OH: Foxes in Charge of Henhouses

Ohio has become a prime exhibit in another version of public school takeover, and it's already showing how corrupt that version can be.

Education privatizers all face the same basic problem--their policies are not popular with actual citizens, who won't vote for them. So pro-privatization politicians have to circumvent that darned democracy thing.

Ohio has been working hard at this, cementing a heavily gerrymandered legislature that is not particularly interested in the will of the people Exhibit A: the voters may have enshrined abortion rights, but the GOP legislatures is working hard to somehow undo that and keep it from happening.

In this approach, you just keep taking power away from any part of the government that might not do as you wish. In Ohio's case, that has meant commandeering the Department of Education and putting it directly under the governor's control. The old board included 11 elected members (the governor got to appoint 8), and that's just too much democracy for Governor DeWine.

The new department is now the Department of Education and Workforce (because, you know, one of the primary purposes of public education is to crank out meat widgets for business), and DeWine has made his choice to head up this new department. And what a choice it is.

Meet Steve Dackin.

Dackin has been a district-level school administrator for districts. In 2015 he was put on the board of KnowledgeWorks, a big Gates-funded reformy monstrosity ("I had the opportunity of working with EDWorks and KnowledgeWorks at a local level, and am looking forward to sharing those experiences as a member of the board of directors.")  He's not there now. 

But his most infamous activity comes from his time on the state board of education. He was vice-president and in charge of developing a job search for the next state superintendent. After he had determined what the best candidate should look like, he resigned from the board and applied for the job. Then he got the job. Then a large number of Ohioans raised their eyebrows so hard that Lake Erie's water level rose ten inches. So after less than a month on the job, Dackin resigned, citing that "concerns have been raised" and he didn't want questions about "revolving doors" to distract "from the important work ahead for schools, educators, and especially children." Setting aside the prediction of children having important work ahead, the resignation seemed pretty clear cut.

But speaking of revolving doors-- after taking one for the team, Dackin may get to run the newly commandeered department for DeWine. It is one of the ever-amazing features of the reformster world-- it doesn't seem possible to ever screw up badly enough that you actually lose your upwardly mobile career.