Gary Click and Al Cutrona have introduced House Bill 445. This bill changes one word in existing ORC and will require school districts to adopt a policy for “released time”. Released time allows a student to be excused from school for religious classes. This was allowed following the Supreme Court case Zorach v. Clauson. The case had several requirements. The classes are done off school grounds, no public funds are used and attendance is reported to the school.

Previously school districts could decide whether allow released time or not. The new change would require they allow it and force the creation of a policy for its implementation. I do not think this is the best use of public time and money. There are numerous after-school, evening and weekend options for religious studies. Taking time away from the school day does not seem like the logical approach in public schools. That is an opinion I have, many will not agree.

The larger issue with this bill and with the released time programs being forced into schools is the conflict with the state’s current EdChoice voucher program which allows public funds for religious schooling. It’s contradictory to the changes Gary Click wants to make to EdChoice by allowing non-chartered private schools to receive public funds. If the released time program allows religious instruction but only if no public funds are used, then how can EdChoice give vouchers to religious schools? Non-chartered private schools that do not follow the state’s guidelines for curriculum or requirements for teachers should not be handed public funds.

There is an organization called LifeWise Academy. Here is a statement from their website.

“The work of LifeWise Academy to reach unchurched public school students with the gospel”

LifeWise – Statement of Faith

“We feel strongly that our public schools are a mission field”

Jeremy Laukhuf – LifeWise Field Director

LifeWise’s mission is to evangelize school children and create larger numbers of attendance in church. They do this at their discretion and ignore the current faith or beliefs of the students. Anyone from any religion should be alarmed by this practice. Public schools are not “mission fields”. LifeWise had made a business of using the public schools for their marketing and customer acquisition strategy.

Representative Gary Click is introducing legislation that is for his gain. The supreme court case that allows LifeWise and other religious groups to offer classes during school hours is very clear that no public funds can be used. Then Rep. Click sponsors House Bill 339 that will allow public funds to be used for non-chartered private religious school tuition. These two ideas are in direct conflict with each other. According to Zorach v. Clauson public funds can’t be used for religious studies, but then Click introduces a bill to do just that. These conflicts are made worse by the knowledge that Gary Click is a pastor at a church with a non-chartered religious school, and is also assisting LifeWise by hosting them at his church.

Looking at current implementations of LifeWise will give you an idea of how they operate. LifeWise has been in Van Wert, OH since 2021. They claim to have a 90% enrollment rate. The remaining students who do not attend bible classes wait in the classroom at school until the LifeWise class is over. This is not how public schools should be allowed to operate and it is a huge waste of public funds. Let’s break this down.

Van Wert has 643 students in the elementary school. Ohio spends an average of $14,500 a year per student. Ohio elementary students are required to attend 910 hours of school each year. That is 54,600 minutes each school year. Students attend the LifeWise program for 50 minutes once a week for 37 weeks. Each student attending a LifeWise class uses $13.28 of funding. Multiplied by the 578 students that attend the total funds allocated to teaching those students that were wasted is $284,350.032. This is what Gary Click is supporting. Wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars at single school districts and millions of dollars across the state.

If you want to know where LifeWise is at and where they are advocating, I have created a map to let people visually see this data.

https://ohiolegislature.dataisfun.io/lifewise.html