Gov. Ted Strickland: "Ohio is the heart of innovation"

Gov. Strickland's Higher Education Proposals

Even as we include our youngest children in our early childhood education system, we must work harder to see that our young adults don't find the door to higher education slammed in their faces by out of control tuition costs.

Today, the state spends less on instructional support for our universities than it did in 2000.

This defies common sense.

We know an educated workforce attracts jobs - economic forecasts show that more than 60 percent of new jobs will require a college degree. And yet, Ohio is 47 percent above the national average in public university tuition costs and 37th in producing college graduates.
My goal is clear and my budget sets the stage. In 10 years, we will increase the number of Ohioans with a college degree by 230 thousand, and we will increase the graduation rate among those who start college by 20 percent.

My budget sets two major initiatives to help make college affordable for every Ohioan.

First, I will establish a higher education compact between the state and our public colleges and universities which will result in lower tuition costs for our students. This compact will increase funding for the basic instructional subsidy by 5 percent next year. And by 2 percent more the following year.

To get their share of this historic funding increase, each public college and university must find ways to operate more efficiently.

And they must announce that there will be no tuition increase next year, and that tuition will increase no more than 3 percent the following year.

Think about that.

Instead of a tuition increase of 9 percent - and that's what we've averaged in Ohio since 1996 - there would be absolutely no tuition increase next year.
This plan will benefit over 400 thousand students currently enrolled in our public colleges and universities, and will send a strong message to those planning for college.
Even with the compact in place, there will still be a gap between the cost of a college education and what many Ohio students and families can afford.

My second major initiative aims to fill that gap.

To do this, we will continue the full implementation of the Ohio College Opportunity Grant for all the public and private colleges in the Board of Regents system. This will provide assistance to families with incomes up to 75 thousand dollars per year - helping more than 100 thousand students pay for their education.

Next, we will partner with the business community and the Ohio College Access Network to attack the remaining gap between a student's resources and the cost of college through private fundraising.

Our higher education system will be stronger - indeed it will actually become a system, unified in purpose - with the creation of a cabinet level Chancellor of Higher Education.

I appreciate the efforts of legislators to help redefine this position. And I appreciate the decision of the Board of Regents to appoint Eric Fingerhut - who I think will be an outstanding Chancellor today and will only become more effective in the future.

If we do this right, education will feed the economy. Success will bring more success. And the beneficiaries of our efforts will not only be students in the classroom, but all Ohioans.

[Excerpt from Gov. Ted Strickland's State of the State Address, March 14, 2007. Download an MS Word file of the full text.]

Last updated 03/15/07 (mw). For more information, contact Research Affairs.