Coach Tressel's Troubling Public Education Record
Ten years ago, Tressel helped create -- behind closed doors -- the disastrous Youngstown state takeover. Will that pose problems for his confirmation as Lt. Gov.?
Look, I love Ohio legends. Wright Brothers, Presidents, Lebron James, Andy Katzenmoyer. And yes. Coach Jim Tressel.
But I also understand roles.
And Coach Tressel’s current foray into politics by being named the successor to now Sen. Jon Husted as Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor should raise red flags for Ohio legislators who have to confirm him.
Don’t worry. A “no” vote does not mean you’re anti-Ohio State football; it means you don’t want the guy who behind closed doors created a disastrous state takeover in Youngstown a decade ago.
But I’m assuming people won’t oppose Tressel because they don’t want to be hit in TV ads as opposing one of the great Ohio State football coaches. As a former legislator, I get it. But I would sure like to ask Coach a few questions about his meetings with then-Gov. John Kasich’s staff about the creation of the Youngstown Plan in 2015 — a plan that literally came out of nowhere and forced sponsors of the infamous House Bill 70 to remove their names from the legislation.
I wrote a bunch about this when I was at Innovation Ohio. For example, I said that essentially eliminating elected school boards and replacing them with unelected political appointees was a bad idea. I pointed out that the attempt to use the takeover to grow charter schools in Youngstown was a bad idea because Youngstown actually outperformed local charter schools on the same measures that the district was attacked for failing.
But Tressel’s push to remove Youngstown’s democratically elected school board and replace them with an unelected CEO, who then ran into all kinds of scandal and eventually had to resign (because who couldn’t see problems with centralized power in Mahoning County), is a real problem.
Anyone else find it interesting that the guy who pushed for an unelected leader to run Youngstown City Schools is now seeking to become the state’s second-highest leader without being elected?
Is he going to push for the further erosion of elected school boards, as his potential boss pushed to eliminate the power of the elected State School Board?
Is he going to continue the conservative obsession with tying student, school and community success to a single number derived by merging standardized test score results that measure a sliver of the knowledge and learning students attain throughout a 9-month school year?
And what gives with his troubling connection to a religious education scheme meant to siphon off public dollars to the shady LifeWise operation?
I have no idea. But I sure hope he gets asked those questions. Like. A lot.
I get it. Ohio State wins the national championship. Let’s appoint an Ohio State coach.
But let’s get off the gridiron and into the serious work of determining whether a great coach should be anywhere near the state’s #2 leadership position.