EDUCATION
Under the bill, the Department of Education would merge with the Department of Higher Education and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development into a new agency under the governor’s control. Supporters say the consolidation would streamline efforts, improve communications and better prepare students for the workforce of the future.
Sara Fowler, a state Board of Education member from Rock Creek, listed several concerns with creating a “mega agency,” saying it’s “un-American to prescribe the career path a child must follow and this bill establishes the framework for government-controlled workforce placement.”
Rep. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, sponsor of House Bill 512, which would transfer about 80 percent of the duties of the Department of Education to the new agency, disagreed.
“We are trying to promote choices and opportunities that we are not currently matching up,” he said.
Organizations representing superintendents, school boards and treasurers argued there are less-drastic ways to improve agency cooperation.
If workforce development is the goal, they questioned why the state superintendent doesn’t already have a seat on the governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation board. Superintendent Paolo DeMaria recently asked Gov. John Kasich to appoint him.
“There is much more to preparing students to be responsible and productive citizens than simply talking about job readiness,” said Barbara Shaner of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials.
The Department of Education has shortcomings, Shaner said, but she and others noted that lawmakers have required it to carry out a number of significant policy changes in recent years, “presenting significant implementation challenges for ODE staff and our school districts.”
Jennifer Hogue, of the Ohio School Boards Association, called it “alarming” that the bill requires the new agency director to appoint assistant directors to oversee higher education and workforce, but not K-12.
Topics such as learning standards, graduation requirements and district report cards would go to “a politically appointed staff, as opposed to the current process that includes many opportunities for public input,” she said.
In written testimony, Sarah Stitzlein, professor of education at the University of Cincinnati, said she published a book last year looking at the impact of similar moves involving governors and mayors in other states. The results, she said, have been pendulum swings in education policies as each new executive seeks to undo or redo changes by predecessors.
“Such undulations further frustrate teachers already exhausted by cycles of education reform,” Stitzlein wrote.
The Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, and the Ohio Faculty Council, which represents faculty at four-year universities, also oppose the bill.
A number of parents of
home-schooled students attended the hearing, concerned the bill would turn education policy over to an unelected bureaucracy.
Rep. Dorthy Pelanda, R-Marysville, said she received a number of calls from parents of homeschooled students who say this will threaten their ability to continue teaching their children. Chad Aldis of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a bill supporter, said that is not the case.
Angela Boecker, a member of Ohio Homeschooling Parents, said giving power to the governor “threatens the autonomy, stability and consistency of home educators.”
She and others also oppose the “cradle-to-workforce” language from supporters. Like Fowler, she sees it as an effort at government-controlled workforce placement.
Supporters “are placing the onus for workforce improvement on the shoulders of our children and students, rather than on the industries struggling to keep employees due to the lack of a living wage and employee benefits,” Boecker said.
Kasich wants to see the bill passed. Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, said again on Wednesday that it remains a priority bill.
“To me, it makes a lot of sense,” Rosenberger said. “It’s about accountability, and it’s about realigning Ohio’s education system to meet the workforce.”