Lawmakers move to weaken Ohio Board of Education, give power to governor

Anna Staver     The Columbus Dispatch   November  15, 2022

The board that oversees the curriculum for Ohio's K-12 students, recommends textbooks and develops long-term education plans may not be doing any of those things much longer if state lawmakers have their way.

"We're essentially removing most of the education duties out of the control of the state school board and putting them in the governor’s office," Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said.

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.  Called the Department of Education and Workforce, this new, cabinet-level agency will "have a dual focus on primary and secondary education as well as preparing students for the workforce," said bill sponsor Sen. Bill Reinke, R-Tiffin, during Tuesday's hearing.

"The evidence shows there is a need for systemic change at the state level to our education system to ensure accountability to taxpayers and for our kids," Reinke said.

Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman: 'This is 15 years of frustration for me.'     Huffman told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau that he's watched the Ohio Department of Education and the state board showcase their "dysfunction" for more than a decade, including their recent failure to pick a new state superintendent and repeated debates over social issues beyond their purview.   "Some people might look at this and conclude, well, we’re doing this because we’re frustrated with that particular action (critical race theory) or Title IX," Huffman said. "But this is 15 years of frustration for me...It’s a series of endless discussions about attempted reform, all of which is stonewalled by the bureaucracy at ODE."

Decision comes after Democratic victories in Ohio State Board of Education election     The decision to move these responsibilities into the governor's office comes a week after Democrats celebrated election night victories in three state board of education races.   "We couldn’t be more proud of taking the majority on the state school board this year," Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters said in a call with reporters after the midterms.  The board's 11 elected seats are nonpartisan, but local political parties have long endorsed and supported candidates who "share their values."

This year, the Ohio Education Association and Ohio Federation of Teachers helped recruit and fund the campaigns of former state Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, Tom Jackson, of Solon, and Katie Hofmann from Cincinnati.  Each of them defeated a more conservative opponent, including two incumbent board members.

'I don’t know why the board exists': Conservatives supportive of Senate Bill 178     OEA President Scott DiMauro said he can't comment on a bill he hasn't seen yet but hoped any significant changes would get multiple hearings and time for vetting. Two things in short supply during the waning weeks of the current legislative session.

Walters questioned the motives behind moving on this issue during lame duck.  "Once again, Ohio Republicans are trying to rig the rules in their favor when there's an electoral outcome they don't like," Walters said. "It's just the latest example of Republicans ignoring the will of Ohio voters to consolidate their power."

Conservatives, however, were generally supportive of the concept.  "I don’t know why the board exists," Center for Christian Virtue President Aaron Baer said. "I think there are probably a lot of other ways to get this done...Whatever function they thought they were serving is clearly not working."  He pointed to all the hours the board recently spent debating whether to support President Joe Biden's changes to Title IX.  These changes, which Baer opposes, would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the federal law's definition of discrimination, potentially costing schools their federal funding for things like banning transgender girls from female sports teams.

But the state board of education has very little authority in this area. Lawmakers decide whether to restrict transgender athletes and local school boards decide whether to accept or reject federal funding. Essentially, the resolution was a statement of general support rather than actionable changes.  "We all saw the NAEP scores. We’re aware of what’s happening to kids right now," Baer said. "There’s got to be a better way to go about this."

Moving the board's responsibilities into the governor's office isn't a new idea. Former Republican Gov. John Kasich tried to fold the state board's duties into his office in 2018. And former Gov. George Voinovich tried something similar in 1991.

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.