The federal government is taking a swipe at funding for teen pregnancy prevention, sparking concerns in Ohio and elsewhere as advocates try to continue helping teens.

The cuts are also controversial for teenagers who are already parents.

Rosemary Oglesby-Henry was a teen mom herself thirty years ago, and from what she’s seen, not much has changed in the perception of teen pregnancy.

“I decided to become a parent, and when I decided to become a parent, there were no resources to teach me how to be a mother,” she told the Capital Journal.

In 2016, Oglesby-Henry founded Rosemary’s Babies Company, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping teen parents learn not only parenting skills, but also how to achieve educational goals, gain job skills and delay having more children.

The founder and CEO hopes to be part of the support that may not be as needed in the future.

“Basically, what we’re saying is OK, we understand that you have a child, but… you can still go back to school, you can wait until you expand your family and have another child, and that way you get back to your goal so you’re not dependent on the government and you don’t end up on the economic cliff, especially for our young girls,” she said.

Rosemary’s Babies is a donor-driven nonprofit that also receives state funding, which she says is challenging to come by in the area of ​​teen pregnancy support, but is most essential when it comes to supporting population often burdened with trauma and abuse no other supportsincluding sex education.

“It helps reduce the stigma, so organizations like mine can now seek support by saying, ‘I’m not promoting teen pregnancy, but when these young people have babies, we need to help them before they get caught up in the system,’” Oglesby-Henry said.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Administration recently announced a plan to cancel 53 of 67 grants for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, amounting to approximately $68 million in eliminated financing.

Federal health agency cancels most subsidies to prevent teen pregnancy

Stateline reported that President Donald Trump took similar action during his first term, changing grant funding for more than 80 recipients before a judge halted the action by ruling in favor of the legal group Democracy Forward in a lawsuit alleging violations of agency regulations.

The latest actions are also the subject of a lawsuit in which Democracy Forward is again involved is suing the Trump administration to stop the cuts.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute was recognized as one of the recipients of 2020-2023 federal grants, receiving more than $860,000 for the Changing Landscape for Youth Health Equity and Access in Central Ohio program, according to the HHS website.

Hospital representatives were unavailable for comment.

Nationwide, Children’s continues to operate its Teen and Pregnant Women’s Program, which provides prenatal and postnatal care to pregnant women up to age 21.

According to the program’s website, the Teen Pregnancy Clinic allows pregnant women to meet with doctors, participate in group meetings, learn about infant care and enroll in public programs, including federal food assistance, as well as learn about birth control for the future.

According to the Health and Social Care Agency’s own data, for a purpose it calls “Healthy People 2030,“Babies born to teenage mothers are “more likely to be born prematurely, have low birth weight and even die.”

“Having a child can also negatively impact teen mothers’ health and their educational and career opportunities,” the HHS data states. “Although teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined in recent years, race/ethnicity disparities persist.”

The department also states that “evidence shows that a variety of outreach and education programs can help reduce teen pregnancy rates.”

State data from 2024 showed that 69 children were born in Ohio to mothers younger than 15 years of age, more than 1,300 children were born to people aged 15 to 17, and almost 4,000 children were born to mothers aged 18 to 19.

The latest state data is still considered preliminary, but 2025 data showed that 52 children under the age of 15 were born in Ohio in 2025 and more than 1,000 children between the ages of 15 and 17 were born in 2025, according to the Ohio Department of Health database. People aged 18 to 19 represented over 3,700 births in 2025.

The most recent CDC data on teen births is from 2024. Ohio’s teen birth rate that year was 14 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, a slight decline from the previous yearwhen it was 14.6 per 1,000 Ohioans.

Teen pregnancy-related funding is also part of state grant efforts, particularly through a program established by Gov. Mike DeWine called the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The money traditionally comes from federal and state contributions to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

The Ohio General Assembly’s most recent operating budget authorized up to $26.8 million for Governor’s Office initiatives in 2026 and 2027.

DeWine’s spokesman did not comment specifically when asked about cuts to federal teen pregnancy prevention programs, but said the governor’s office and the state Office of Budget and Management “continuously monitor federal funding decisions throughout the year.”

The latest executive order of DeWine, who directs TANF funding for 2026 and 2027, stated that one of the goals of the TANF program is to “prevent and reduce the incidence of nonmarital pregnancies and to establish annual numerical goals to prevent and reduce the incidence of these pregnancies.”

Following the recent cuts, HHS has launched up-to-date grant programs called “Replicating Effective Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs” and “Rigorous Assessment of the Impact of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs and Achieving Optimal Health,” according to the agency’s website.

The Trump administration also plans to allocate money temperance education and emphasis on marriagewith the language for submitting grant applications referring, among others, to: to concepts supported by conservative groups that advise against, among others, contraception.

Sex education and the “success sequence”

For years, the state has been criticized for lacking a standardized sex education curriculum, which advocates say contributes to the teen pregnancy rate.

Sex education advocacy group SIECUS has given Ohio a failing grade in a national ranking of state sex education programs.

The group condemned the latest development in the state’s sex education program, called “success sequence”, which requires the school to teach students that they should graduate from high school, get a job and get married sequentially before the baby is born.

