Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute testified (see full text below or download a PDF) before the Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee on the policies in Ohio Senate Bill 178, which reform the State Board of Education and Ohio Department of Education to put students first and better prepare graduates to “earn a living, afford a house, [and] support a family.” 

As he did in his testimony before the Ohio Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee, Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, highlighted that Ohio’s education system has left employers “without skilled employees and many young people without the knowledge they need” to earn a living. This failure—coupled with the historic learning loss suffered by students during the pandemic—has put Ohio in a dire situation that only systemic reform can address.  

Lawson noted that the reforms in Senate Bill 178 will help address Ohio’s broken education bureaucracy in several ways:

• The reforms will trim the board’s “over-extended responsibilities” and redirect its attention to the critical functions of teacher licensure and administrative issues.” 
• The reforms will empower a “revamped Department of Education and Workforce” to concentrate on administering critical programs and preparing students for their futures. 
• The reconfigured Department of Education would be directly accountable to the governor—who has greater accountability to the voters and can then apply the necessary pressure to the education bureaucracy to get results. 
• The reforms split the board into two divisions: one focusing on traditional K-12 education, the other focusing on students pursuing careers in technology or the trades. Each division will be run by deputy directors who sit on the Governor’s Workforce Board, “creating a meaningful connection between Ohio’s public education system and the businesses that will be hiring its students.”

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Reforming Ohio’s Education Bureaucracy to Put Students First

Interested Party Testimony
Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee
Ohio Senate Bill 178

Greg R. Lawson, Research Fellow
The Buckeye Institute
December 13, 2022

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Chair Manning, Vice Chair Bird, Ranking Member Robinson, and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to submit written testimony regarding Ohio Senate Bill 178. 

My name is Greg R. Lawson. I am a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, an independent research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states.

State, local, and business leaders have long complained that Ohio’s education system does not sufficiently prepare high school graduates for the workforce, leaving employers without skilled employees and many young people without the knowledge they need to earn a living, afford a house, or support a family. Senate Bill 178 pursues reforms that should help. 

The Ohio Constitution requires a State Board of Education, but it leaves the selection of members and the enumeration of its powers and duties up to the General Assembly. Currently, the nineteen-member board is comprised of voter-elected members and several gubernatorial appointees. It enjoys a broad purview over a range of issues such as academic standards, instructional materials, school buildings, transportation, and administrative responsibilities. Unfortunately, the board’s hybrid composition and extensive responsibilities have hindered its responsiveness and effectiveness in a rapidly changing environment. More than 16 months have lapsed, for example, since the last state superintendent announced retirement in September 2021 and the board still (still!) has not hired a permanent replacement. Governor Voinovich observed more than three decades ago that the State Board of Education has too much on its plate, and the plate has only gotten fuller since then. The time for reform is now. 

The board has also become increasingly mired in politically charged discussions rather than attending to the important matters at-hand, namely closing learning gaps and preparing graduates for productive employment. The board’s distractions are particularly worrisome in the wake of historically poor performance and academic decline following the COVID school closures. And its mismanaged oversight of the Afterschool Child Enrichment Program (ACE) raises eyebrows. ACE’s $500 education savings accounts were intentionally designed to deliver financial resources to help parents pay for tutoring and curriculum enhancements so that students can overcome some of the academic setbacks suffered during the pandemic. The State Board of Education is responsible to oversee the program and ensure that parents receive the funds. That oversight has largely failed so far, with less than 10 percent of the 250,000 students receiving the appropriated funds.

Senate Bill 178 will help address these concerns in several ways.  

First, the bill trims the board’s over-extended responsibilities, redirecting its attention to the critical functions of teacher licensure and administrative issues. Second, Senate Bill 178 empowers a revamped Department of Education and Workforce to concentrate on administering programs like ACE, resolving lingering transportation issues across school districts, and preparing students for their futures. Third, upon enactment, the reconfigured Department of Education will be directly accountable to the governor—who can then apply the necessary pressure to the education bureaucracy to get results. 

Finally, Senate Bill 178 splits the board into two divisions: one focusing on traditional K-12 education; the other focusing on students pursuing careers in technology or the trades. Wisely, each division will be run by deputy directors that sit on the Governor’s Workforce Board, creating a meaningful connection between Ohio’s public education system and the businesses that will be hiring its students. 

I would be happy to answer any questions that the Committee might have at this time.

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