The Ninja execution at the state board of education!

GOV. JOHN KASICH'S Ninjas have struck again, this time at public education in a way that should shock every Ohio citizen. Here's how the Columbus Dispatch story began today:

"Empowered by a new presence on the state school board, backers of Gov. John Kasich today forced out Ohio's state superintendent of education."

It wasn't clear why the execution of Deborah Delisle was ruthlessly decreed by Kasich, whose state of mind since the election suggests he is a reckless and self-indulgent disciple of slash-and-burn politics. But we might have a strong clue. After some Kasich-ordered tinkering with the board's membership, she was driven out on a 10-9 vote. That followed an earlier ouster of board president Robin C. Hovis, a Republican, also on a 10-9 vote. And here's the telling clue: Hovis' successor is Debe Terhar, described by the Dispatch as a "Cincinnati Tea Party conservative" who founded one of those every ever-incubating non-profit groups that claim an interest in American history and the Constitution. Terhar has been on the state board two months.

Clearly, folks, you can translate this as a payoff to the Tea Party by a governor who strongly courted its support during the campaign. If not, let him deny it.

At the top, public education in this state is now in the hands of Palinesque Tea Partiers who influenced Kasich's attacks on teachers in his earlier bout with the Ohio Education Association, in public union bargaining and now on the state board of education. His new budget has lifted the lid on charter schools (which cost taxpayers $1.4 billion over the past two years), and doubled voucher programs.

May we next expect a Texas-like assault on textbooks to satisfy Terhar's deep interest in the Constitution and the Revolution?

Ohio's voters and non-voters have created a helluva mess that will become a scandalous chapter in Ohio's modern history.