Ingram Condemns Passage of Education Overhaul

Today, state Senator Catherine D. Ingram (D-Cincinnati) issued a statement after the Ohio Senate voted along party lines to pass Senate Bill 1, which drastically limits the duties and function of the State Board of Education and Department of Education.

 
“Senate Bill 1 will not do what it is intended to,” said Sen. Ingram. “It lacks comprehensive details about how it will address educational disparities. S.B. 1 disempowers the proposed independent State Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction without evidence that its changes will improve education in Ohio for all students. I fear S.B. 1 will not move the next generation of Ohio students forward.”

S.B. 1 would transfer most of the current powers and duties to the new Director of the new Department of Education and Workforce (DEW), which would be a cabinet-level position. It would allow the Governor to appoint the director of the DEW. S.B. 1 also weakens homeschooling regulations. 

“The bill is a politically motivated takeover of public education which ignores that the Republican legislature has driven all changes and so-called reforms of public education for more than a decade,” said Sen. Ingram.

S.B. 1 now heads to the Ohio House of Representatives for consideration.