YOUNGSTOWN Official: Education strengthens state

Promoting the benefits of higher education isn't always easy in the Buckeye State, an official says.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ohio's future will remain gloomy if the state does not wake up to the new information-based economy that requires a better-educated work force, the head of the state's public higher-education system says.
"There's a pretty direct connection between higher education and economic prosperity in this knowledge economy of the 21st century, and Ohio's got a lot of turning around to do to recognize that and play to those new realities," said Roderick G.W. Chu, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents. "If we're complacent, if we're in denial about the new realities that face us, then I think there is a very poor future."
Chu gave the keynote address Monday at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce's second annual educational summit at Avalon Inn in Howland.
His message was succinct: Education is the engine that will drive Ohio's future.
Tough sell: It's a message that doesn't sell easily in Ohio, he said.
"I still hear stories of parents' and grandparents' telling their kids today, 'Hey, you don't need to go to college. All you need to do is graduate from high school, go onto the factory floor and you'll be set,' " Chu said in an interview before today's speech.
"Unfortunately, one of the things that these parents and grandparents don't recognize is that the world really has changed. Those factory jobs, yes, they are very good, but they happen to be computer-operated jobs now. And if you don't have those kinds of skills, you don't get those kinds of jobs, and you don't get those kinds of skills out of high school."
Chu, a managing partner with Andersen Consulting before coming to Ohio four years ago, said he thinks more and more Ohioans and state lawmakers are understanding the importance of beefing up the state's higher-education system.
"Despite that, their actions betray it," he said.
Rankings: Ohio ranks 40th in the nation in per-student public funding of higher education, while tuition at Ohio's public universities and colleges ranks 11th highest in the nation.
In the fiscal 2002 state budget, higher education was the only major area of funding to be cut from 2001 levels, Chu said.
Although funding for public colleges and universities makes up 12 percent of the state budget, 54 percent of recent budget cuts announced by Gov. Bob Taft targeted higher education, forcing even more tuition increases.
The result is a huge base of undereducated Ohioans, Chu said: 39 percent of state residents have completed any college, well below the national average of 45 percent.
"Those who can afford it and those who are knowledgeable enough know [college] is a good investment, despite the fact that the state seems to not recognize that it's also a good investment for the state," he added.
Yet there's hope, Chu said.
Adaptation: Ohio has always adjusted well to economic changes, he said. At the start of the 19th century, Ohio was a worldwide leader in agriculture. When the industrial age spawned in the 20th century, Ohio adjusted and became a leader in manufacturing, he said.
Today, at the dawn of the 21st century, Ohio must again adjust and become a leader in knowledge and technology, building on its agricultural and manufacturing strength, Chu said.
"We're not talking about, 'Let's all jump on the e-com bandwagon and all create a lot of dot.coms,' " he said. "What we're talking about is continuing to invest in our people so they can continue to innovate to keep agriculture, to keep manufacturing in Ohio among the strongest in the nation and the world.
"If we don't do that, both of those will die."