DaytonDailyNews.com

Ted Strickland has Republican and Democratic company in his belief that a governor ought to choose the person who's in charge of the state's Department of Education.

Former Gov. Richard F. Celeste, a Democrat, thought so, as did former Gov. George Voinovich, a Republican. Mr. Voinovich, in fact, got the law changed, so that the makeup of the once all-elected state school board (which appoints the head of the department) now includes eight people selected by the governor, and 11 others who are elected by district.

In the confidence of his own view, Gov. Strickland recently uncharacteristically dumped all over Susan Tave Zelman, the state superintendent. He told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "She's a nice person. But she's not a leader, she's not an advocate, she's not a good manager. She's an academician, a psychometrician, a statistician. But she's not an Eric Fingerhut (Strickland's choice for the chancellor of Ohio's colleges), a visionary leader."

This public attack (and humiliation) comes after the governor nicely said in his State of the State address earlier this year that he wants the state school board and Ms. Zelman neutered. He proposed that they be demoted to advisory roles, while he'd pick the department's leader.

Gov. Strickland feels like he hit a home run in his backing of Chancellor Fingerhut. The Ohio Board of Regents is supposed to pick the person who oversees colleges, but using the force of the governor's office — and because Ohio's colleges didn't want to tick off Mr. Strickland — the regents agreed that Gov. Strickland was right that Mr. Fingerhut was the new guy they were looking for.

In short order, Mr. Fingerhut has gotten colleges to focus on their special strengths, to collaborate more energetically and to generally buy into the notion that Ohio can't afford to have them each going their own merry way. These changes on campuses — which are being financially rewarded — are a major shift.

You might think that influencing K-12 schools would be much harder for the governor than directing the state's public, but largely independent, colleges. After all, there are more than 600 school districts, each with its own local school board.

But public schools get so much money from the state, and have to adhere to so many Department of Education rules, a governor can have significant impact — especially if the superintendent works for him.

Even if the governor were not predisposed to want the superintendent answering to him, Ms. Zelman has not helped herself of late. When Mr. Strickland said her department had to cut $100 million from its budget, her people were seen as not cooperating. Maybe Gov. Strickland was being punitive and picking a fight — he, after all, was asking for a huge chunk of money to be cut.

But it is absurd that an individual appointed by a largely anonymous state school board can tell a governor to go pound salt when a financial mess is pending.

So far, Ms. Zelman says she's not going anywhere.

"The governor's comments come as a surprise. I'm sorry he feels that way," she's been quoted as saying.

So, here we have a stalemate that's not healthy for the future of schools in Ohio, and a situation that's untenable for the long term.

If Ms. Zelman becomes a lightning rod for criticism that isn't seen as purely politically motivated — and is rooted in pure stubbornness and disregard for the highest elective officer in the state — then she will have become the problem.

And she will need to go.