Ohio advocates and lawmakers say the governor’s speech left out key points about child care

Reactions to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s recent State of the State address were as varied as the topics he covered in the speech. But in the areas of child care and education, lawmakers and advocates alike focused more on what he didn’t say than on what he did.

Care and education advocates said his lack of messaging on child care was telling, and lawmakers said his praise for successes in infant mortality was exaggerated.

In his March 10 speech, DeWine discussed everything from parks and recreation to energy policy while reflecting on his years as governor, marking the last of such speeches he will deliver as his term ends.

On child care and education, he praised the state’s individual efforts to combat chronic absenteeism and announced the launch of a statewide attendance dashboard in April that will provide more data on the topic.

He urged more work to keep cell phones out of schools and mentioned the state’s vision program for children.

But the education portion of his speech focused largely on his robust support for the Learn to Read program, which requires up-to-date state regulations to teach in schools, and First Lady Fran DeWine’s efforts to expand the impact of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

“Reading is the key to everything, so it is very important for children to learn early on the importance of books and reading,” DeWine said.

However, the speech never mentioned child care, which has been a consistent struggle for the state for both availability and affordability.

“Tell me how you can be pro-growth, pro-business and pro-Ohio when you tell parents you should stay home instead of telling us to invest in your child care,” Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, said at a news conference after the speech.

Isaacsohn took offense to other priorities DeWine mentioned, including DeWine’s lengthy praise for Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel to lead a fitness challenge in schools across the state.

“With all due respect to our lieutenant governor, intervention at the wall will not solve the problem of gun violence,” Isaacsohn said. “At-the-wall care won’t provide child care for Ohio families. At-the-wall care won’t ensure our schools have what they need.”

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, pointed to Ohio families who she believes are “living in crisis mode,” despite DeWine’s confidence that the state is in a better situation now than before.

She cited the state’s workforce losses “largely due to a lack of job opportunities and the hostile atmosphere created by the culture war nonsense from this Legislature.”

“Ohioans struggle to find affordable, quality child care, a roof over their heads and food in the fridge,” Antonio said.

After the speech, child care advocates noted the lack of child care measures mentioned in the speech and called for future legislation to support address the ongoing crisis.

While DeWine mentioned all the ways reading is critical, “he failed to mention that reading often starts with our educators and child care providers, as well as with the workers themselves, whom he did not mention,” the advocacy groups Policy Matters Ohio and the Care Economy Organizing Project said in a joint statement.

“By investing in child care, we don’t just help parents afford it – we fuel the engine that makes every other industry in Ohio possible,” said Tami Lunan, director of the Care Economy Organizing Project.

Education advocates such as the Ohio Federation of Teachers said there is a “disconnect” between DeWine’s words in the speech and the actions the teachers union has seen over the past seven years.

While OFT President Melissa Cropper said the organization agreed with DeWine’s focus on literacy, chronic absenteeism and other critical elements of the education process, Cropper said the governor’s actions “completely undermined school districts’ ability to achieve these goals,” including changing the Fair Schools funding plan model in the last state budget.

“We are already seeing the impact of budget cuts in school districts across the state,” Cropper said in a statement.

“Fewer teachers, fewer support staff, larger classes, fewer electives and a greater burden on local taxpayers as districts try to make up the difference with additional fees.”

For their part, Republican legislative leaders said the governor was right to point to statewide successes during his time in charge and said arguments that public school funding is one of the problems causing low academic achievement and student achievement are baseless.

“10% of third graders can read, that’s unacceptable,” Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said at a separate news conference after the speech. “And it’s not because, in my opinion, there isn’t enough money.”

Ohio Senate President (and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor) Rob McColley agreed with Huffman that the root of the problem was not the money, but how it was used by school districts.

“There are many school districts across the state that do an incredible amount and deliver great results for less money,” McColley said.

Beyond education, DeWine cited “historic investments in mothers and children” that have allowed the state to achieve its lowest infant mortality rate in two decades, starting in 2025.

Infant mortality is a statistic measured from babies who are born but do not live to see their first birthday.

In the state’s most recent operating budget, DeWine asked the General Assembly to allocate $7.5 million to support maternal and infant health programs.

By the time the budget passed, that amount had been reduced to $5 million, as suggested in the Senate version of the budget.

According to the most recent national data from 2023, 909 infants died in the first year of life, a rate of 7.2 per 1,000 births, according to the CDC.

Black children die at disproportionate rates than all other children in the state.

In 2025, the March of Dimes initiative earned Ohio a “D” rating for preterm birth rate, ranking the state 37th of all states, tied with Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

While state Rep. Munira Abdullahi of Columbia, chairwoman of the Ohio Democratic Women’s Legislative Caucus, said Ohio has made progress on infant mortality rates, the problem remains earnest.

“Ohio is still in the 15 worst states,” Abdullahi said. “We don’t want to be there, it’s not a reason to celebrate.”