An Ohio judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday to block a proposed law that would change who gets to write statewide education standards, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Republican Ohio Sen. Andrew Brenner and other Republicans want powers transferred from the state school board to a single cabinet appointee because of ideological fights over culture war issues and bureaucratic gridlock in the Ohio school board, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The Ohio school board filed a lawsuit Tuesday arguing the proposed plan to give control over statewide school standards to the governor’s office is unconstitutional, which prompted Democratic Judge Karen Held Phipps to block the proposed law as it moves through the courts.
“This is really about the voice of the people and that there are checks and balances and that they are able to come to us when they have issues,” Ohio State School Board Member Antoinette Miranda told The Columbus Dispatch.
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The school board has been unable to choose a replacement for the last superintendent, who left in September 2021.
The changes are a part of a bill signed by Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine July 4 that would rename the Ohio Department of Education the Department of Workforce and Education, appoint a director who would serve in the Ohio governor’s cabinet and transfer powers over education policy from the State Board of Education to that new cabinet member, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
“These seven school board members have failed. Under their watch, Ohio has gone 728 days without a state superintendent,” Republican Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told The Columbus Dispatch.
A hearing will be held Oct. 2 that will decide if the proposed law should be postponed indefinitely, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
“If permitted to take effect, it will strip the constitutionally mandated independent Ohio State Board of Education, the Ohio Department of Education, and the State Superintendent of Education of nearly all of their powers, instead vesting those powers in political appointees of the Executive Branch,” the initial complaint reads.
DeWine and the Ohio Department of Education did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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