Ohio Senate trying again for education overhaul giving more power to governor

Senate Republicans aren’t giving up on a plan to change who oversees the education of Ohio’s 1.7 million public schoolchildren.

Senate Republicans aren’t giving up on a plan to change who oversees the education of Ohio’s 1.7 million public schoolchildren. They’re bringing it back.

The plan−which is expected to be the first bill of 2023−would remake the Ohio Department of Education, taking control from a partially elected statewide board and giving it to the governor’s office.

“I feel that the purpose of the legislation is critical to the improvement of the state,” bill sponsor Sen. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, said.

But critics of the legislation that failed in the final hours of the last General Assembly still have concerns.

What’s in the bill?

The first thing it would do is emphasize career technical schools and college alternatives by dividing the new department into two divisions: The Division of Primary and Secondary Education and the Division of Career Technical Education.

That’s something Republicans and Democrats agree on. Where they disagree is who gets to be in charge.

The bill would let the governor appoint a director while current law says Ohio’s State Board of Education chooses a state superintendent. The legislation would also transfer most of the state board’s and superintendent’s responsibilities to that new director position.

“I just believe we need good leadership to address a lot of the issues we are struggling with right now,” Reineke said.

More:What to know about the plans for major changes in Ohio Department of Education

Most of Ohio’s large state agencies like the departments of Health and Medicaid are run by Gov. Mike DeWine’s appointees. Education is an outlier because its chief isn’t part of the governor’s cabinet.

Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware County, says that’s a problem and pointed to the state school board’s “inability” to pick a new superintendent since Paolo DeMaria announced his resignation in July 2021.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. The department has been without a permanent leader at a time when chronic absenteeism and learning loss are at record highs.

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“I’m not blaming Dr. (Stephanie) Siddens. She’s got the title interim,” Brenner added. “I blame the state school board.”

More:Why is Ohio’s search for a top education official taking so long?

But taking control away from the partially elected board raised red flags for Democrats in 2022, and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio said she still has the same concerns in 2023.

“To wholesale carve out most of the power from that group and hand it over to the governor’s office feels heavy-handed,” Antonio said.

And she continues to question the timing of that idea. “Only after Democratic members were elected to the board of education did this suddenly seem like a priority.”

The governor appoints eight of the 19 members so the overall balance of the board remains solidly Republican but Democratic-leaning candidates (the races are nonpartisan) did pick up seats during the midterm elections in November.

What’s not part of the plan?

Almost as important as what’s in the 2,000-page bill is what’s not.

A proposal to ban transgender girls from playing on women’s sports teams in K-12 got added to the 2022 version of the bill in December as well as protections for students who haven’t had the COVID-19 vaccine.

Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said these amendments were part of negotiations with House Republicans and he’s not opposed to adding them back if needed.

“We really wanted to start this off as an education bill,” Huffman said. But he also “doesn’t want to do anything to disturb the vote count.”

The main complaint he heard about the plan was that House Republicans felt “too rushed” and wanted more time to hold their own hearings.

“I will do what I can to move it along…,” Reineke said, adding that it “would be important me that we make it bipartisan.”

That’s won’t be possible if the “Save Women’s Sports Act” gets added. Democrats have not supported any version of that legislation.

“I just see this as unnecessary and frankly mean-spirited,” Antonio said.

LGBTQ+ groups won’t support it either.

“The political theater that targets trans kids has to stop,” Equality Ohio Director Alana Jochum said in a statement. “The Ohio High School Athletic Association, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and other sports associations have thoughtful and successful regulations in place for transgender athletes. We hope this step indicates that Ohio lawmakers are ready to be the grown-ups in the room.”

Other House requests like protections for home-schooled children and non chartered private schools are in the new bill.

What happens next?

Overhauling the department of education is a priority for Huffman, and he plans to start committee hearings next week with a goal of getting the bill to the House by late February.

“I don’t think this has to wait until the budget (in July),” he said.

But Brenner, Reineke and Huffman are all open to adding it into Ohio’s biennial budget if that’s what it takes to pass.

“We have to change this,” Reineke said. “And we have to do it quickly.”

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.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Senate makes overhauling public education a top priority for 2023