State Central Committee members are the People's lobbyists

It's time they start acting like it. SCC members need to stand against SB178 and for reforms to our education system.

When you want to affect change at the State-level you are supposed to be able to go to your State Central Comittee members. They are supposed to hold tremendous influence over state legislators and officers. When SCC member refuse to take action or take a position of great concern to Republicans theyare not doing their jobs and not helping to focus the energy of Republican officeholders.

There is no better example of why the Republican State Central Committee should be a leader on the issues that most affect Ohioans than the lack of interest of the Ohio Republican Party in School Board Races.

Currently, there is a priority by legislators to rush to pass SB178 to supposedly save Ohio’s education system from attack by the Democrats. Senator Reineke is only moving forward with this bill because there was a failure of the Republican Party to move for the last decade to protect Ohio children. Whose fault is that? Why, State Central Committee members of course.

The gambit has been laid by the Republican legislators that have ignored our education system for far too long. It is a creation of the lesser of two evils scenario in this gambit.

The popular phrase is "if you don't give the power to the Governor the Democrats will destroy our education system."

For years conservative citizens that have been paying attention to our schools have asked Republican legislators for support in asking them to MAKE SCHOOL BOARD RACES PARTISAN.

Democrats have control of a disproportionate number of school districts simply because people don't know who the Republicans are that are running. The ballot doesn’t show who is a Democrat or a Republican and many times when you call the County party they don’t know either. Currently, Republicans do not fund or support these non-partisan races. Teachers unions and the Ohio Education Association (OEA) do get involved in these races and overwhelmingly favor Democrat candidates - 94% of the time. Had the Ohio legislature made it a priority to make school board races partisan - we would know what party a person is affiliated with on the ballot and who is funding their campaigns through finance disclosure reports.

Ohio Republicans just changed this policy for judges so we could see their party affiliation on the ballot.....why didn't they do it for school board races too?

The Republican party is largely disconnected from its base and follows the lead of its big donor special interests groups. The big donor special interests are unconcerned about our children and the future of Ohio. So, it comes down to the State Central Committee - our political representatives to take a stand and focus the efforts of our representatives. Had our Republican State Central Committee done this - this education nightmare would never be as large of a problem as it is. We desperately need changes in deciding who is in charge of our school districts.

The Republican Party’s Central Committee has been asleep at the wheel. What happens when we give the position of the governor even more power and Democrats win that seat? WE DO NOT WANT TO CONCENTRATE THE POWER TO CONTROL OUR SCHOOLS. WE NEED MORE DECENTRALIZATION - NOT LESS. With the caveat that all school board races become partisan races.

The reason why we are in the situation we are in with SB178 is due to very poor leadership and a State Central Committee that does not know its job and is struggling to find itself. As they struggle in these decisions we all suffer. The State Central Committee is our lobbyist. They are supposed to be the most important lobbyists for legislators to listen to.

I don't want SCC members to elect a chairman for the party this January that doesn't know that. I want a Republican chairman that will make schools a priority. I want a chirman that is going to encourage the SCC members to be more involved not less.

Visit www.OhioPromisekeepers.com to find a list of your State Central Committee members and ask them why they have not made Ohio School Board races a priority.

Why doesn’t the Republican Party have a platform policy on ending tenure for teachers in Ohio so it is easier to get rid of bad teachers?

Why don’t we limit when schools can try for a levy to presidential election years?

Why don’t we have parity laws that subject Ohio Schools collective bargaining agreements to an automatic referendum?

These three changes that the Ohio legislature has had the power to put in effect for over a decade would dramatically change the Ohio education system and allow Republicans to better compete to control school boards.

That leads to the bigger question of what are the long-term and short-term goals of the party?