Ohio’s new state budget impacts many areas of K-12 education, including career-connected learning? By our reckoning, their efforts resulted in one important win but also three missed opportunities.
Career-connected learning has been a hot topic in Ohio for years. Policymakers have established a variety of initiatives aimed at providing more and better opportunities for kids. The number of industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) earned by students has skyrocketed. And lawmakers invested hundreds of millions in state funds to strengthen and expand access to career-technical education (CTE).
These developments hold promise for both Ohio students and employers. But now is not the time for state leaders to rest on their laurels. There are plenty of problems still to address, and this year’s state budget process offered a prime opportunity to do so. Did lawmakers capitalize on that opportunity? Yes and no. Let’s take a look at where they landed in four major areas—resulting in one win and three missed opportunities.
The win
Offering pathways to in-demand credentials
Ohio leaders have invested considerable amounts of state funding and political capital into promoting industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) and incorporating them into graduation requirements. As a result of their efforts, more students are earning IRCs than ever before. But a closer look at the data reveals that many of these credentials don’t take much time or effort to earn and lead to industries and jobs that pay relatively low wages. This means that thousands of students are spending time and effort to earn credentials that won’t benefit them in the long run.
State policy is partially to blame. Under state law, IRCs that can be used to qualify for high school graduation are assigned a point value between one and twelve by a state-level committee. But this point value system doesn’t effectively identify credential value or encourage students to earn IRCs that lead to better long-term outcomes.
Thanks to the budget, that should change. Governor DeWine’s proposal to eliminate the point value system and require the IRC committee to establish new criteria under which a student may use IRCs to earn a diploma was included in the final budget. Hopefully, the committee will choose to link credentials to student-focused outcomes like job outlook, associated wages, and industry value.
Three missed opportunities
Preparing students to make informed decisions about their futures
Current law requires every Ohio student in grades nine through twelve who attends a public or chartered non-public school to have a graduation plan that maps their academic pathway to a diploma. These plans consider course and graduation requirements but do not require students to think beyond high school or consider potential careers. As a result, thousands of students graduate each year with no idea how to pursue their interests or even what they’re interested in.
When Governor DeWine released his budget recommendations this February, he included a requirement for student plans to identify post-graduation career goals and align students’ high school experiences to those goals. This would have been a big step forward for Ohio kids. Unfortunately, the governor’s proposal wasn’t included in the final budget. That means, for now, too many students will leave high school without a solid plan for the future.
Supporting career exploration and awareness
Starting in 2021, lawmakers began to allocate funding to schools to support career awareness and exploration opportunities for students. During fiscal year 2024, the state set aside $12.3 million and schools were awarded $7.50 per student. For fiscal year 2025, the state set aside $16.3 million and schools’ per-pupil amount rose to $10. The recently passed budget, however, took a buzzsaw to these funds and limited the allocation to just $5 million for each fiscal year, a sizable cut relative to current amounts.
This was a mistake for two reasons. First, career awareness and exploration funds are Ohio’s only dedicated state-level investment in general career readiness for students of all ages. Most Ohio students depend on schools to provide exploration opportunities like career fairs, field trips, and job shadowing that can help them decide which pathways to pursue after graduation. Without a dedicated funding stream to cover costs, it’s unlikely schools will prioritize providing these opportunities, and students will pay the price.
Second, the final bill eliminated waivers that have exempted districts from the requirement to offer CTE to all seventh and eighth graders. This was a wise move, as every middle schooler deserves to have access to CTE. But by slashing funds that would have helped schools provide exploration opportunities, lawmakers have increased the likelihood of ineffective implementation.
Tracking workforce outcomes
One of the best ways to ensure that students can smoothly transition between high school, postsecondary education, and the workforce is to ensure that leaders in those sectors are working together to solve problems and implement solutions. Right now, state agencies—including the Department of Education and Workforce, the Department of Higher Education, the Department of Job and Family Services, and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation—separately collect and analyze a mountain of data on workforce outcomes. But linking these data in a way that effectively drives policy is difficult. And for key stakeholders in Ohio, the sheer number of reports and tools being published can be overwhelming enough that they lose their value.
The Senate tackled this problem by proposing to establish an Education and Workforce Data Insights Board that would have made the state’s education and workforce data more applicable and beneficial by supporting data-driven policymaking and helping stakeholders understand the return on investment of various career pathways. Unfortunately, the board didn’t make the cut for the final budget. The state’s current data efforts are still in place, which is good news. But going forward, lawmakers should consider how to streamline state agencies’ work.
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Career-connected learning doesn’t grab headlines as easily as issues like school funding and school choice. But preparing students for the future is crucial, and the failure of state leaders to strengthen policy in this important field is disappointing. To their credit, lawmakers did make some important changes, like an overhaul of the IRC framework. But other policies, like career planning, funding for exploration opportunities, and a research and data transparency initiative were left on the cutting room floor. Over the next few months, lawmakers should reconsider their importance and pick them back up.
