Speaking from the auditorium of Wells Academy in Steubenville, Ohio, Gov. John Kasich first praised the elementary school’s high performance and then challenged education throughout the state to follow suit in his State of the State address Tuesday.
Though Kasich addressed hydraulic fracturing, the economy and bipartisan cooperation among state legislators, the governor dedicated a significant portion of his speech to education in Ohio.
Kasich proposed that all public universities streamline their infrastructure needs into one capital bill, which would be submitted to the governor for review.
Top Ohio University officials said shortly after the address that they are fond of the governor’s capital-bill proposal.
“We are extremely heartened by the governor’s willingness to put forth the capital bill,” said Stephen Golding, OU’s vice president for Finance and Administration. “This is something that is critical not only for Ohio University but also for all higher-education institutions all throughout the state.”
Golding said such a bill could help fund building repairs the university has recently had to backlog because of financial restraints.
“It’s been 18 months since the last capital bill was appropriated, so we’ve missed an entire capital cycle in terms of our facilities,” Golding said. “This has caused us to defer or delay key projects in terms of maintaining the infrastructure of our buildings, which has caused missed educational opportunities for our students.”
Kasich also addressed gradation rates, challenging Ohio’s public schools to increase how many students earn diplomas.
“The governor identified graduation rates as something that he’s particularly interested in, and OU has the third-highest graduation rate in the state,” Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit said. “Our focus is to in
crease our retention rates and continue to make our graduation rate something that we can be proud of.”
Overall, the state and OU seemingly see eye to eye on education issues.
“We feel we have aligned our priorities with the governor’s priorities,” OU President Roderick McDavis said. “We feel that we’re helping to create jobs, we’re focused on increasing and maintaining our graduation rate … and we’re very excited about the idea of a capital bill with the hopes of improving the facilities on our campus.”
Though university officials were pleased with the speech and Kasich’s agendas, President of College Democrats Nick Tuell said Kasich might have exaggerated his impact on the state.
“It hurts our communities for him to say that we’re doing fine in education, when some of our schools, like Chauncey (Elementary), are near closure,” Tuell said. “I think the governor is taking away a lot of good and what’s right about public education, and that’s kind of scary.”
OU College Republicans President Ryan Dilworth and OU Students for Liberty President Chase Withorn could not be reached for comment.
During his speech, Kasich stated that Ohio State University was the best university in the state. McDavis says he’s going to strive to show the governor otherwise.
“We’ve been around much longer than The Ohio State University,” he said. “And we’ve been educating better for that much longer than they have.”
jj360410@ohiou.edu
