Ohio and the World

[geiger]

"Wilbur Wright's (WIKIPEDIA: Ohio printer/editor, bicycle retailer/manufacturer, airplane inventor/manufacturer, pilot trainer) prescription for success was 'Pick out a good father and mother and begin life in Ohio.'"

So reads the back cover of a book I happened to find on a return cart in the library (Parker, Geoffrey, et al, Ohio University Press, 2005).

The introductory words to the series of essays in this book continue: "What took ...years to build--a vibrant culture, a strong economy, a highly educated citizenry-took only fifty years to decay. As the global economy changed, Ohio fell behind and thus became a good place to be from rather that the best place to be. What will make Wright's prescription plausible again? What will help Ohiaons once more to participate in the conversations and economic successes of the world?"

Articulates what I wonder about every day.... Any thoughts?

[ladym55]

1. Education, education, education

This state has starved its education system from top to bottom. I work in public higher education and have for more than 20 years. I want to cry at the tuition the students must pay (because the state has cut subsidies back so far) and at the shortcomings in so many programs because academics have budgets that continue to decline.

Funding for education K-12 is a disaster. If you don't live in the "right" district, your children won't get an education that will permit them to succeed.

Both of my children have left the state because there are so few opportunities. We can't provide an educated work force.

[geiger]

2. "...Ohio typically ranks about [40]th among the fifty states in its financial support for higher ed

ucation. And Ohio typically ranks among the top ten states in the average cost of tuition at its public universities." (Parker, et al, p.150)

"A study by the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges found that each dollar of state money invested in one of its institutions returns on average five dollars to the community...."

"Unfortunately, Ohio ranks thirty-ninth in the nation the percentage of residents with a four-year degree...."

"...since 1970, the state's support for higher education as a pecentage of total tax revenue has lagged the national average." (pp.172-173).

[Kolesar]

3. Ohio had always been the state where you didn't need education to get a good paying factory job

So people did not even think of going on to college. It was even a hindrance to wealth, because it meant passing up on full time employment for four years. My mother quit high school because nobody else could support her.

[geiger]

4. Manufacturing jobs made this possible, of course.

We simply have to re-create our economy and prepare our workers for the new realities, with affordable access to education.

One of the interesting things I also read in the particular book I am talking about here is, that, in Ohio, business leaders have held their ecomomic summits without including academics. This is also not the norm in other parts of the country to where jobs and affordable higher education have "emigrated."

Another point made, is that with all the reconstruction of K-12 in Ohio education, the ultimate irony is that now the high school graduates then leave the state anyway, for both higher education and jobs.

I know people in the "curriculum alignment" business, another irony. K-12 folks truly in tune with getting students ready for the vocational and professional world... great results, but then students go outside Ohio anyway....

not that I'm telling you anything you don't already know, same with my previous reply to ladym55.

[OhioBlue]

5. I'm hoping that Fingerhut and Strickland are

addressing the issues that you bring up.

It does seem like they are building strategic plans to streamline education pre-K - post 12. http://www.oache.org/news/post.php?id=32

I have noticed some changes - it seems there is more funding for training and career centers, HSs and local Universities seem to be working together more to create programs to earn College credits in HS and hopefully that gives the students more incentive to continue their higher ed in Ohio. I've also see funding and an emphasis on internships so that our College Students and grads are matched with Ohio employers.

There is also a realignment with the Department of Job & Family Services and the Ohio Department of Development - some of ODJFS staff will be or has been transfered to ODOD that dealt with worker training. I'm not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but it does appear that the administration has a large focus on education and training.

I still haven't seen anything for the public schools funding issue tho and I'm not aware of any large initiatives regarding College assistance. Maybe there are some - I'm just not aware.

[geiger]

6. Hopefully, it's not just window dressing and musical chairs....

I remember back in April hearing the news about a new push toward better collaboration between business and academia:

http://regents.ohio.gov/news/press_releases/2008/OBRPressRel31March08.pdf


Under the link you mention, (p://www.universitysystem.ohio.gov/ ), readers can choose STRATEGIC PLAN for more detailed information.

They are saying all the right things, but it's going to take sustained commitment, long-term investment and genuine (we don't care who gets the credit) bi-partisan cooperation.

The Department of Development definitely has room for improvement. It does not have a good reputation for outreach or cooperation with other state agencies.

[OhioBlue]

8. I completely agree that it will take sustained commitment

and long-term investment and bi-partisan cooperation. And, you're right - sadly, the current legislature does not seem to have what it takes. Let's hope they prove us wrong or a big election surprise shocks them into action.

[geiger]

9. Term limits really damage any legislator's ability to gain any expertise.

Even in Congress, legislators immediately look for a niche, if they are smart, because you have to establish a handle and a base of knowledge. Even for them it's hard, having to spend so much time raising money and running for office every two years.

I know I am repeating the obvious. It's just frustrating.

[geiger]

7. the statistics in the Strategic Plan

are mixed.

One of the things I remembered, after ladym55 posted, is that small private liberal arts colleges are actually more efficient, in terms of turning out graduates, than the State big universities. I am pretty sure this is true nationally, not sure about Ohio specifically ,but if you look at the current low ratio of State of Ohio university system college graduates, the numbers are somewhat stunning and depressing.

So, the Governor's heart is in the right place, but the key ingredient in getting workers ready for the global economy, is cooperation with the business community as well.

As a small business owner and parent of two boys twelve and fourteen, I am concerned about both tangents. Complicated issues....but with a state legislature that seems more interested in making English the official language of Ohio, than these matters, their "leadership" behavior is just bizarre.

Just heard a great Cleveland City Club presentation by a self-described Clevelander, Pres of Kelly Services, now living in Detroit. "Unless you live in Ohio and Michigan," he said, "your chances of employment opportunities are much greater with a college education (approx. words): we have just fallen behind the curve in Ohio. This particular speaker also had some provocative comments about what true diversity is: that it needs to be about mind sets as much or more than the racial numbers. Plus he noted that the lower the family income, the less chance children of those families even attempting college.