Interested Party Testimony — Tom Goodney, ESC of Central Ohio, on Senate Bill 1 (May 2, 2023)

Summary

Tom Goodney, Superintendent of the ESC of Central Ohio, gave interested party testimony on Senate Bill 1 to the House Economic & Workforce Development Committee, dated May 2, 2023. The testimony says the ESC serves over 225,000 students in its member school districts and area career technical centers. It emphasizes career technical education and workforce aspects of the bill. It says that, assuming the bill became law, Ohio should invest in ESCs and the Educational Regional Service System (ERSS) under Chapter 3312 of the Ohio Revised Code to mitigate service disruptions.

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“Interested Party Testimony — Tom Goodney, ESC of Central Ohio, on Senate Bill 1 (May 2, 2023).” Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2023-05-09-econ-workforce-dev-testimony-goodneytestimonyhouseworkforce-234e1b66a5/, SHA-256 954fdd49aed4e62c08724bdff306c62eff778250a88963bc88a858029fd758fb.

Full text

                      House Economic & Workforce Development Committee
                                              May 2, 2023
                Testimony of Tom Goodney, Superintendent, ESC of Central Ohio


Good afternoon, Chair Swearingen, Vice Chair Santucci, Ranking Member Upchurch, and members of the
committee. My name is Tom Goodney and I am Superintendent of the ESC of Central Ohio. Our ESC
serves over 225,000 students in its member school districts and area career technical centers, while also
providing direct services and supports to community schools, STEM schools, and chartered nonpublic
schools including catholic schools within Central Ohio and across the state. We also govern and co-
administer the work of the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (or OCALI), the ESC – Council of
Governments, the Central Ohio Business Advisory Council and the State Support Team Region 11 in
partnership with the Ohio Department of Education.

The State Support Team is one of many initiatives we administer on behalf of the Ohio Department of
Education to bring needed improvement services and technical assistance to schools and students
throughout the Central Ohio region. We have provided leadership for the Department of Education on
numerous initiatives related to content standards, student assessments, district and school-level data
analysis, staff professional development, innovative learning models, school safety initiatives, whole
child supports, strategic staffing, and comprehensive shared services all with the underlying mission of
strengthening our capacity so that we may serve others. The ESC of Central Ohio and the network of
ESCs in Ohio have had a long-standing committed partnership with the Department of Education and its
work, and because of that fact, I’d like to provide interested party testimony regarding Senate Bill 1 and
its proposed changes with a particular emphasis on the career technical education and workforce
related aspects of the bill.

For over a decade now, our ESC has focused substantial resources and much of our effort and attention
on helping all schools help their students make workforce connections with regional businesses and
industry partners by serving as a founding member and co-convener of the Central Ohio Compact. In
addition, we now administer the Central Ohio Business Advisory Council, whose ultimate goal is to
increase and enhance the dialogue between schools and business partners to ensure workforce
preparedness and post-secondary career readiness of students. We have established processes and
personnel supports for schools to deliver effective career readiness opportunities with local businesses
through internships, pre-apprenticeship programs, and work-based learning initiatives. These programs
are seeing rapid growth in the Central Ohio region and we look forward to continuing to enhance this
growth further, especially in areas such as computer science and STEM.

Assuming this bill were to become law, it is critical that Ohio invest in ESCs and the Educational Regional
Service System (ERSS) under Chapter 3312 of the Ohio Revised Code. Restructuring an entire state
agency, while not unprecedented, is not a simple task and it would behoove the legislature to invest in
the new Department of Education and Workforce’s implementation partners – the ESCs. By investing
and fully funding ESCs and other regional partners, the state will be able to mitigate any service
disruptions to schools and districts that arise with the transition. Our ESC and other regional service
system partners are ready and willing to support this work, but would be better prepared to do so with
an increased investment from the state.

The ESC of Central Ohio is committed to support the work of the state, its schools, its educators, and
most importantly, its students as we look to emphasize their future opportunities to be educated, to
work, and to thrive in the workforce here in Ohio. This is a vital component of our public purpose in
federal and state policy.

I look forward to leading our ESC as we grow our impact in these areas in partnership with ODE
presently and the Department of Education and Workforce in the coming years.

Chair Swearingen, thank you for this opportunity to offer written testimony and I would be happy to meet
with any of you to answer questions and discuss the work of the ESC of Central Ohio.

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