Ohio Superintendent Susan Tave Zelman announced her intention to resign Wednesday, three monthsafter Gov. Ted Strickland proposed bringing the state Department of Education under hiscontrol.
Zelman has led the state's primary and secondary education system for nine years. In February,Strickland surprised many in his State of the State address with his intention to seize control ofthe agency she oversaw.
Zelman said she will resign whenever a new superintendent starts and will work in an advisoryrole until December.
"Academic performance has improved measurably," Zelman said Wednesday. "School funding hasincreased. And the Ohio Department of Education has been re-engineered to serve Ohio's 600-plusschool districts with a stronger customer-service focus. These are the successes we have achievedtogether."
Strickland proposed placing the giant department, which he criticized as unwieldy andsplintered, under an appointed education czar accountable to him. The move would reduce Zelman andthe 19 elected and appointed members of the State Board of Education to more advisory roles.
Zelman, hired by the state school board and not the governor, has questioned Strickland's plan.She said it would undermine the independence, transparency and continuity of public education inthe state.
"Do you want to take a public agency and take it away from the public or do you want to give itto the governor, with gubernatorial control? We have to ask ourselves what is best for Ohiochildren," Zelman was quoted at the time.
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