Under the up-to-date law, a “sequence of success” would be a graduation requirement.

AND 2021 study commissioned by the federal Health and Human Services Agency found that although graduating from high school, working full-time, and getting married do reduce the risk of poverty, the order of events is not necessarily essential.

“Regarding the relationship between milestones and economic self-sufficiency at ages 35–40, our results suggest that individual milestones, regardless of order, appear to be the primary factors associated with economic outcomes in adulthood,” the study said.

For Oglesby-Henry, the information provided by the “success sequence” and other metrics can be helpful, even as a conversation starter.

“It teaches about economics and the impact that happens when we make these decisions, and it also teaches about the consequences,” she said.

However, lessons are still needed at higher levels about the consequences of promoting pregnancy without providing the support needed.

“With the administration pushing for families to have more children and things like that, we have to assess whether people can afford day care, if we cut benefits, whether they can afford housing,” Oglesby-Henry said.

The founder of Rosemary’s Babies, which recently opened in Holloway House to provide housing support, workforce training and other programs for teenage parents, is seeking to combat the rise of homelessness among youthful mothers too, making funding even more essential.

“We’re looking at how we can continue to help these families where, if we get them through our program, we get the training that this administration requires (encouragement)… but when they complete all that, they can’t afford housing or they still can’t afford to live,” Oglesby-Henry said.

It is not uncomplicated to finance support for pregnant teenagers and prevention in the future, she said, but education and money to continue it will bring more results.

“Prevention always costs less than the actual epidemic or actual problem,” says Oglesby-Henry.

Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is changing his mind on closing “low-cost” universities after bipartisan backlash.

At a town hall event in Strongsville on Friday, Ramaswamy pushed back against claims that he wants to close universities and utilize the savings to eliminate the state income tax. Now he says he never wanted to close universities, but rather to close programs at universities.

“I think we have too many duplicate programs in our universities,” Ramaswamy said. “When I look at a region, I want to look at Ohio in terms of regions, such as regional governance; I want each region to have the best higher education institutions available to the people of that region. But not every university has to offer every program.”

One attendee asked if it was true that he wanted to “close some schools.” He has repeatedly denied this, saying it is “untrue.”

He wants to have the best programs in the country in nursing, computer science, civil engineering and humanities, he added.

“They just don’t have to live under the same roof at the same university,” he said. “I want each region to offer the best it has to offer, but for us to consolidate some of these programs in the best interest of our students.”

Ramaswamy said he believes universities will reduce their overall costs by offering fewer programs.

Looking back: what did he say in his previous comments?

“We have too many of them,” the Republican said in a video posted to his Threads account in March. “They need to be consolidated.”

In an opinion piece he wrote for The Columbus’s shipmentRamaswamy encouraged the closure of what he called struggling universities. He referred to Cleveland State, the University of Akron, Kent State University and Central State University as facing previous challenges.

He tripled down on that idea in April.

“I don’t think you should fund crappy universities,” Ramaswamy told a student asking a question at a Turning Point US event.

Colleges should not duplicate themselves, he said, and the strongest programs should survive.

Backlash quickly followed, including from members of his own party such as Gov. Mike DeWine and Senate Finance Chairman Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, who is a GOP leader on higher education reform.

“What do you think? Do you think there will be trouble if he becomes governor and you fight it, or do you think the schools should merge?” we asked Cirino at the end of June.

“Well, there are a lot of questions in this, so I’ll try to answer them… I don’t know how much he knows about how higher education works in the state of Ohio,” Cirino said.

Cirino said he looked forward to discussions with Ramaswamy. He said consolidation could be discussed, but more in terms of additional university branches rather than main campuses.

“I think the right minds need to get together in a room for a while to try to understand how we can’t sacrifice the provision of higher education or post-secondary education while not sustaining the costs that we have today using infrastructure adapted to the 1960s,” Cirino said.

If Ramaswamy meant real consolidation rather than an end to funding for “weak” universities, Cirino said it would have been more widely accepted because he advocated eliminating low-enrollment fields.

Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial opponents oppose this because Ohio has colleges throughout the state that provide students with access to a nearby, high-quality university.

David Pepper, Democratic nominee for Gov. Amy Acton, said it shows how out of touch Ramaswamy has been with everyday Ohioans, pointing out that the Republican came up with the idea of ​​cutting college funding to support pay for an overall income tax cut.

“A tax credit that helps everyone at the top and students, especially from poor communities, Vivek Ramaswamy says: ‘Get in your car, pay for your room and get in hundreds of miles away or I’ll deprive you of your local opportunity to get a degree,’” Pepper said.

Defending his article, Ramaswamy said the universities he mentioned were just “examples of where tuition fees are rising.”

“That’s a big leap in terms of whether or not the university should be closed,” Ramaswamy said, as a participant further questioned his position. “But are there individual programs that we can say, ‘OK, this one belongs to this university, and this one belongs to this university in this region – whichever I like.’

University rectors have spoken

The candidate noticed that the university authorities probably did not like his idea.

Both Cleveland State and Kent State presidents they rebuked his position.

