Gov. Kasich’s State of the State Speech: Five Things He Said About Education

Ohio Gov. John Kasich went over familiar ground in his 2012 State of the State speech at an eastern Ohio elementary school. He hit on workforce training, high school graduation rates and college remediation, among many, many — many — other topics.

(Apparently Ohio is doing a big business in exporting cows free of the dreaded Bluetongue virus to Turkey. Who knew?)

But there was little new education policy in the governor’s talk. Still, we’ll summarize the major education points for you.

State of the State Edu-Highlights:

1. Cleveland transformation plan. Perhaps the only new education policy initiative Kasich mentioned was this plan to transform Cleveland’s schools introduced today by Mayor Frank Jackson. Kasich told legislators:
   

   “I’ll work with them [folks in Cleveland]. I’ll go door to door at every one of your offices with the Mayor of Cleveland.”

2. Workforce training. Ohio’s workforce training programs, including community colleges, aren’t coordinated among themselves or with industry needs. Kasich’s hired a guy to fix that:
   

   “We have a lot of job openings, but we don’t have the skilled workers to fill them.”

3. Graduation rates at high schools and public colleges. They’re too low. Ditto on college remediation rates:
   

   “The emphasis should not be on enrollment. It should be on graduation… Some of our graduation rates, they’re just wrong.”

4. Ohio public colleges and universities need to work together on a joint capital projects plan. Kasich praised Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee as being on point there.
5. Teachers. One of the keys to successful schools is having teachers who believe:
   

   “In the teachers’ minds, in the administrators’ minds, nothing stands in the way of kids being great.”