COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The way Ohio’s public universities and colleges operate could soon drastically change as the legislation to do so is being fast-tracked through the statehouse.
“Higher education in Ohio needs a lot of reforms,” a research fellow at the conservative think tank The Buckeye Institute Greg Lawson said. “Senate Bill 1 is a good step in the right direction. We need to make sure that universities are laser focusing on getting people in, getting people out, but also being fair, being open-minded, having free speech.”
The bill, known as the “Advance Ohio Education Act” by supporters and the “Higher Education Destruction Act” by opponents, is likely going to see its first vote just two weeks after being introduced.
“That raises a lot of concerns,” Kent State University senior Michelle Stanley said. “But I believe that democracy will prevail.”
Stanley, who opposes the bill, said that while she thinks higher education needs improvement, but said this bill does not do it.
“This bill is attacking communities and attacking togetherness and I feel like that would be a big deterrent for students to come to Ohio universities,” she said.
The bill has dozens of provisions, one of which prohibits faculty from striking. Some students do not see how that helps advance higher education in Ohio.
“That’s not even in regard to like higher ed with students,” Cleveland State University sophomore Dylan Repertorio said. “That’s affecting people’s jobs and livelihoods.”
But Lawson said striking, while admittedly rare, is unfair to students who paid tuition for a full semester.
“If you have students who have paid their tuition and all of a sudden you go into a strike, and this doesn’t happen a lot, that’s true, I think that that’s absolutely true, but it shouldn’t happen at all,” Lawson said.
The bill also eliminates diversity, equity and inclusion practices, and threatens a pull of funding from colleges that do not comply. Lawson said the bill is a “rebalancing for something that has just gotten out of whack.”
“What this legislation does is essentially balances the playing field,” he said. “A lot of people are going to say it’s unfair but if you look at what it does, there’s nothing really unfair about this at all. We need to make sure that we’re not getting distracted by a bunch of these political philosophical fights. And frankly, the reason this legislation is happening is because there was too much of that distraction.”
“I think that this bill is going against improvement,” Stanley said. “Like education or intellectual diversity, for instance.”
Since being introduced two weeks ago, the bill has had 837 opponents submit testimony, 14 supporters and four interested parties.
“Look at all the people who are here,” Repertorio said. “It’s really empowering to see people speaking up, not just students, but I mean professors, we have people from all walks of life who are against this bill.”
Lawson said that while the number of people showing up “absolutely” means something, he said there is a “silent majority” that are not at the statehouse testifying “because they have other things that they are doing.”
“There’s a lot of people out there who just want to keep their heads down, don’t want to make a big case one way or the other,” he said. “They just want to go ahead and get things done.”
The Senate plans to at least take a committee vote on Wednesday morning and could tee it up for a full Senate floor vote on Wednesday afternoon. Some House members said the plan is to get the bill to the governor’s desk by mid-March.
