Opinion: State Ed board changes would circumvent ‘will of the people’
Jeanne Melvin, President of Ohio Public Education Partners, Guest Column, Columbus Dispatch, December 4, 2022
An undemocratic bill is being pushed as part of an effort to take away the rights of Ohio voters pertaining to education issues.
Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman wants to remove most of the education duties from the school board and put them in the governor’s office, according to a recent article by Anna Staver, a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau which serves the Columbus Dispatch and 21 other affiliated newspapers.
Staver wrote: “Senate Bill 178 would strip everything except teacher licensing, hearing cases about staff conduct and decisions on school territory transfers from the Ohio State Board of Education. The makeup of the 19-member board wouldn’t change, and it would still pick a state superintendent. But the board’s educational responsibilities would be moved to a new cabinet position in the governor’s office.“ America’s representative democracy is the best way for Ohioans to address accountability and oversight of our government leaders to make sure they promote sound education policies that follow the will of the people and not the interests of education profiteers.
Decisions made by members of the State Board of Education are crucial to every Ohioan.
Board members create academic standards and definitions, approve curriculum, and establish test benchmarks. The board sets the policy direction for public schools, establishing policies concerning charter schools, vouchers, professional development, educational licenses, and more.
Much like this committee, the state school board is focused on primary and secondary education.
Because of the state board’s influence, it’s very important to have members who are true advocates for public education.
Our elected state school board members serve the will of their constituents. They are not selected to serve at the pleasure of the governor’s political party, which is no friend to public education.
The State Board of Education is supposed to be a non-partisan organization, but the decisions currently made by the state board would be guided by partisan political power over K-12 education.
Education isn’t supposed to be a partisan issue.
What a travesty that Senate Bill 178 will incapacitate the state board’s authority and award it to cabinet members most likely appointed by political favor.
In 1953, Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment that established an all-elected state board of education and a superintendent of public instruction to be appointed by that board, which indicated an intention to separate the Department of Education from the governor’s office.
If the perceived notion by legislators is that the board of education is now dysfunctional, perhaps Ohio needs to return to an all-elected state school board using district maps that are not politically gerrymandered.
Ohio politicians must not circumvent the will of the people with this fast-moving piece of legislation.
If they do, their constituents can all say goodbye to the accountability and oversight of Ohio education issues guaranteed by the power of the vote.
Jeanne Melvin is a retired public school teacher who spent 39 years as a central Ohio educator. Jeanne is a founding member and president of Public Education Partners, an all-volunteer statewide coalition of parents, grassroots citizen groups, school board members, educators, and school administrators that advocates for high quality public education in the Buckeye State.
Your Turn Jeanne Melvin Guest columnist