DaytonDailyNews.com

Dayton's two state board of education members think Gov. Ted Strickland's proposal to strip that body of its rule-making authority is a bad idea.

"It seems to me that Gov. Strickland's proposal simply adds another level of bureaucracy to Ohio K-12 public education," said Carl Wick, an appointed board member from Centerville.

In his State of the State speech last week, Strickland proposed a new director of the education department who would report to him and have authority over the Ohio school board and state superintendent.

State board member Susan Haverkos of West Chester, elected in 2006 to represent part of the Miami Valley, believes an elected board has value. In fact, she thinks the state should consider making the positions full-time.

Haverkos runs an Internet company with her husband, which means she can't be in Columbus for as much board business as she would like. For instance, Haverkos said she would have loved to attend all the recent meetings at which the department heard testimony on teacher misconduct. The state reimburses her for travel to and from her home in West Chester, but that is just not enough.

"You have to be retired or independently wealthy to do that and not worry about making a living," she said.

Even so, Haverkos said she feels an elected board can make a difference. She said she has solved many problems for constituent callers and has had a good opportunity to share her ideas on issues discussed before the board.

Haverkos is not a Democrat but said she liked some of Strickland's work as governor. On the education department reform, she thinks he has the cart before the horse. She said he should first present his much-touted reform plan and then decide if the current board is part of the problem or could be part of the solution.

"It almost sounds to me like he's saying, 'Its too hard to fix so I'm going to blame them. Let's get rid of them and then I'll tell my plan.' What is the plan?" she said.

Board President Jennifer Sheets, in a letter to Strickland, said the current set-up requires education decision-making to be done in public rather than behind closed doors and argued the board has been effective, pointing to Strickland's own statistics about the growth of test scores.

Some political opponents also see cause for concern in the proposal. Strickland's past efforts to limit or eliminate vouchers and charter schools caused House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, to say after the speech that choice options must be protected if the board is changed to give Strickland more direct control over schools.

Ron Adler shares that concern. He is the president of the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education, a group that lobbies for school choice.

"It seems like a bad idea to consolidate so much power into one individual," he said. "It would be a czar of education and we don't know who that would be. And what happens when the Strickland administration is over? It would be changing every few years. Continuity is very important for 612 school districts."