Seven members of the State Board of Education are suing to prevent Ohio’s finalised plan to change who oversees public education from taking effect.
A temporary restraining order is requested in the complaint, which was filed in Franklin County on Tuesday afternoon, to prevent the modifications from taking effect on October 2 while the court determines whether this reorganisation was unlawful.
What you need to know is as follows:
Board members Antoinette Miranda, Michelle Newman, Teresa Fedor, Katie Hofmann, Tom Jackson, Meryl Johnson, and Christina Collins filed the case.
It claims that when lawmakers gave the majority of the board’s duties to a new director post that would be chosen by Governor Mike DeWine, they did so in violation of Ohio’s constitution.
According to a joint statement from the seven members, “parents in Ohio have exercised their right to elect representatives empowered to advocate for them at the state level for decades.” “We won’t stand by and allow such a blatant attempt at power-grab that flies in the face of Ohioans who value local input and control over their children’s education.”
The state superintendent has been appointed by the partially elected board for decades, and they collaborate to create Ohio’s academic standards. They develop the Each Child, Our Future state strategic plan, suggest books, and establish curriculum requirements.
However, all of those duties will be transferred to an unnamed director who was selected by the governor in October.
The current organisational structure at the Ohio Department of Education, according to some who support the reform, has been ineffective for years due to ideological infighting on the board.
In their view, it is improper to limit the authority of a board that is chosen by the general public. This lawsuit’s foundation is based on that.
The Education Takeover Rider, according to attorney Amanda Martinsek, “seeks to take power away from the people’s elected representatives and place it in the hands of a single political appointee.” The Ohio Constitution is violated by the rider and the way it was passed in numerous ways.
The governor’s office does not comment on cases that are now in court, according to a spokesperson for DeWine, although Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, deemed the allegations to be unfounded.
“The State of Ohio is perfectly legal in doing what we do because the Constitution gives us the authority to set the duties of the State School Board, and we did that in the State Budget,” Brenner stated. “To achieve that, the Ohio General Assembly has full authority. They are incorrect, and they are a waste of public dollars.
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