Ohio
Ohio House budget proposal would slash state school board from 19 to 5 members
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A member of the Ohio State Board of Education on Monday criticized a proposal in the Ohio House’s version of the state budget bill slashing the panel from its current 19 members to five.
Currently, 11 members are elected to the state school board and eight are appointed by the governor. The Ohio House wants the five members to be all appointees.
The proposal is the latest blow to the State Board of Education, which used to oversee education policy in the state. The board was besieged by infighting in recent years. Then three Democrats were elected to the board in 2022, and the GOP-dominated General Assembly gutted the panel of its power over education policy by creating the new Department of Education and Workforce, led by a cabinet-level gubernatorial appointee.
The Ohio State Board of Education still remains in place and meets monthly. But it is only in charge of educator licensing, misconduct investigations, selecting the teacher of the year and approving local school district territory transfers. It selects a state superintendent of public instruction, who manages a staff of about 60 people who run the licensure and investigative functions of the agency.
DEW is in charge of standardized testing, administering public and private school voucher funding, creating model curricula for local districts to use, and implementing the legislature’s and Gov. Mike DeWine’s education priorities in areas such as the “science of reading” approach to literacy education.
READ MORE: Science of reading: Ohio schools changing approach to teaching literacy this year
During a monthly meeting on Monday, State Board of Education member Teresa Fedor, an elected member who represents an area around Bowling Green and a former Democratic state lawmaker, said that the board combined has 295 years of experience in education, which allows for nuanced discussions about the teaching profession.
Fedor said that there was no stand-alone bill reducing the size of the board to five people, which would have allowed members of the public to share their feelings on the issue.
Ohio has about 400 educator licenses and permits when including bus drivers, coaches, different types of administrators, and licenses for teachers of subjects such as computer science, Fedor said.
“I’m worried about not having enough teaching experience on that board to make the serious decisions,” she said. “There are a lot of unanswered questions and maybe unintended consequences and whether you support that move or not, I care about getting the best qualified teachers in front of all our students and being held accountable for that.”
Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer asked a spokeswoman for the House Republicans about the reasoning for the proposed board member reduction.
A fiscal document associated with the budget said that the state will save roughly $50,000 a year if the board decreases to five members. The members are paid $32.02 an hour. In 2024, the average compensation was about $3,500. They also receive travel reimbursements.
The House’s budget proposal would abolish the office of each elected member upon expiration of their current term, or if a member resigned and there was a vacancy in their office.
The budget is currently under consideration in the Ohio Senate. The legislature must pass the budget by July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.
Laura Hancock covers state government and politics for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.
Thirty former Ohio State football players, including some former NFL players, have agreed to join a federal lawsuit against the university over the sexual abuse of student athletes decades ago by a team doctor, a lawyer in the case said Thursday.
The lawyer, Rocky Ratliff, said in an interview that the men came forward some eight years after the first lawsuit was filed because they needed to overcome the shame of revealing that they’d been sexually abused by another man and the fear of taking on the university publicly.
They are “tearful and living with it,” Ratliff said. “But as this case progresses on, they see how Ohio State’s treating athletes from the university and I think they want people to know it’s OK, even if it is male to male (sexual abuse), to come forward.”
Ohio State has fought lawsuits in federal court since 2018 brought by former student athletes against the university over its failure to stop abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss. Hundreds say they were abused by Strauss, who worked at the school from 1978 to 1998. He died in 2005.
The men have signed letters of agreement to join a lawsuit filed by other student-athletes who say they are victims of Strauss, Ratliff said.
Of the 30, only three have agreed to make their identities public, Ratliff said. They are Al Washington, Ray Ellis and Keith Ferguson, he said. All were members of the 1980 Rose Bowl team and were recruited by and played for legendary coach Woody Hayes.
Some other former football players have settled with the school in sealed agreements that kept their names a secret, Ratliff said.
In a statement, Ohio State said it has “sincerely and persistently tried to reconcile with survivors, including former football student-athletes, through monetary and non-monetary means, including settlements, counseling services and other medical treatment.”
As of April 15, the university has settled with 317 survivors for more than $61 million, and is remains actively engaged in mediation, the school said.
In an interview, Washington said it was hard to talk about the abuse he suffered and recalled being subjected to “unlawful” physical exams by Strauss when he was 18 or 19. He and the other players tried to make light of it with each other and joke about it.
“But it was really uncomfortable,” said Washington, now 67.
He didn’t discuss it with others over the decades, but watching the 2025 documentary film “Surviving Ohio State” put it back into his thoughts.
“As a matter of fact, I couldn’t make it through that movie,” Washington said. “The pain and anguish that I saw, I just couldn’t take it.”
Strauss was on the faculty and medical staff and Ohio State. He retired in 1998 with emeritus status. School trustees revoked that mark of honor three years ago.
Washington was drafted in 1981 by the New York Jets and played one season for the team. Ellis, a former defensive back, had a seven-year NFL career from 1981 to 1987, playing with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns. Ferguson, a former defensive end, played in the NFL from 1981 to 1990, including stints with the San Diego Chargers and the Detroit Lions.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and former Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka is defending former Buckeye Carnell Tate.
Tate has received some scrutiny after he was selected as the first wide receiver in the 2026 NFL Draft, despite not having been Ohio State’s top receiver target in college. Appearing on the “Up and Adams” show May 6, Egbuka shut down the narrative that meant Tate would not find success with the Tennessee Titans.
“I mean, we can see the correlation,” Egbuka said. “That was the same talk that was about me when I was coming out of the draft. At the end of the day, it’s all semantics. If you can play football, you can play football, and Carnell Tate can play football.”
Selected with the No. 20 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Egbuka finished his final college season with 1,011 receiving yards, more than 300 fewer than Jeremiah Smith in his freshman year. Egbuka led the team in receptions with 81 compared to Smith’s 76 catches.
With Buccaneers wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr. playing fewer than 10 games during the 2025 season due to injuries, Egbuka led the team in receiving yards with 938. He finished fifth in 2025 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year voting.
Tate, the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft, was called a “talented player” by New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers during Bleacher Report’s draft night coverage on April 23, but Nabers questioned Tate’s selection.
“I don’t see him being a number one,” Nabers said. “He hasn’t been the number one on the team he’s been on. You have to be a number one on the team that you’re coming from to be a number one receiver on the team you’re going to. … You can’t be the second.”
Green Bay Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons, also on the broadcast, quickly dismissed Nabers’ statement by bringing up that former Buckeyes receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba was a second option while in college.
“You said you got to be number one on the team that you’re coming from. … [Jaxon Smith-Njigba] was not number one. Bro, you got to understand that the number one [Ohio State] player will be the number one pick in the draft next year. … Give him a chance to fulfill the role,” Parsons said.
Tate finished the 2025 season with 875 receiving yards and nine touchdowns, second to Smith with 1,243 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.
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