Proponent Testimony — Rick Carfagna, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, on Senate Bill 1 (March 28, 2023)

Summary

Proponent testimony of Rick Carfagna, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, to the House Economic and Workforce Development Committee, dated March 28, 2023. The testimony supports Senate Bill 1 and thanks Senator Reineke and Representatives Jones and Dobos, sponsors of the companion House Bill 12. It says the Ohio Chamber represents over 8,000 companies and cites the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Ohio's Remediation Report. It gives 19.3% as the share of Ohio public high school graduates attending an Ohio public college or university who needed remediation in math or English as of 2020.

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                    Rick Carfagna, Senior Vice President
                        Ohio Chamber of Commerce
                      Proponent Testimony – Senate Bill 1
                                March 28, 2023

Good afternoon, Chairman Swearingen, Vice Chair Santucci, Ranking Member
Upchurch, and Members of the House Economic and Workforce Development
Committee, and thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of
Senate Bill 1. My name is Rick Carfagna, and I am the Senior Vice President of
Government Affairs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

As you may know, for 129 years the Ohio Chamber has served as the state’s leading
business advocate, and we represent over 8,000 companies that do business in Ohio.
Our mission is to aggressively champion free enterprise, economic competitiveness, and
growth for the benefit of all Ohioans.

One of the most consistent themes we hear from our member companies, across every
sector of Ohio’s economy, is difficulty finding workforce talent to address operational
needs. We want to thank the sponsor of the legislation, Senator Reineke, as well as
Representatives Jones and Dobos, sponsors of the companion bill House Bill 12, for their
work on this important issue. As these legislators have rightly pointed out, Ohio’s
workforce both now, and in the future, hinges on a K-12 education system that prepares
students for postsecondary education, career and technical school programs, workforce
skills training, and other opportunities that will help to enhance their success in life
beyond high school.

Instead, Ohio’s scores in recent national publications such as the National Assessment
of Educational Progress show a worrying trend, in which Ohio’s students are achieving
proficiency in math and reading at much lower rates than just a few short years ago.
While COVID-19 had a tremendous operational impact on our schools, those trends
predate 2020. These scores highlight the need for the legislature to ensure that our
education system upholds its responsibilities in the preparation of our young people to
find personal fulfillment and reach their individual potentials.
The 2021 Ohio’s Remediation Report, produced by the Ohio Department of Education
and Ohio Department of Higher Education, also illustrates preparedness issues among
high school graduates. As of 2020, the percentage of Ohio public high school graduates
attending an Ohio public college or university and needing remediation in math or
English was 19.3%. For Ohio adults over age 25 enrolling in postsecondary education
for the first time, the overall remediation in 2020 was even higher at 24.87%.

In the Chamber’s recent publication, Blueprint for Ohio’s Economic Future, we highlight
the need to address workforce challenges that Ohio may experience in the coming years
absent thoughtful leadership. In partnership with Accenture, our study demonstrates
the importance of connecting educational experiences with the opportunities available
to students in current in-demand fields, and those expected to emerge thanks to the
recent announcements by Intel, Honda, Ford, Abbott, and others. Because this issue is
so critical to our state’s business community, this legislation is one of our top policy
priorities for the 135th Ohio General Assembly.

In the same way that we support House Bill 12, we stand here today in favor of Senate
Bill 1 due to our belief that a greater emphasis must be placed on ensuring
accountability for Ohio’s education system and career readiness for Ohio’s students. By
making these structural changes, we believe Ohio can better equip our youth with the
skill sets necessary for jobs in the coming decade that have yet to be invented.

Thank you again for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of Senate Bill 1.
We stand ready to work with all of you to enhance Ohio’s education system, and I
welcome any questions from the committee.


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