Ohio lawmakers are about two months away from the deadline to pass the next biennial budget.
The budget, proposed by Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, included over $1 billion to help strengthen and grow Ohio communities and businesses. Besides investing in sectors that have been especially hard-hit by the pandemic which include bars and restaurants, entertainment venues, and tourism, the budget also includes money to help Ohio students get the skills and trained to fill the open jobs around the state. But only if lawmakers keep the money in the budget.
“We want to set the goal of 70,000 high school students a year graduating with career credentials and we will pay for the test to earn these in-demand career credentials,” says Lt. Gov. Husted. “We are also going to create an incentive for more high schools to graduate more students with in-demand career credentials. We have 25 million dollars a year we are asking the legislature to fund in this area. We need them to do that. Additionally, with TechCred, we want to go from 10,000 credentials a year to 20,000 credentials a year. We need the legislature to fund that.”
The Ohio House has already passed their version of the budget, and now it is in the hands of the Ohio Senate to see what budget items will remain or be removed from the budget.
