Ohio
Analysis: Ohio GOP launches a power grab over public education. They’re likely to succeed
Are you aware what one-party management of presidency in Ohio actually means?
It means this:
If the Republicans’ veto-proof super-majority within the Ohio Normal Meeting sees any nook of state or native authorities that doesn’t completely align with their view of the world, they may step in and crush it. They’ll steamroll over it and make it disappear.
The Ohio Senate, led by Senate President Matt Huffman, discovered an important nook to obliterate this week — the Ohio Board of Training.
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
/
AP
When the Ohio Senate went into lame-duck session this week, one of many first objects on the agenda was to resurrect an concept that has failed up to now however will seemingly succeed this time due to the overwhelming Republican majorities in each the Home and Senate.
The concept is to strip the state board of schooling, the place 11 of the 19 members are elected from districts, of practically all of its authority and place all of it in a brand new cabinet-level place referred to as the Division of Training and Workforce.
And, after all, that will be a division within the cupboard of the just lately re-elected Republican governor, Mike DeWine, who not often has a public disagreement with the GOP legislative management over something. And, even when he did, there may be nothing DeWine may do about it. Republicans have a veto-proof majority within the legislature.
So why now? Why did it out of the blue turn into precedence primary for the legislature?
Does it have something to do with the truth that, within the common election, candidates backed by the Ohio Democratic Get together and Ohio’s academics’ unions received all three open seats on the Ohio Board of Training, defeating all the GOP-backed, conservative candidates?
You’d higher consider it does.
“It is nothing however an influence seize,” stated Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Lecturers. “The state board of schooling is one place the place differing opinions are mentioned and the Republicans within the legislature do not like that.”
Cropper is referring to points just like the educating of crucial race idea, a straw man GOP politicians like to prop up and knock down, and proposed modifications to Title IX that will permit transgender girls to play in girls’s sports activities.
Beneath Senate Invoice 178, launched by State Sen. Invoice Reineke of Tiffin, would put such contentious points out of the purview of the Ohio Board of Training, together with all different issues of curriculum.
If the invoice passes — and there’s no purpose to consider it will not — the state Board of Training’s solely duties can be to decide on the state college superintendent, supervise trainer licensing, hear instances about employees misconduct, and make choices on college property transfers.
The remainder of the time, college board members would presumably be twiddling their thumbs or enjoying tic-tac-toe.
The Republicans within the legislature, due to their gerrymandering skills over the previous 30 years, have had a super-majority for a while now. Lengthy earlier than the Nov. 8 election. This begs the query: Why did not they do that earlier than?
“Once they attempt to do that every week after shedding three seats on the Board of Training, my degree of cynicism rises,” stated Liz Walters, chair of the Ohio Democratic Get together. “The governor already has monumental affect over public schooling in Ohio. Why does he want extra? It is all political.”
Efforts to achieve Huffman by the Ohio Senate Majority Workplace went unanswered.
Reineke, the chief sponsor of Senate Invoice 178, stated in a listening to on the invoice that the change has been wanted for a very long time.
“The proof exhibits that there’s a want for systemic change on the state degree to our schooling to make sure accountability to taxpayers and for our youngsters,” Reineke stated.
Perhaps so, possibly not.
They’ll cobble collectively a couple of public hearings earlier than the Senate Major and Secondary Training Committee throughout the lame duck session; a companion invoice will sail by the Ohio Home.
And even when they do not full it by the point the lame duck session is over, they’ll do it over once more in January when the brand new, barely enhanced super-majority takes over.
Cropper stated it could be troublesome, if not unimaginable, to cease this prepare, given the facility the GOP wields within the legislature.
“Individuals are going to have to search out methods to voice their beliefs,” Cropper stated. “We are going to push again towards these that don’t profit youngsters in public schooling.”
And they’re going to push again. Right into a stable brick wall. Resistance is futile.
Being in love with energy means by no means having to say you are sorry.
Zaxby’s, a popular fried chicken chain, is getting its first Ohio location in Liberty Township.
A 56-seat Zaxby’s restaurant and drive-thru is planned to open at Freedom Pointe, next to Costco. The development, which was initially planned to be a hotel, will also house three other eateries: E+O Kitchen, which has locations at The Banks, Hyde Park and Loveland; Bismarck Donut and Coffee Shop and El Rancho Grande, said Christy Gloyd, Liberty Township’s marketing and events manager.
Costco opened near Interstate 75 on Cox Road in 2022. Construction on the new restaurants starts this summer, Gloyd said.
