by Nicole Piscitani • July 6, 2025
The six-month budget process has come to an end with Gov. Mike DeWine signing House Bill (HB) 96. This is DeWine’s last budget, as he is term-limited at the end of 2026. DeWine used his power to line-item veto 67 items, and several of them impact education.
One of DeWine’s line-item vetoes removed provisions that would have impacted school board races. However, HB 96 makes changes to several other education boards, including the State Teachers Retirement System Retirement Board and the State Board of Education.
Partisan school board races
The legislature-passed version of HB 96 contained provisions that would have required that all school district board of education members and educational service center (ESC) board members be nominated by primary election or, for an independent candidate, by a nominating petition. Additionally, it required that candidates for those offices appear on the general election ballot with a political party designation along with other partisan offices.
This provision would disqualify some current and prospective school board members from service. Under state and federal law — Ohio Revised Code 124.57 and the federal Hatch Act — state and federal employees, as well as certain local public safety employees, are prohibited from running in partisan elections. As a result of this provision, public servants who want to further serve their communities and schoolchildren would be unnecessarily barred from that service.
Additionally, this provision would require that both school district boards of education and ESC governing boards pay the board of elections to administer the primary races. Currently, a school district board of education is only paying a board of election if the district has a levy on the primary ballot. This provision would impact all boards.
Lastly, HB 96 would have required that these offices be treated as partisan offices under the Election Law for all other purposes, such as filling vacancies on the ballot. This provision in particular would have created difficulties due to 255 school districts being in multiple counties; those county parties would have to decide on a candidate to fill the vacancy. For example, if there was a vacancy on the ballot and the school district had territory in three counties, the three Republican county parties or the three Democratic county parties would have to pick one candidate to fill the vacancy.
DeWine vetoed the partisan school board and partisan ESC board provisions. His veto message stated, “Local school boards and ESC governing boards have historically been nonpartisan offices, and this has served the interests of students and communities well. This provision could also have a chilling effect on potential candidates who do not want to run for partisan office but are otherwise well-suited and well-qualified to serve on their local school board. Moreover, making these positions partisan offices would prohibit classified local employees from seeking these offices, potentially eliminating strong candidates. Therefore, a veto of this item is in the public interest.”
State Teachers Retirement System
The conference committee report included a surprise change to the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) Retirement Board. Before the HB 96 changes, the STRS board had seven elected members and four appointed members. Recently, several members of the state legislature made remarks indicating their frustration with the STRS board. Additionally, the Ohio Retirement Study Council STRS subcommittee recently held a meeting that looked at other states’ teacher retirement board compositions. As a note, the Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC) provides legislative oversight and advises and informs the state legislature on all matters relating to the benefits, funding, investment and administration of Ohio’s five state retirement systems.
The ORSC STRS subcommittee did not make any formal recommendations to the legislature based on the information presented at the meeting. As mentioned, the conference committee members included a provision in the report that changes both the elected and appointed member composition of the STRS Board.
The bill shrinks the overall number of elected members by reducing the number of contributing teachers from five to two and the number of retired teachers from two to one. The total number of elected members is now three.
The bill increases the overall number of appointed members by adding and maintaining the following:
- adds an appointment from the chancellor of higher education;
- adds one treasurer of state investment designee and maintains the already existing seat, thus giving the state treasurer two appointees;
- adds two investment experts appointed by the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate;
- maintains the investment expert who is jointly appointed by the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate;
- maintains the governor’s appointee;
- maintains the director of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce or their designated investment expert.
The total number of elected members is now eight. The bill also prohibits any STRS board member with contributions on deposit with STRS from serving as the board’s chairperson or vice chairperson. DeWine did not use his line-item veto power on any of the STRS board provisions.
State Board of Education
The last biennial budget, enacted in July 2023, made sweeping changes to the State Board of Education (SBOE) by removing numerous responsibilities and transferring them to the governor-directed Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW). SBOE oversees licensure, disciplinary cases and territory transfers and is currently composed of 19 members, 11 elected and eight appointed by the governor. HB 96 changes the SBOE composition by eliminating the 11 elected positions and reducing the governor-appointed members to five. The current elected and appointed members will continue in their positions until either their term ends or they vacate the seat. The five governor-appointed members have specific representation requirements, ensuring that at least one member each represents a rural, suburban and urban school district, a community school and a chartered nonpublic school. These provisions were not removed in DeWine’s line-item vetoes.
HB 96 made numerous education-related changes. Future issues of the Legislative Report will address these provisions of the biennial budget bill.