DeWine: Higher education scholarships in budget needed for Ohio workforce to prosper

Gov. Mike Dewine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted joined Pat Tiberi for a rare appearance at the Ohio Business Roundtable to stress the critical need to boost Ohio's workforce with qualified, higher education graduates as the state deals with the demographic realities of a shrinking population.

DeWine addressed his proposed budget to increase scholarship opportunities for individuals wishing to pursue a four-year degree, in hopes of creating more eligible candidates to fill job positions within the state, encourage graduates to stay local and create a more competitive business market for Ohio. The push comes as the Ohio Senate begins deliberation on the two-year spending bill and is expected to release its version soon.

More: Biden administration picks Columbus as workforce hub after Intel, Honda: Here's what that means

Tiberi, Ohio Business Roundtable president and CEO, said that Ohio came in last in the Midwest when comparing its funding for need-based financial aid for higher education.

DeWine said that Ohio has a business climate that is predictable and strong, but Ohio lacks qualified candidates needed to fill these job positions in order to be perceived as more attractive to businesses.

"So, for the state, for all of us and also for our young people, giving them the opportunity is absolutely key," DeWine said. "The budget that we're presenting to the General Assembly does this."

DeWine said the proposed budget includes the expansion of the Ohio College Opportunity Grant. The expansion would provide a $6,000 scholarship opportunity to 15,000 additional applicants, allowing anyone within a household that makes $87,000 or less eligible, in order to accommodate the poor and working middle class.

"They get them, and then they can go out among our 14 public universities in the state of Ohio or over 50 of our independent colleges and universities," Dewine said. "As long as they're going to a four-year school in the state of Ohio."

DeWine said that the second scholarship opportunity proposed in the budget is new and provides a $20,000 scholarship to graduating high school students in the top 5% of their class in Ohio, being awarded $5,000 a year for four years.

DeWine said the more Ohio graduates the state generates, the more likely these graduates are to find jobs/internships, start families and start businesses in Ohio.

"If you look at states that have done this, states that have done it the right way have significantly increased somewhere between 10% and 15% of the number of their students that end up staying in their state and go to college there," DeWine said.

Husted said Ohio has an unemployment rate of 3.7%, the lowest in its history, and that although the state has created over 6,600 private-sector jobs, the demographics within the Midwest pose the biggest threat.

"Ohio and every state that borders Ohio is projected to have fewer people in the working-age workforce over the next 10 years and that key demographic of 25-60," Husted said. "The baby boom generation has retired, subsequent generations don't have as many children in it, and therefore the workforce is shrinking."

Husted said the results from the Choose Ohio First scholarship created in 2007 show that providing access to school works to improve the state. The scholarship is used to incentivize students to finish high school, go to college and choose a STEM major. Of the 28,477 scholars, 79% of them are either working in Ohio or are working on a graduate degree in Ohio, Husted said. DeWine has sought increased money for this scholarship within his proposed budget.

"We said back when we started that the 80% of students would do that if they graduated high school here, they would stay if we kept them here," Husted said. "The numbers bear that out, 79% of them are doing that right now."

In response to whether some recipients of the scholarships would really need them, Husted said the issue is broader than that. Ohio must make college affordable to keep the top graduates in the state and improve the outlook for everyone.

"It's not about what they need, it's about what we need," Husted said. "We need them."

aesmith@gannett.com

@arismith02

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: DeWine promotes workforce budget proposal at Ohio Business Roundtable.