Retired from editing a newspaper, working for an economic development organization.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Should Ohio governor have more power in education?

On Monday, The Repository brought HB 512 to readers’ attention. This proposed law before the Ohio Legislature would give to the governor most authority over K-12 education, and all authority over higher education and workforce development.

The Rep reported that the Ohio House of Representatives is eager to pass this bill, and the paper advised the Ohio House to slow down and receive input from all interested parties. That is always good advice.

This bill was introduced only last week. It will have to have hearings where proponents, opponents and interested parties should have a chance to testify. If you want to know what this significant change to education policy is all about, here is the Legislative Service Commission analysis of the bill:


The LSC creates an analysis like this for all legislation. It is the plain-English version of what the Legislature is considering. It is available through legislature.ohio.gov. Search for the bill by number. Select the bill. Select the documents tab. Finally, select the analysis.

Citizens might want to ask their local public school superintendent whether he or she thinks that taking power away from the state school superintendent and the Board of Education and giving it to the governor would improve K-12 public education. For that matter, the dean or president of your local state college or university probably has an opinion on sections of the bill that would affect higher education.

When you form an opinion, contact your state legislator and tell him or her what you think.

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