“We’re just really excited to be growing over there at Freedom Pointe,” she told The Enquirer. “Having Costco as the anchor is huge. Just to have another family-friendly restaurant and have the variety – to have the Zaxby’s and E+O and El Rancho Grande – I think it’s really going to be a nice offering for our residents.”
Atlanta-headquartered Zaxby’s has over 900 locations in 17 states, mostly in the South and Midwest. The chain is known for its chicken fingers and wings, sandwiches and salads. The closest Zaxby’s locations currently open are over an hour away, in Shelbyville, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky.
Sales for license plates featuring Dolly Parton’s face began Monday for $25. All proceeds will go to fund her Imagination Library
Watch: Dolly Parton visits Columbus to promote Imagination Library
Dolly Parton sang a little and told a few jokes at a Tuesday luncheon in Columbus
The Columbus Dispatch
Fans of country music legend Dolly Parton can show off their pride for the singer with a new Ohio license plate.
Ohio drivers can now purchase license plates featuring Parton for $25. The money from each plate will go to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio, a charity that gives children ages 5 and younger a free book each month. The state began selling the plates Monday.
Specifically, the funds will go to the purchaser’s local county program of the library, which it says will pay for mailing a child 12 books, enough for an entire year. Ohio is the second state to offer a license plate supporting the library after Parton’s home state of Tennessee.
First lady Fran DeWine has focused on expanding the Imagination Library in Ohio since her husband Gov. Mike DeWine took office in 2019. She was inspired when she saw her grandchildren receive books through the program and by 2020, it had expanded to all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
“I’m excited to see Ohio as the second state to offer a specialty Dolly Parton license plate to support her program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, in Ohio,” Fran DeWine said in a press release. “With each purchase, $25 will go back to supporting the local program, helping to ensure the program remains available to all families in Ohio.”
The plates are available to purchase online at OPlates.com or in-person at a local deputy registrar license agency.
Gov. DeWine signed House Bill 315 which included the Parton Plates on Jan. 2. The original bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, received unanimous yes votes in both chambers before the license plate language was put into the larger HB 315.
Donovan Hunt is a fellow in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism’s Statehouse News Bureau.
Cotton Bowl: Reporter reactions to Ohio State vs. Texas Longhorns
Ohio State football beat writers Bill Rabinowitz and Joey Kaufman react to the Buckeyes’ 28-14 win over the Texas Longhorns in the 2025 Cotton Bowl.
Jeremiah Smith has taken his first season at Ohio State by storm, putting the star freshman on pace to be one of the Buckeyes’ top wide receivers of all time — and potentially the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL draft by the time he is done in Columbus.
In order to ensure that, Smith’s family has taken out permanent total disability insurance (PTD) ahead of the College Football Playoff, according to a report from CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd.
Smith is not eligible to declare for the draft until after his junior year at Ohio State, which would make the 2027 NFL draft the earliest he could leave. His insurance lasts until Aug. 1, 2027 or when he signs an NFL contract — whichever comes first — per Dodd.
Per Dodd, Smith’s insurance policy protects him from a career-ending injury both on and off the field, and is with Leverage Disability and Life Insurance, a Southern California-based athlete insurance firm. He does not have loss of draft value (LOV) coverage as part of his policy, per Dodd.
“If this kid steps off the curb and gets hit by a car, he’s covered,” Greenspoon Marder law firm’s head of insurance recovery Richard Giller told CBS Sports.
Dodd, citing sources, reported it is rare for freshmen to receive permanent total disability insurance. In addition, Dodd reported Smith’s premiums cost is $7,500-$8,000 per million of coverage, citing additional sources.
A player receiving insurance has become more common for players over the years, especially in bowl games. A most recent example is Colorado taking out full insurance for its players, including Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28.
Outside of a quiet CFP Cotton Bowl semifinal against Texas, against whom he finished with just one catch for 3 yards on three targets, Smith has impressed during the Buckeyes’ CFP championship run.
In the Buckeyes’ first two CFP games against Tennessee and Oregon, Smith combined for 290 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 13 catches. Smith enters Monday’s CFP championship vs. No. 7 Notre Dame with 1,227 receiving yards and 14 receiving touchdowns on 71 catches on the season.
Shortly after Ohio State’s win over Oregon, ESPN football analyst Dan Orlovsky said if Smith were eligible for April’s NFL draft, he would be the No. 1 pick and “it wouldn’t even be close.”
“He would easily be the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft,” Orlovsky said on Jan. 2. “You will have teams in two years, for that ’27 draft, tanking for him.”
No. 8 Ohio State will play No. 7 Notre Dame in the CFP championship on Jan. 20. The Buckeyes opened up as a -9.5 point early favorite on BetMGM.
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