Ohio State Board of Education asks attorney general if bill to strip its power is legal

Ohio's State Board of Education wants the attorney general to provide a legal opinion on whether a plan to strip the board of most educational responsibilities violates the constitution.

The legislation in question is Senate Bill 1, and it would restructure Ohio's Department of Education from top to bottom.

"Every piece of legislation that passes is constitutional until it’s tested, but I think there’s value in having an opinion from a high-ranking official in the state as to what they think the outcome is," Board Member John Hagan said.

ODE would be renamed the Department of Education and Workforce with two new deputy directors, one for traditional K-12 instruction and the other for career technical education.

More: Ohio Senate votes to give governor's office control over public education

Above those two positions would be a new director appointed by Ohio's governor instead of the current state superintendent, who gets elected by the board. The director would then assume most of the board's responsibilities for education policy, like setting state curriculum standards and long-term planning.

The board would be left with duties like teacher licensure revocations and territory transfers.

"To wholesale carve out most of the power from that group and hand it over to the governor’s office feels heavy-handed," Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said when SB 1 was introduced.

Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, strongly supports the change.

"It's one of my priorities," Huffman said. And he's working to add the legislation into the state's two-year budget that will pass in the next couple of weeks.

A version of SB 1 failed to pass the Ohio House late last year, but things look more promising this General Assembly. The House has a nearly identical version of SB 1 in committee, and Gov. Mike DeWine supports the plan.

Attorney General Dave Yost's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but his website states that the AG doesn't take positions on the constitutionality of existing state statutes. Nothing on the website indicated whether that would apply to pending legislation.

"I still come down on the side of it doesn’t hurt to ask," Board Member Walt Davis said.

In April, the board passed a different resolution condemning the Ohio House and Senate bills.

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: As Ohio moves to overhaul education, state BOE asks if plan is legal