“We must respect the identity of our public universities, which were established for specific purposes to meet the needs of their region. All options must be discussed – there are many ways of thinking about programs and strategic partnerships that are far from consolidating and achieving the goals of being more agile and effective higher education institutions,” Cleveland State President Dr. Laura Bloomberg said in April.

Kent State University President Dr. Todd Diacon took a more assertive approach, providing a lengthy response to “anyone who has questions about Ohio’s public universities.”

“During the decade of the 1960s, we built 60 new buildings. These buildings were filled with the sons and daughters of the Greatest Generation, ready to build Ohio’s future,” Diacon wrote in part. “It wasn’t a waste of time. It was Ohio’s investment in itself.”

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This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Department of Education officials in Republican and Democratic administrations raised the alarm Monday over the agency’s efforts to outsource special education and civil rights enforcement programs to other agencies.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state convened former officials, along with advocates and educators, for a virtual news conference to condemn the sweeping moves, part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the 46-year-old Department of Education.

Murray reprimanded transfers she found it “outrageous” and “completely unacceptable,” noting that while she “fights vigorously” against any attempts to dismantle the agency, she is “particularly concerned about what this could mean for all students, especially students with disabilities.”

In June, the agency said the Department of Health and Human Services would administer the programs under the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS), while civil rights enforcement under the Office of Civil Rights would be transferred to the Department of Justice.

The Ministry of Education announced 10 earlier interagency agreements or IAAs with HHS, staff, internal affairs, state and Treasurywhich transfer some of the responsibilities related to education to these agencies.

The department said it “will continue to perform all statutorily required duties and responsibilities,” including special education programs and civil rights enforcement.

OSERS is responsible for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities. The OSERS parent unit includes the Office of the Deputy Secretary, the Office of Special Education Programs, and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

The Office of Civil Rights is responsible for investigating complaints filed by students and their families.

“Students, not patients”

Katy Neas, executive director of The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said the transfers “will split the offices responsible for making disability rights a reality in schools, leaving families looking across the federal government for answers rather than being held accountable by a single educational agency.”

Neas served as deputy assistant secretary and acting deputy secretary at OSERS during the Biden administration.

“The stakes have never been higher,” she said. “If we allow the Department of Education to be abolished, we will not only reverse decades of progress, but we also risk abandoning the promise that every child deserves a chance to try to succeed.”

Catherine Lhamon, executive director of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, stated that “the new interagency agreement between the Department of Education and the Department of Justice is what someone would create if a person were designing a system that was going to fail.”

Lhamon was assistant secretary for civil rights under Obama and Biden.

“The main harm of this new agreement is that it guarantees a longer silence from the federal government on the classic types of discrimination families face,” Lhamon said. Examples include restraining or isolating students, she added.

This raises “the fundamental question of whether students with disabilities have access to the free and appropriate public education to which they are entitled,” Lhamon added.

Stephanie Smith Lee, co-director of policy and advocacy at the National Down Syndrome Congress, noted that “IDEA is an education and civil rights act, not a health care program.”

“Students with disabilities are students, not patients,” added Lee, who served as director of the Office of Special Education Programs during the George W. Bush administration.

“Moving special education and vocational rehabilitation to the Department of Health and Human Services would separate them from the rest of federal education policy and weaken the expertise and coordinated oversight that students, families and states rely on,” she said.

Savannah Newhouse, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, rejected that criticism, saying in a statement to States Newsroom that Murray and former officials were part of a failing status quo.

“As Senator Murray is well aware, the Department of Education’s interagency partnerships do not change the Trump Administration’s commitment to students with disabilities and federal civil rights laws,” she wrote. “These agreements simply ensure that well-positioned agencies can support the workload, pool their expertise and ultimately strengthen student protections.”

The US House of Representatives bills “died” in the Senate

Meanwhile, in early July House Committee on Education and Labor introduced a package of 10 bills permanently transferring several education functions to other departments and largely mirroring many earlier IAAs.

It is worth noting that this package does not include any efforts to transfer Education’s responsibilities for special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies.

“As long as this former kindergarten teacher is a United States senator, every single one of these bills will be dead the moment we get them,” Murray said.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department on Thursday confirmed the agency’s central role in the administration’s broader push to eliminate the Education Department.

Praised by U.S. Senate Democrats, Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling has been behind many of the interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has signed with Labor so far, likening his agency’s functions in the transfer to “a company that merely consults and helps them move the money from these programs, but not the programs themselves.”

The agreements – also with the departments of Health and Human Services, State, Treasury, Interior and Justice – are a major part of the Trump administration’s plan to fire the 46-year-old Department of Education.

Sonderling appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in his bid to become the next secretary of labor, where he touted his extensive DOL experience.

“Few people have had the opportunity to experience this department from so many different perspectives, from the outside, in private practice, as a policy advisor, as an agency head, as an adjunct professor, as deputy secretary, as acting secretary, and now as a candidate for secretary of labor,” he said. “These experiences have prepared me to lead this department with a deep understanding of its mission, people and, most importantly, the Americans we serve.”

The Floridian took over as acting secretary in April Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned due to allegations of misconduct.

In June, Sonderling was also nominated by the president to serve as acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, and in March 2025, the Senate confirmed him as deputy secretary of labor.

On July 23, the committee will vote on whether to accept Sonderling’s nomination to the full Senate.

