Senate Budget Falls Short of Governor’s Workforce Funding Levels; Includes K-12 Reform

The Senate’s version of the state budget (House Bill 33) — as presented by the Senate Finance Committee this week — falls short of Gov. Mike DeWine’s suggested funding levels for multiple workforce initiatives. Among the Senate budget provisions of most concern for manufacturers are the following:

• Provides $200 million for career technical education: $100 million for facility upgrades and $100 million for equipment. (The governor recommended $200 million to build or expand facilities, plus $100 million for equipment.)
• Reduces the governor’s and House’s funding level of $7.5 million per fiscal year for industry sector partnership grants to $5 million per fiscal year.
• Fails to fund the governor’s WorkFORCE Ohio program, which would assess Ohio’s critical training needs.
• Provides half ($100 million) of the governor’s suggested funding for SUPER RAPIDS, which supports programs that collaborate with local workforce entities and higher education to train students and existing workers.

On a positive note, the Senate budget contains an OMA-supported plan (Senate Bill 1) to restructure the state’s K-12 oversight by placing additional focus on workforce readiness. The renamed Ohio Department of Education and Workforce would assume many duties of the state board of education. 6/8/2023