Pointing directly to changes made in the Ohio legislature’s most recent budget, Ohio’s new superintendent of public instruction said the State Board of Education is facing real funding issues.

The Ohio State Board of Education appointed Paul Craft to be the next State Superintendent of Public Instruction during Tuesday’s monthly meeting.

An Ohio Attorney General lawyer for state school board members in their ongoing lawsuit to stop a massive transfer of power over K-12 education from the board to the governor’s office was found by the court to be giving legal advice to the defense counsel, also a member of the Attorney General’s Office.

After Ohio’s State Board of Education President Paul LaRue initially canceled this month’s meeting, 11 members went ahead and had a meeting anyway Tuesday, saying they have an obligation to continue their duties while a law transferring much of their power to the governor’s office remains blocked by a temporary restraining order.

In their first meeting since the state budget was approved with sweeping changes to Ohio’s State Board of Education, the group discussed the impacts it will face.

A bill that would reduce the size of Ohio’s State Board of Education and eliminate governor-appointed positions has been introduced with GOP support in the Ohio House.

With Gov. Mike DeWine spending the day before a holiday poring over a 1,200-page document debating line-item vetoes, he had a lot of input from advocacy groups as to the final education budget.

The State Board of Education once again voted to delay naming a search firm to identify superintendent candidates.