extend into next year.

The Ohio Department of Education plans to release partial report card results on its Web site by midday, although a district’s attendance rate, performance index and overall rating will be omitted. That remains held up over the investigation into whether several Ohio districts changed attendance data to boost report card ratings.

“Let me be clear. This is not the reason for my retirement,” Superintendent Gene Harris said.

Harris, a grandmother, said her family is the reason for cutting her contract short…and not the investigations into whether students were retro-actively withdrawn and re-enrolled to scratch poor test scores to yield a better state report card score.

“I have been thinking about retirement and talking with my family about it for quite a while. But before I leave getting resolution on the attendance recording keeping issue is high on my to-do list.”

Harris touted her accomplishments. She pointed to the district’s improved academic performance. The number of schools earning an A or B grade increased from 15 to 28 since 2004. The district’s graduation rate rose from 55 percent to 85 percent. And during her tenure, the district built or renovated 39 schools.

But Harris and the district have been under a cloud of suspicion for several months about the altered record keeping. Harris, though, said she is not worried about the perception of her retirement or its timing.

“People who know me in this community know how committed I am to the children and the families of this community,” Harris said. “And just because I’m retiring doesn’t mean that I won’t be working on their behalf. So, no, I’m not worried about timing. I’m not worried about what people will say; it’s just time for me to retire.”

Harris informed school board members Tuesday night during an executive session of her plans to retire.

Board President Carol Perkins firmly underscored the board did not encourage Harris to leave the district.

“This board, in no way, influenced or forced her decision about retirement,” Perkins said.

Perkins said the board will begin discussions about a successor in about a week.

Harris said the reason she announced her retirement now and not eight months from now – toward the end of the school year – is to make the transition easier for the district. It has been nearly 12 years since the district has changed leaders.

“They need time. There generally is a community process that is involved,” Harris said. “The board needs to decide what skills that they want in the next leader. And they need that kind of time to really plan.”

Harris also said Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman will become more involved with the school system, but the mayor and other officials would not provide details.

Harris has been an educator for 37 years, 35 of them in the Columbus City Schools District…and the past 11 years as its superintendent.

But even that incomplete data won’t be public until the end of the month.

Ohio schools are under investigation by the state auditor, who wants to know which ones falsified attendance records. That kind of data manipulation could boost schools’ report cards, which is why the State Board of Education has held off on releasing what could be incorrect data in this year’s scores. Until now, that is.

“I believe from a full transparency piece that if the information is available and people want access to it, why don’t we give them access to the preliminary data,” says acting Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Sawyers.

Sawyers argues that since many media outlets have already requested and will be getting access to the preliminary report card data, the board might as well release it to the general public.

“We can add a disclaimer or a qualifier that says this is all subject to further review and try to do something short and simple to explain what’s going on with the auditor of state’s office, but I think we have a duty and a responsibility to share what’s available.”

The preliminary data will be released in a spreadsheet around September 30th. It will not include attendance rates, performance index scores, or the overall score of a school or district.

This week Auditor Dave Yost urged the board to release the data, even if some of it may have to be adjusted later on.

“But I would suggest to you that the data was probably bad last year in the same way and there’s conceivably a benefit at least to comparing year-to-year what was going on.”

Yost says he may not wrap up his investigation until the New Year, which means the final report card data may not come out until later in 2013.

Speaking to the Ohio Board of Education this morning, Yost said it is his “gut feeling” that districts did nothing wrong. He says his office is working with statistics experts from Ohio State University to develop a model to help find any Ohio schools more likely to have been involved in attendance data manipulation .

Yost hopes to have the model working by October so he can determine which schools need to be reviewed. Yost says his office will give priority to districts with levies on the fall ballot so investigations can be finished before the election and not impact voters.

Yost’s office is looking into why Columbus City Schools and other districts withdrew students, and whether the withdrawals were legitimate or part of an effort to boost attendance data that helps determine state report card ratings.

Columbus superintendent Gene Harris has denied any intentional wrongdoing.

About a month after the Ohio Auditor was called to investigate alleged attendance data rigging at Columbus City Schools, all seven school board members as well as Superintendent Gene Harris received ethics lessons from the Ohio Ethics Commission.

WOSU was denied access to the training session. Despite board members receiving training on how to conduct board business in an ethical manner, we were told the meeting was closed to the public and NOT subject to state open meetings laws.
Board member Hanifah Kambon after the session said, “I didn’t understand either, why the training was closed.”

Board member Mike Wiles also was unsure why the public was not permitted for the training. But board president Carol Perkins underscored the meeting did not have to be open.

“This was a training session, ethics training. That’s it,” Perkins said.

The ethics commission representative, Susan Willeke, said she was on official business, and that the session was a typical presentation.

“Conflicts of interest, public contract, post-employment, so it’s general overview of the Ohio ethics law,” she said.

Willeke said the board did not discuss ethical situations related to the recent attendance data investigation.

Following the ethics training, which lasted about an hour, the board called a special meeting and went directly into executive session with Robert Trafford. Trafford is the attorney the district hired to assist it with the on-going investigation into alleged data rigging. That meeting lasted for nearly two hours.

Despite the long meeting, board president Perkins said she is not sure whether Trafford is conducting his own investigation into the data scandal.

The state is looking into whether the district retroactively withdrew and re-enrolled thousands of students. That action could skew state report cards to yield a better score.