We talk a lot in the media about watchdog journalism, about asking government leaders hard questions and shining a spotlight on what they do. A lot of it shows up in stories we write, like the many we have had about the $66 million in slush funds secretly created by Cuyahoga County Council, but some of it is just part of the reporting process and is never seen by readers.
Rarely, though, have we had such a clear-cut case of watchdog journalism making an impact as the work Statehouse reporter Laura Hancock did on the selection of a new state school board superintendent. I want to tell the tale here, because I think it’s important that you know about the work you support by subscribing to our website or The Plain Dealer.
The tale begins with the resignation last year of highly regarded Paolo DeMaria after five years in the superintendent’s chair. He resigned amid a roiling election season, in which local school board candidates spread phony narratives about how race was being taught in schools. The race debate, which took place across the state, coincided with some controversial replacements of state school board members. What all this meant is that DeMaria’s replacement would take on the role at a pivotal moment for state education.
School board Vice President Steve Dackin oversaw the search for a new superintendent, collecting applications and other information from the people who wanted the job. Then, to everyone’s surprise, he abruptly resigned from the school board days before the application deadline and applied for the job himself. His colleagues promptly named him a finalist.
Laura was the reporter who broke the story about Dackin leading the search and then applying himself. She requested public records involving the search, which allowed her to identify the timeline and all the work Dackin did in leading the search.
Consider the unfairness of what Dackin did to the other 26 applicants. Dackin was able to put his application package together knowing the strengths and weaknesses of all of his competitors.
The school board should have rejected Dackin outright, because of his obvious conflict of interest and because state law required him to quit the school board at least one year before taking a job as an employee. Instead, despite what Laura reported, the board named Dackin superintendent.
Then, 11 days after he started, Dackin abruptly quit and announced he would take no compensation for the 11 days he served.
It turns out that even though the school board was taking no heed of Laura’s reporting, the Ohio Ethics Commission was. It appears to have launched an investigation by asking the school board to hand over all of the records that Laura had received in her reporting of the story. (Why start from scratch when you can follow in the footsteps of a talented reporter?)
With a formal investigation clearly launched, Dackin evidently took a closer look at how much trouble he was in for taking the job and quit. We suspect he turned down the compensation to show investigators that he did not profit by breaking the law. We’ll have to wait for the Ethics Commission to finish its work before knowing whether Dackin’s quick exit and declining of compensation gets him out of criminal charges.
What’s clear, though, is that without Laura’s watchdog efforts, Ohio’s top education official likely would be in the job today in violation of state law, and no one would know. And no one would know that the Ohio school board doesn’t care what the law says or about hiring people with clear conflicts of interest.
And you should know these things. The role of the school board is important.
But you should know for another reason. Ohio voters will elect a governor in November. The governor appoints 8 of the 19 state school board members, with the rest being elected. We’ve not heard a peep out of Gov. Mike DeWine about his appointees selecting a superintendent who never should have been considered.
I wish we had 20 more reporters like Laura. She spotted what was wrong, wrote about it in a series of stories and forced Ohio leaders to follow the law. And if you subscribe to our platforms, you get a lot of credit. Your support pays the salaries of reporters like Laura.
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Thanks for reading.