“It doesn’t make sense”

During the hearing, a handful of Democrats advocated for the Trump administration’s continued dismantling of the Education Department and Labor’s role in several education programs.

“Right now, you are working with Secretary of Education (Linda) McMahon to take over Department of Education programs that will help Trump dismantle the department,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who noted that Sonderling has built “his own anti-worker past at the DOL.”

Murray noted that “it makes no sense for the DOL, an agency that specializes in supporting wage earners and job seekers, to now be tasked with taking over from the Department of Education complex educational programs designed to help preschoolers and elementary school students.”

Through numerous IAAs, the Department of Labor is taking on an expanded role in administering primary and secondary education programs; post-secondary education; and vocational, technical and adult education.

The Department for Education has stressed in fact sheets that it will maintain its statutory responsibilities and oversight of IAA programs.

In the lower chamber, package of 10 bills permanently moving several Education functions to other departments and largely mirroring many previous IAAs that dropped out of the House Education and Labor Committee on Wednesday.

Programs still run by “career experts”

Sonderling supports the administration’s efforts, stating that “it makes a lot of sense for DOL to take on more grant responsibilities and work with education.”

The nominee also emphasized that interagency agreements “do not engage in policy” but instead provide the Department of Education with a “service.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, said the Trump administration’s dispersion of education programs across the federal government, including the DOL, creates a system that is “far more complicated and far less effective, particularly in states and public school districts.”

But Sonderling argued that all of these programs “still remain” within the Department of Education and are “run by career experts” in Education.

He added that “for the sake of efficiency, we moved several tranches of employees to the Frances Perkins Building (DOL headquarters), where everyone has their own offices, everyone has their own computers, they have parking, and they work outside of this building.”

Pressed by Baldwin about any evidence the candidate could provide that “transferring these programs to the Department of Labor has made things better for students, teachers and parents,” Sonderling expressed his commitment to sharing that data with the senator.

“There is a right way to do reform — come to committee and say, ‘Hey, look, this is legal, but there is a better way to do it, so let’s work on a better way to do it,’” Sen. Tim Kaine said.

“The wrong approach is to treat (the Department of Education) like a furniture store that has an end-of-sale discount and hand over the pieces willy-nilly to agencies that don’t have the experience to deal with them,” the Virginia Democrat said.

“Those are my concerns with what’s going on right now.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries rallied a key group for his party on Thursday, telling the American Federation of Teachers’ national convention that if November’s midterm elections are successful, a majority of Democrats in the House will pursue several progressive policies.

The New York congressman addressed affordability, voting rights and what he called “the most corrupt administration in American history,” while making personal connections to convention attendees. He said he was grateful for the work of public sector workers and the unions that represent them because they were raised by two union members in a household of modest means.

“Organized labor has always been for me and organized labor is for the American people,” Jeffries said as the crowd gathered in a huge room at the Walter Hotel. The E. Washington Convention Center erupted in applause.

AFT is a 1.8 million-member union representing teachers, health care workers and public sector workers across the country. The organization hosts a national convention every two years.

The EU is the Democrats’ main benefactor. His political action committee has given more than $1.9 million to Democratic candidates and $2.1 million to the House Majority PAC, which works with House Democratic leaders, according to a campaign finance tracker. Open secrets.

Jeffries urged union members to lend a hand Democrats win enough House races in November for the party to return to the majority next year. If that happens, Jeffries will likely become Speaker of the House.

“Will we get our country back?” Jeffries asked the crowd to open his address. “Are you ready to help us regain control of the United States House of Representatives in November?”

Campaign promises

Jeffries said House Democrats would stand up to “MAGA extremists” and block efforts to undermine popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. He added that they will continue to work to reduce the cost of childcare, health care and other household expenses.

In addition to promising better living conditions for Americans, Jeffries said Democratic leaders would fight to “clean up the corruption” in President Donald Trump’s administration.

He also said they would work to end the war with Iran and stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiatives because the agency is “completely and completely out of control.”

This month, ICE officers fatally shot immigrants in two separate incidents in Maine and Texas.

Education in focus

Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, also spoke at the convention about the significant impact public education had on him growing up.

He said that with the support of parents and public school teachers, as well as Pell grants and student loans, he was able to become a United States senator.

What “keeps him up at night” is the fact that many children do not currently have access to the same opportunities, which he believes will reduce the number of future leaders in science, law and education.

“We need to invest in our children because we don’t know where the cure for cancer will come from,” he said.

He called, among other things, to augment teachers’ salaries.

Relationship status

AFT President Randi Weingarten also delivered her keynote address Thursday, touching on topics ranging from income inequality to the growing power of gigantic tech.

“Our union stands at the crossroads of how ordinary people gain and exercise power in our democracy – through public education, unions and voting,” she said. “This election will decide whether we are a country ruled by the people or ruled by the powerful, a country of opportunity or an oligarchy, a country whose people live in freedom or in fear.”

On Wednesday, Republicans on the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee adopted the position first step toward disbanding the Department of Education by approving a package of 10 bills that would permanently transfer some of the department’s responsibilities to other federal agencies.

