House Dems react to Superintendent Ross retirement announcement

Democratic lawmakers reacted today to the news that State Superintendent Richard Ross will step down from his post at the end of this year. Ross has previously fielded calls from Democratic lawmakers to resign due to the data-scrubbing scandal that occurred under his leadership and the lack of transparency and accountability that have characterized his tenure as top education official.

“Every child deserves equal access to a high quality education, and every parent deserves to know that there is honest and accountable leadership overseeing the schools that are responsible for educating their children,” said Minority Leader Fred Strahorn (D-Dayton). “Under the current leadership, education officials have behaved with disregard for both the law and the best interest of Ohio’s children. I am hopeful that a change in leadership at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) will help refocus our state toward preparing our students for success both inside and outside of the classroom.” 

“From the recent scandal involving the cover up of failing charter school grades to the takeover of Youngstown public schools that was crafted behind closed doors, the Department of Education under the direction of Superintendent Ross has suffered from a systemic lack of transparency and accountability,” said Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo). “I hope the next superintendent will commit to cleaning up the culture of corruption at ODE, strengthening our public school system, and finally putting the interest of Ohio’s children and families ahead of failing, for-profit charter schools and their deep-pocketed operators.”