New Bill Would Cut Down the Number of Members on Ohio Board of Education

A Republican Ohio lawmaker introduced a bill into the Ohio House of Representatives to reduce the size of Ohio’s State Board of Education and remove governor-appointed positions.

House Bill (HB) 235, sponsored by State Representative Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula), and former state education board member, looks to downsize the 19-member Board of Education to fifteen members by 2027. It also aims to remove the eight positions appointed to the Board of Education by the governor beginning in 2025.

The legislation states that by January 1st, 2027, “the state board of education shall consist of fifteen members.”

According to the bill, “Members of the state board of education shall first be elected from each congressional district at the general election held on November 5, 2024,” after which “A member of the board who is elected on November 5, 2024, to represent a congressional district shall serve a fouryear term beginning on January 1, 2025, and ending on January 1, 2029.”

The new measure also indicates that Board of Education elections may require candidates to declare a political party. In the past, the board has participated in nonpartisan elections. HB 235, however, would remove the board of education races from Ohio Revised Code (ORC) Section 3505.04 regarding a nonpartisan ballot.

ORC details that nonpartisan candidates for election include the “judge of a municipal court, county court, or court of common pleas, the office of member of the state board of education, the office of member of a board of education, municipal or township offices for municipal corporations and townships in which primary elections are not held for nomination of candidates by political parties, and municipal offices of municipal corporations having charters which provide for separate ballots for elections for such municipal offices.”

HB 235 adds the phrase “other than the State Board of Education” to the ORC.

The legislation currently has 27 Republican co-sponsors and is waiting for assignment to a House committee.

The Ohio Star contacted Fowler Arthur (pictured above) for comment but did not hear back before press time.

Lawmakers introduced a similar bipartisan bill, HB 298 sponsored by State Representatives Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) and Joe Miller (D-Amherst) in 2021, which aimed to reduce the number of voting members on the Board of Education from 19 to 11 as well as not allowing the governor to make new appointments after a current members terms expires.

Although the bill garnered support from the American Policy Roundtable, Ohio School Boards Association, Ohio Association of School Business Officials, the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, and the New Richmond School District the bill died in the House Government Oversight Committee.

Recently, the State Board of Education has undergone some other changes. Last month, lawmakers approved the state budget with significant changes to the Ohio Department of Education and the State Board of Education.

Under the state budget, the Ohio Department of Education will be under a “state cabinet-level agency,” the Department of Education and Workforce, with the Division of Primary and Secondary Education and the Division of Career Technical Education inside its boundaries.

The budget reduces the State Board of Education’s role in choosing the state’s superintendent of public instruction, implementing and enforcing rules on teacher licensure, handling educator and staff conduct cases, and considering school territory transfers as part of the bill.

Outside, the General Assembly would decide the board’s additional roles and duties.

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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]