“The House and Senate have less responsibility for public education than state houses across the country,” Weingarten told reporters after her speech. “Yet the people who run the House Education and Labor Committee spend more time fighting teachers and unions and fighting for a better life for all of us… than helping children have opportunities in the capitalist system.”

Fifteen states sued the Trump administration on Friday to prevent multimillion-dollar cuts in mental health funding for schools.

The recent lawsuit is part of an ongoing legal battle between Democrat-led states and the U.S. Department of Education over a mental health grant program established by Congress after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

At stake is a $1 billion program that offers grants to school districts across the country to facilitate them hire and train more mental health professionals to work in schools.

Democratic attorneys general in 15 states say the Trump administration, despite a Court decision of December 2025plans to illegally terminate the subsidy at the end of this month, which will result in a multi-million loss of funds.

“Our children face a unique set of issues that will arise as they grow up in 2026 – from loneliness to substance use disorders to the pervasive fear of violence – and the programs funded by these grants are designed to help them cope and hopefully thrive,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, a Democrat, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

In 2022, after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers, Congress allocated $1 billion for the Mental Health Workers Demonstration Grant program to escalate the number of school mental health specialists.

This financial effort was two-pronged; Republican U.S. senators at the time, including John Cornyn of Texas, Susan Collins of Maine, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina he publicly supported it. During the year, the grants funded mental and behavioral health services for nearly 775,000 students nationwide.

However, in April 2025, under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Education told grantees that funding would cease because their programs contrary to the priorities of the Trump administration. At the time, the grants supported efforts in 49 states to prepare thousands of mental health professionals to work in K-12 schools.

Trump administration officials told the media that the grants were cut because of what the administration perceived them to be related to. diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives.

A coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general defendant last July, and the court ruled in their favor, ordering the Trump administration to stop phasing out the subsidies. Within months of the order, the education department threatened to withhold funding or end the grant altogether.

The Democratic attorney general said they filed the recent lawsuit to fill gaps in a previous court ruling that could allow the Trump administration to pursue its desire to withhold funding.

“Courts have repeatedly ruled that the Trump administration lacks the authority to arbitrarily withdraw funding that provides essential mental health services to our students,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, a Democrat. statement about joining the lawsuit.

“Despite this, the federal government continues to attempt to end funding.”

Stateline reached out to the U.S. Department of Education for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

The attorneys general in the lawsuit are from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.

Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at: avollers@stateline.org

Only one student registered for classes at West Virginia University’s modern Washington Center, an academic program imposed by Republican lawmakers on the campus.

State lawmakers allocated $3 million in state dollars for the Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship over the past two years before its official opening this fall.

“I think it’s important for the Legislature and the governor to consider this… the question is whether this is the best use of public funds,” said Erik Herron, a political science professor at WVU. “I think the Washington Center, ironically, seems to be exactly what higher education is complaining about becoming. It was founded in Charleston and it was imposed on the university, so it’s a big government mandate.”

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw co-sponsored the initiative 2025 legislation creation of the Washington Center at WVU.

He said the low enrollment was expected because the university had not yet approved courses at the Washington Center that would count toward credit for already existing academic majors at WVU.

“I’m not necessarily surprised that enrollment hasn’t started to increase… it’s not part of what a student does or learns, and then students have to take courses that meet approved parameters,” said Hahshaw, R-Clay.

He continued: “There is a process by which these courses are approved and incorporated into the academic structure to officially become part of the field of study… I think what we are dealing with here is an administrative process where the program is simply not ready yet.”

Del. John Williams, R-Monongalia, opposed lawmakers ordering the creation of the Washington Center at his alma mater, WVU.

“I’m not happy about this,” he said. “Now we find ourselves in a situation where we have put so much money into this program and only one person benefits from it.”

Morrisey named director of Washington Center

Legislators tasked Governor Patrick Morrisey with appointing the director in consultation with the WVU Senate and Board of Governors. Morrisey, who has publicly supported the center, appointed Dr. Patrick Lee Miller to the position in October 2025. State funds go towards Miller’s annual salary over $300,000.

“Dr. Miller and the Washington Center intend to push back against the woke ideology that has infected our schools and help restore the true purpose of higher education,” Morrisey said during a news conference last year.

House Bill 3297 ordered WVU to operate a Washington Center focused on teaching constitutional studies and “the great debates of Western civilization.”

Proposed university courses this fall it’s “Woke,” “Nation and Migration” and “The New Right.” The center hired lecturers even before its launch.

“As of June 22, one student was enrolled in three separate courses at the Washington Center,” said Shauna Johnson, WVU executive director of strategic communications. “Twenty-four courses were originally proposed/listed for the Fall 2026 semester. Eighteen are now available.”

The $3 million in state funding, including $1.5 million in the fiscal year 2027 budget, also includes a scholarship available to Washington Center students.

Miller did not respond to interview requests for this story.

His. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, changed Act of 2025 requiring the Senate to advise and consent to the Governor’s appointment of the first director of the Washington Center. It also requires an annual report from the director to lawmakers.

“Ultimately, I was thrilled when the Legislature wanted to send my alma mater an additional $1.5 million,” Oliverio said. “I was excited about the opportunity for civics education, an area that I believe only strengthens our republic.”

