Eleven of the 19 members of the State Board of Education are elected by the people of Ohio. The rest are named by the governor.

The governor and all 132 members of the Ohio General Assembly are publicly chosen.

Who truly represents the people?

The answer is that all of these officials are supposed to. But it has become increasingly obvious that the State Board of Education is in a world of its own. Consequently, the public is going to have to respond accordingly.

It is the legislature that makes the laws and appropriates the money the state gets from taxpayers. The governor is the only official elected by all of the people and he has a veto power and other prerogatives.

The State Board of Education does oversee Ohio's Department of Education, a bureaucracy staffed by about 600 employees. But the legislature controls a significant amount of DOE's funding, and in any case, DOE is an unelected administrative arm of government.

As such, its duty is to carry out the directives of the legislative and executive branches.

On two crucial issues, DOE and the State Board of Education are running counter to public sentiment as expressed by the legislature and the governor.

On Monday, the State Board voted 10-6 to oppose a constitutional amendment backed by Governor Voinovich that would ensure that control of school funding remains in the hands of the people through their elected lawmakers.

The purpose of the amendment, originally proposed by Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Willowick, was to correct the ridiculous situation that resulted when the State Supreme Court, in effect, told the people -- that is, the legislature and governor -- how they should fund schools.

How anyone can fail to see this as an attempt by the judicial branch to grab executive and legislative authority is baffling.

On the matter of school standards, the State Board in May approved on a 13-or vote a complicated set of DOE- formulated state mandates on local schools that would require student proficiency in six new subject matters, even though Ohio students as a whole are not demonstrating mastery in the four basics of English, math, science and social studies.

Fortunately, for the standards to become law, the General Assembly must sign onto them. State senators were so incredulous at DOE's proposed standards that they adopted a measure -- Senate Bill 55, currently pending before the House of Representatives --demanding higher performance on the basics.

Senators, by a vote of 31-1, wondered how the supposedly educated people at DOE could ignore the fact that 60 percent of Ohio graduates are not measuring up in the four currently mandated areas, so the idea of imposing even more subjects defies all rules of logic.

Voinovich delivered a polite broadside to be proposed standards last week, saying they would add cumbersome rules hindering local control of education and de- emphasize the basics.

It would be nice if our officials -- elected and appointed -- were on the same page concerning public education. The State Board of Education and DOE have a full enough plate carrying of the wishes of the legislature and Gov. without venturing onto terrain of their own making.

These entities can advise, but they need to work with -- not against -- the governor and the legislature.
On the matter of the proposed constitutional amendment, to State Board members representing this area served taxpayers well by opposing the majority. They are Charles Byrne, whose district includes parts of eastern Cuyahoga County, and Charles DeGross, who represents Late County.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for Oliver Ocasek, who represents Geauga County. He cited with the Supreme Court.

Perhaps the best point about the amendment was made by Emerson Ross, Jr., a State Board member from Toledo.

"Why do we have to get involved?" he asked. "The citizens have a right to do it if they want to."

Now there's a man who understands the proper, subordinate role of the State Board of Education.