Two Daily Kent Stater reporters asked Ohio gubernatorial candidates Ted Strickland (D) and John Kasich (R) about issues of interest to students. Here’s how they answered.

John Kasich, Republican gubernatorial candidate

1. What will you do to keep college affordable?
2. Under your plan for higher education funding, what will happen to tuition?
3. Will you cut the state share of instruction? (This is a state allocation that is a main source of university revenue.)
4. What will you do to help students get jobs after college?

Candidate responded in a single prepared statement:

“In the new economy it is absolutely critical for Ohio to have a highly educated workforce. We must develop a system that equips knowledge workers with the skills they need to compete globally. Fortunately, here in Ohio we have many resources such as our vocational schools, technical schools, community colleges, four-year and two-year colleges and universities, which can be leveraged to prepare people for jobs, get technology into the hands of businesses and develop the next generation of new innovations. Unfortunately, higher education costs have been rising faster than health care costs in recent years, and the financial burden has been passed back and forth between taxpayers and the students and their families. This funding model is unsustainable. I have been talking with university presidents about how to address this issue and ways to provide flexibility for them to control these costs. Higher education must also be held accountable. I’m very concerned that only 32 percent of students graduate from Ohio’s public four-year institutions in four years. We must ensure that our schools are providing educational programs that challenge our students, provide them with the skills they need to compete in a global economy and do it all in a timeframe that gives both students and the taxpayers their money’s worth.”

— Ryan Friend

Ted Strickland, Democratic gubernatorial candidate

Candidate responded to each question in a prepared statement:

1. What will you do to keep college affordable?

“When I became governor, I set out to increase the number of college

students in Ohio by expanding access and reducing cost. With the help

of our Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, we developed a

ten-year strategic plan to revamp Ohio’s higher education system.

First and foremost, my mission has been to ensure that no Ohioan is

kept from earning a college degree because of the cost. Over the past

three years I have worked with colleges and universities to institute caps

and freezes on tuition and fulfill the state’s commitment to the state

share of instruction that allows our universities to decrease or hold

steady the cost of tuition without sacrificing services. Today, Ohio

has more than 65,000 more college students than it did when I took office

and if re-elected, I will continue to work to ensure that cost and

accessibility are never barriers to higher education.”

2. Under your plan for higher education funding, what will happen to tuition?

“Over the past three years, Ohio has seen the lowest increase in tuition of

any state in the nation. We made this possible by working with our

public colleges and universities to freeze or cap tuition. Because of

this work, Ohio has seen the lowest rate of tuition growth since the

1960s. When I became governor, I made a promise to students in Ohio

that I would keep college affordable in order to expand access to

higher education and I have kept that commitment.”

3. Will you cut the state share of instruction? (This is a state allocation that is a main source of university revenue.)

“While it is impossible to predict what the next budget will look like,

Ohio’s students can judge me by my record over the last four years. As

governor, I worked with our colleges to contribute a state share of

instruction in order to keep tuition low. Even during these tough

economic times, I kept to that agreement and the state fulfilled its

commitment to Ohio’s institutions of higher education. Looking to the

future, I hope that the state share of instruction will remain an

important partnership between our colleges and our state and will

continue to act as a communal effort to rein in the costs of tuition.”

4. What will you do to help students get jobs after college?

“Over the past four years I have worked to grow our economy from the

bottom up by attracting new industries to Ohio like advanced energy

and biomedical. These 21st century industries and others will continue

to create good paying jobs in Ohio that cannot be outsourced, and that

are ideally suited for college graduates. By increasing access to

higher education, we have ensured that Ohio will have a highly

educated workforce to compete in the global economy and will remain an

attractive place for companies to locate.”

— Kyle Nelson