Like Hanshaw, Oliverio believes enrollment will enhance when courses at the Washington Center can be counted toward academic credentials at the college or junior level.

“These classes are not required for any major, so students may be interested in the subject but may choose to take different classes than what is required in order to graduate on time, so that is a real limiting factor here,” he said. “A small level of statesmanship that can increase participation.”

Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, voted against legislation.

“I felt like it was really more of a political statement,” Takubo said, noting that he was not opposed to the idea of ​​teaching students about U.S. history, civics and statesmanship. “In my opinion, it’s not the job of legislators to impose things like this and maybe put one university at risk because now they’re going to have to continue to fund it.”

The Washington Center mandate comes after widespread job cuts at WVU

Hanshaw said teaching students to think – especially in the age of internet-connected cell phones and artificial intelligence – is valuable. After meeting Miller and the faculty at the Washington Center, Hanshaw said he was encouraged by their approach to education.

“One of the real challenges we face at the level of government or society is raising leaders – raising men and women who will make decisions on behalf of the 1.8 million people of West Virginia,” said Hanshaw, a WVU graduate. “If we can provide students with a forum where they can spend a few years or a few courses thinking deeply about what it means to lead others in the traditions of Western society, I think that will serve us all well.”

Herron said WVU has already offered similar courses at the Washington Center.

“It is not in the interest of students or departments who are already working on these issues, so I have some concerns that there may be some overlap in terms of reference,” he said, adding that the center was able to operate outside normal university standards, such as maintaining its own website and posting job advertisements.

Herron said a specialized academic center encouraging civic education and student engagement could be beneficial to WVU.

“I would like our students to have opportunities to engage with politicians and people from the business community for a short period of time in public forums as local fellows, to have the internship opportunities that these types of programs provide,” he said. “I don’t know if this fits into the Washington Center plan, but there are centers on public and private campuses that do this type of thing and do it to great effect.”

Lawmakers’ decision to authorize the Washington Center was met with resounding response No $45 million budget at WVU. It worked liquidation of 28 academic fields AND hundreds of jobsincluding lecturers.

“My concerns were not that I was against the premise of something like this and what it was supposed to teach, but at a time when the university had to make significant cuts, it was like they were giving up foreign languages,” Takubo said.

Williams, a Morgantown resident, said the neighborhood is “still alive with memories of what happened a few years ago.”

“We still haven’t seen the full impact of what happened, so it’s frustrating that the state government, as long as I’ve been a member of the Legislature, has been so reluctant to make significant investments in higher education and then comes along with this pet project that we see only one person involved,” he said.

Republican lawmakers in Ohio AND Iowa have recently launched similar academic centers at their flagship universities, and admissions to both programs are low. University of Iowa students are required to take the course through the Center for Intellectual Freedom starting in 2028, consistent with state law, to combat hiring delays.

“I think the difficulties these centers are having in recruiting suggest that students are not demanding what they offer,” Herron said. “We will certainly see what happens in the fall, but based on experience from other universities and current recruitment, and given that most of the fall recruitment has already been completed, student interest appears to be low.”

An Ohio state senator recently introduced a bill that would give Ohio’s five “civic centers” created last year by Republican lawmakers more autonomy at various universities.

Ohio Senate Bill 461 would give academic centers “the rights and privileges of an independent university college,” according to the language of the bill.

Ohio State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, has introduced a bill that would give center directors exclusive authority to hire faculty and staff and determine their rank, compensation and seniority.

Cirino was the lawmaker behind SB 1, which bans diversity efforts, regulates classroom discussion, bans faculty strikes, creates post-tenure reviews, puts diversity scholarships at risk, and creates an austerity provision that prevents unions from negotiating tenure.

Cirino’s latest proposal would give the modern centers “unlimited power” over the curriculum, he said.

“It clarifies that center directors have exclusive and unrestricted authority to supervise, develop and approve the center’s curriculum,” Cirino said.

The centers would also receive all tuition and revenue from the courses offered.

Under the bill, the civic centers of Ohio State University and the University of Toledo will become schools, and their directors will become deans of schools, effective January 1, 2027.

The University of Miami, Cleveland State University and Wright State University also have civic centers. The bill imposes an obligation on a student of a university with a center to take classes at its center.

“I think over time we will probably see the other three centers qualify as well as they expand their student body and their curriculum, but it is important that we recognize and legislate the complete independence of these centers so that there is no question in the future about what authority they have,” Cirino said.

Five civic centers in Ohio were created thanks to the state’s biennial budget in 2023 at $24 million.

Cirino said the civic centers have hired more than 60 faculty members and have developed or received approval for more than 60 modern courses.

“These are not conservative centers,” he said. “These are centers that foster open debate and inquiry on major issues.”

Miami expects 3,000 students to enroll in courses at their civic centers, Ohio State expects more than 800 students, Toledo expects 250 and Wright State expects 600 students, Cirino said.

The number of students at the Cleveland State facility is expected to grow from 28 to 1,400, he said.

As of fall 2024, downtown Toledo has hosted 15 courses, said university spokeswoman Nicki Gorny.

Ohio State Center will offer 10 courses in the winter semester including American faiths and conflicts, law and economics and how politics breaks the brain, said executive director Lee Strang.

