Governor Kasich Promotes Economic Development and Education at ASD Meeting

As an example he referred to the robust energy industry in Ohio which is regulated “but not over the top.”  

“We want to use commonsense, we want to insure public safety but we also want to have job creation and what we don’t want to do is drive people out of here because they are being  regulated in way that does not reflect common sense. “

The Governor said a billion dollar investment in infrastructure is about to get underway following the retirement of bonds from the Ohio turnpike that will eventually result in $3 billion of infrastructure spending.  Ohio is within 600 miles of 60 percent of the country and the multi-modals and inter-modals in the state are important he said.  The turnpike project and infrastructure will be decided on the basis of the most economic development that can be driven for Ohio.

“Manufacturing is critical for our state,” he said.  “We privatized our economic development operation. We have an organization called Jobs for Ohio.  It is nonprofit entity– all of the money they bring in is used for economic development.”
 
Expanding vocational education is a high priority in Ohio and a new program will be revealed soon said Kasich. He called on manufacturing to get involved with public schools.  On public school education, Kasich stressed that all Ohioans should be able to read at a minimum of a third grade level.

An aggressive program has been accepted by higher education in which schools in Ohio will receive 50 percent of their costs when a student enrolls but will not get the other 50 percent until the student graduates.  

In his concluding remarks Governor Kasich remarked, “Jobs are number one. It’s the greatest moral purpose we have.”