COLUMBUS — State lawmakers aren’t finished revising Gov. John Kasich’s education reform bill and will continue to hash out their disagreements and attempt compromise after the holiday weekend.

Senate Bill 316 was scheduled for a floor vote in the House on Thursday, but there was disagreement about changes that include:

• Raising the minimum reading test score students need to pass third grade.

• Scrapping the report card committee.

• Creating a system of charter schools for gifted students.

The bill moved out of the House Education Committee on Thursday on a mostly party-line vote, 15-8.

Rep. Gerald L. Stebelton, R-Lancaster, chairman of the committee, said lawmakers didn’t have enough time to fully consider all parts of the bill but hoped the conference committee can compromise.

Representatives pulled out of the bill a new, letter-grade school report card and set a Dec. 31, 2012 deadline for lawmakers to measure improvement in closing achievement gaps, student growth, graduation rates and dropout recovery and prevention.

“If we sit down and have a reasonable amount of time to negotiate some of these things, we can come to some conclusions if all parties – including the governor’s office – are willing to give up something,” Stebelton said.

Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, said he opposed the bill in committee because it lacks funding for schools and contains many small changes lawmakers didn’t have time to vet.

In addition to tweaking rules regarding charter schools and teacher evaluations, the House committee added a provision that would establish 16 charter schools across the state for gifted students.

About 16 percent of Ohio students were identified as “gifted” through one or more intelligence tests in 2010-11, according to the Education Department.

School districts would lose at least $5,704 per student who would enroll in a gifted charter school under the current state funding formula.

Dayton Public School Superintendent Lori Ward said opening another education option in a cash-strapped state doesn’t make sense.

“As school districts are being asked to look at creative ways to partner, to reduce – this is perplexing.” Ward told the Springfield NewsSun. “Every district has gifted students.”

The House also made several changes to the “third-grade reading guarantee,” which retains third-graders who don’t pass a certain level on the state reading test beginning in 2013-14. The House removed an exemption for students who fail the test but could demonstrate reading ability through a portfolio of work demonstrating they’ve accomplished tasks similar to what’s asked on the test and gave authority to the Department of Education, not the principal, to choose an appropriate alternative test.

Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Kettering Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said senators added those exemptions to ensure one test taken on one day wouldn’t be the deciding factor in retention. The Senate revisions were largely based on the successes and missteps of Florida, which enacted a similar law in 2002.

Florida educators told lawmakers they saw the greatest gains among students who had at least two years of extra help before being held back. Lawmakers added $13 million in grants for reading intervention to the governor’s budget corrections bill passed last week but Kasich is expected to line-item veto the funding.

Senators say mandating the guarantee and remediation without funding sets up the policy to fail before it has a chance to produce results.

Ward said school districts need time and funding to emphasize early intervention such as tutoring and small-group instruction to prevent retention.

“I believe wholeheartedly in the third-grade guarantee but I’d hate to damage the child for an adult agenda,” Ward said.

Floridians are concerned about results from the state’s tougher standardized tests administered this spring. The number of proficient third-graders statewide dropped from 72 percent in 2011 to 56 percent, according to results released Thursday.

But the Florida law retains third-graders who score two levels below proficient – the equivalent of Ohio’s limited level – which means 18 percent there could be held back compared to 16 percent in 2011. The increase in non-proficient readers means schools will have to provide remediation services to more students.

Rep. Bob Hackett, R-London, said he is in favor of the reading requirement, although he does have some reservations. Hackett views the Florida requirement as a success, but he also acknowledged that Florida provided more funding than is available in Ohio. Hackett said he has talked to numerous school superintendents about the issue, but still believes it is worth voting for because of the potential benefits to Ohio students.

“It’s a tough issue,” Hackett said. “I feel for the schools but at the same time I think there is a way to get this done.”

Some Ohio senators worry what happened in Florida could happen in Ohio when schools shift to tougher, Common Core standards in 2014-15. The Ohio Department of Education estimated 65 percent of last year’s third-graders would score in the bottom two ranges on those tougher tests and would be retained under the House plan.

“[Florida] has been at this long enough they’ve seen the rises and falls and dips and they don’t panic over them,” Lehner said. “If that same thing happened in Ohio, people would absolutely panic.”

Staff Writer Matt Sanctis contributed to this report.