Strang is a conservative scholar who worked with Republican lawmakers on a bill to create the centers.

Strang said 18 faculty and 159 students attended the Ohio State center last academic year.

The Cleveland State Center will offer two general education courses next school year – The American Republic and Great American Debates, a university spokesman said Krystyna Brokaw.

The center at Cleveland State hired seven faculty and 28 students admitted last academic year, – Broca said.

Next academic year, the Miami center will employ 11 faculty members, and last academic year the courses benefited 350 students, said university spokesman Seth Bauguess.

The Wright State Civic Center helps support Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and the center will offer a 90-hour bachelor’s degree program for base personnel beginning in fall 2027, said university spokeswoman Deena John.

The Wright State center will also supervise as many as 20 sections of classes in the US Civic Literacy course in the coming academic year, she added.

The The Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors opposes SB 461.

“SB 461 requires Ohio universities to primarily fund five new civic centers – even if they do not offer courses to help students complete their degrees or do not have students enrolled in their programs or courses,” OCAAUP Executive Director Jennifer Tisone Price said in a statement.

“This completely drives up the cost of tuition for every other student at this university.”

Ohio lawmakers are on break and will return after the November elections. Any bill that is not passed by the end of the year must be re-introduced to the modern General Assembly for consideration.

Senate bill no. 1

The Ohio Senate Bill 1 The higher education reform came into force just over a year ago.

Cirino said the bill was intended to counter what he saw as leftist ideology on college campuses.

“I think that in our universities and colleges, a left-wing consciousness has taken over for a long time, and a lot of it has just gotten out of control,” Cirino said.

Ohio colleges and universities are also required to limit any bachelor’s degree programs that award an average of fewer than five degrees per year over three years.

“I think we’ve eliminated almost over 530 programs so far, and there will be more, and that will free up resources, deploy assets and resources to programs that are really important to us here,” Cirino said.

Earlier this year, the Ohio Capital Journal published an article on: almost 90-degree programs which has been cut since the passage of Senate Bill 1.

“There was very little demand for these majors and, frankly, if you support three students in a program, it doesn’t pass the smell test,” Cirino said.

“We can take the full professor position that we hold for such a small number of students and move it to another location… that is in greater demand.”

Dylan Repertorio transferred from Cleveland State University Down University at Albany in New York after signing SB 1.

“I took classes on diversity, equity and inclusion and it really opened my eyes,” he said. “The trip provided me with a more open academic environment.”

Repertorio, who is originally from New York, said he felt confident returning to his home state.

“I should just (in college) focus on getting my degree… I really don’t want to worry about these more bureaucratic things,” he said.

Cirino said she hasn’t talked to her yet Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy advocates for higher education.

Earlier this year, Ramaswamy said he wanted to consolidate colleges and universities in Ohio.

“I don’t know how much he knows about how higher education works in the state of Ohio,” Cirino said when asked about Ramaswamy’s comments.

“I look forward to discussing it with him.”

Ohio House Bill 698 would tie some funding for colleges and universities to SB 1 compatibility.

Ohio State Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., introduced bill earlier this year, Cirino, however, said the bill was “unnecessary and premature.”

“I don’t think it would be a good idea now to double down on punitive measures for non-compliance,” Cirino said.

“Let’s see how compliance goes. … I’m not opposed to requiring people to follow the rules, but I think it would be too early.”

Follow Ohio Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry on X Or on Bluesky.

Last week, Ohio lawmakers passed a bill increasing penalties for illegally overtaking a stopped school bus.

Ohio House of Representatives Bill 3 it passed the Ohio Senate and the House agreed with the changes, so it now goes to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. Ohio Reps. Cecil Thomas, D-Cincinnati, and Bernie Willis, R-Springfield, introduced the bill.

“As a parent of three young children who board the bus every morning and get off the bus every afternoon, I truly appreciate that my colleagues are taking the time to work on this and improve the safety of all children in Ohio,” she said state Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson.

The bill increases penalties for illegally passing a stopped school bus with a fine ranging from $250 to $1,000. Repeat offenses can result in a driver’s license suspension, a required safety course and a $2,000 fine. The current fine for illegally passing a stopped school bus in Ohio ranges from $0 to $500.

The bill too allows cameras on school buses to be used as a means of recording drivers illegally overtaking a school bus.

“The purpose of this legislation is really to change behavior and stop those who do not put our children in danger by recklessly passing a stopped school bus,” she said. State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green.

“There is no destination that a driver needs to reach that is worth more than the life of a child.”

Gavarone said the Ohio State Highway Patrol issued more than 16,000 tickets for passing stopped school buses between 2018 and August 2023.

“That’s over 16,000 times a child’s life was at risk due to the reckless action of a driver,” he added. she said. “No parent should have to worry about their child traveling to and from school.”

The Ohio Department of Public Safety reported that in 2021, there were more than 14,000 citations for illegal passing of school buses over a four-year period, Paul Imhoff, director of government relations for the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, said during his testimony.

The bill does not require wearing seat belts on buses.

Seat belts are optional on gigantic school buses weighing more than 10,000 pounds 63One percent of Ohio school districts have at least one bus with seat belts, said Lacey Snoke, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education and Labor.

