Following up on our earlier piece, the AP reports:
Four members of the state’s school board have ties to businesses that have a stake in education funding and regulation, the Akron Beacon Journal reported Monday.
Two board members are lobbyists whose clients sometimes compete for education money from the state while another board member’s husband is a lobbyist for private schools.
A fourth board member is president of a private college whose school generates income from public education programs administered by the board, according to the newspaper, which worked with the NewsOutlet journalism program based at Youngstown State University.
Board members said they will abstain from votes when there is a potential conflict, police themselves and file required paperwork with the Ohio Ethics Commission.
The ethics commission says Ohio law prohibits state board members from receiving compensation for services they perform on a matter that is before the board they serve.
Members of the state Legislature cannot lobby while in office, but that rule doesn’t apply to board members, said Paul Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethic Commission.
The reasons Ohio's State Board of Education has become so dysfunctional is becoming very apparent.