Senate votes for governor to control public education

Citing “abysmal” state testing scores and high rates of absenteeism, Republicans in the Ohio Senate passed a bill to change who is in charge of public education.

Senate Bill 1, which passed 26-7 on Wednesday, would take control of Ohio’s Department of Education away from a partially elected statewide board and give it to the governor’s office.

“The system that is in place right now is a system that is designed to be slow and bureaucratic,” Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-delaware, said. “We don’t have time for bureaucracies when you’ve got passage rates in the low single digits on proficiency. When kids, hundreds of thousands of them, are behind.”

The bill would rebrand the agency as the Department of Education and Workforce and create two, new deputy directors, one for traditional K-12 education and one for career technical education.

Republicans and Democrats are generally supportive of those ideas. Where they differ is who should get the top spot.

SB 1 would create a director position appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Currently, a State Board of Education elects a state superintendent to lead the department.

“I believe that if we put the executive branch in charge of the department, we help as members of the General Assembly hold him and the department accountable through checks and balances,” Brenner said.

But Democrats like Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-cincinnati, said taking control away from an elected body could erode the local control parents want from their school districts and limit their ability to comment on statewide policies.

The state board currently holds monthly meetings where the public can testify.

“I’m disappointed. I’m not surprised,” Ingram said. “Unfortunately, this bill will not do what is intended, and hopefully, when it does get to the House, additional amendments will be made.”

SB 1 now heads to the Ohio House.