According to the data, only eight states require seat belts on school buses: New York, New Jersey, Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada and Texas. National Conference of State Legislatures.

Several states allow cameras, and Nevada, Arkansas and New York have both laws.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine established the 2023 Ohio School Bus Safety Task Force after Aiden Clark, a Northwestern Local Schools elementary school student, was killed in a school bus crash. Working Group issued 17 recommendations last year, but requiring seat belts on buses was not one of them.

The National Transportation Safety Board recommends that states require school buses to have shoulder and lap seat belts for all passengers.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 2013 and 2022, there were 976 fatal school transportation-related traffic accidents, resulting in 1,082 deaths.

The only lawmakers to vote against the bill were Republican state senators Nathan Manning and Kristina Roegner.

Follow Ohio Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry on X Or on Bluesky.

LAKE COUNTY, Ohio — A grassroots effort to put a constitutional amendment eliminating property taxes on the November ballot in Ohio has failed. Now organizers say they are refocusing their efforts on 2027.

Brian Massie, campaign leader and co-founder of AxOHTax, announced Friday that the group had fallen tiny of its goal of collecting 620,000 signatures.

With the July 1 deadline to submit a petition to the Ohio Secretary of State, he and other volunteers decided to hold off – for now.

To qualify for the ballot, organizers had to submit 413,488 valid voter signatures. They were trying to collect a lot of extras because thousands of signatures are routinely thrown away during state verification.

“We thought we would need quite a buffer,” Massie told WEWS.

During a press conference in overdue April, Massie said the campaign had collected 305,000 signatures. He declined to provide the current amount on Friday.

“We are declaring war on lawmakers,” he said, describing some members of the General Assembly as callous and tardy to act. “And when you’re at war, you never give the enemy any intelligence. Giving them information – especially signature counts – is like giving them information.”

Massie and his co-organizers say they have lost trust in politicians in Columbus. They reflect outrage, especially among older taxpayers who feel overburdened and ignored.

The proposed constitutional amendment would completely abolish property taxes – on residential, commercial and industrial properties, and land.

The anti-tax movement is growing across the country as cash-strapped homeowners feel the pain of post-pandemic home price spikes, broader inflation and tax burdens. However, no state has completely eliminated property taxes.

Opponents say eliminating property taxes is a drastic move. Ohio governments would have to make deep cuts, significantly raise other types of taxes, or a combination of both to have any chance of making up the difference.

“In the end, this turns out to be a tax-shelter game, the biggest tax-shelter game imaginable,” Sen. Jerry Cirino, a Republican from Kirtland, said in an interview Friday. “Because yes, we can get rid of property taxes. But then the sales tax will have to be tripled. (…) Homeowners and individuals will start paying more tax, I think. Just different types of taxes. And that doesn’t really solve the problem.”

A coalition called Ohioans to Protect Public Services, which includes firefighters, police, teachers and librarians, released a statement Friday morning calling the effort to eliminate all property taxes “reckless” and pledging to continue fighting the effort.

“Local property taxes pay for the services Ohioans count on every day, including police, fire and emergency services, 911, public schools, senior services, child and disability services, to name a few,” Jen Detwiler, a representative of the coalition, said in a written statement.

“Eliminating two-thirds of local tax revenues overnight will not make these needs disappear – it forces our state to make impossible choices: severe cuts to local services, massive increases in sales and income taxes, or both.”

Massie said lawmakers in Columbus now have another year to prove they can make meaningful reforms while signature collection continues.

“We say, OK, let’s give lawmakers more time. And let’s see what they do,” he said, calling on lawmakers to cut spending and bureaucracy.

The General Assembly approved several tax breaks overdue last year, but homeowners are not yet feeling the effects of those changes.

The reforms included certain property tax credits and refunds, changes to school fee calculations, adjustments to the state review process for district reassessments, and increased oversight powers of district budget committees.

Lawmakers expect these updates to save homeowners between $2.4 billion and $3 billion over the next few years.

“Next month, when the tax bills come out, people will start to see it,” Cirino said of the impact. “Especially if you write a check twice a year to pay your property taxes, it’s going to be very visible to you. If you’re paying off a mortgage, you’re going to have to look a little harder for it than people who pay taxes directly.”

He said lawmakers are still discussing additional reforms. “We have a lot of bills in both the House and the Senate,” he said.

Cirino said he sympathizes with homeowners who are struggling.

But he’s clearly fed up with the anti-tax campaign – which has a long shot as it’s a volunteer-led initiative that’s been collecting signatures for just over a year. As signatures age, they are more likely to be rejected due to voters moving or dying.

“I’m not sure whether these people are delusional or not,” Cirino said, “but they didn’t do their homework. I don’t think they put the intellectual rigor into assessing this problem and finding the right solution.”

So far, Massie is unimpressed with the Legislature’s actions. And he sees the campaign’s shortcomings as a delay, not a failure.

“We will continue to collect these signatures. And we will prove Jerry Cirino wrong,” Massie said.

And will it happen next year? “My answer is that everything is in God’s hands,” he said.

Michelle Jarboe is a business growth and development reporter for News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.