DeWine must face challenges head on

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is an optimist, so it came as no surprise Wednesday when he almost immediately declared that "the state of our state is strong" in his annual State of the State address. He then took the gathered members of the Ohio House and Senate on a rhetorical tour of economic successes across the Buckeye State. He briefly stopped in Lorain County to tout the expansion of Ford Motor Co.'s Ohio Assembly Plant. The automaker is expanding the plant, where it intends to build a new all-electric commercial van starting next year. DeWine said that project would bring as many as 2,000 new jobs. He didn't touch on the impact that President Donald Trump's tariffs — in whatever form they end up taking — could have on automakers, which are reliant on cross-border trade for parts and materials. Naturally, DeWine mentioned Intel's plans to invest $28 billion to a build computer-chip plant in central Ohio, long a feather in his economic-development cap. DeWine said the company had already invested $7 billion in the project. Here again, though, DeWine didn't mention the headwinds buffeting the project and the company. Intel has struggled in recent years, and the plant's opening, originally slated for this year, has been pushed back more than once. Just last month, the company changed the timetable again to sometime between 2030 and 2031. So it went throughout the speech, with DeWine talking up a success or a program he wanted to implement, while not mentioning associated problems, some self-inflicted, that the state must deal with. For example, DeWine played up the need to match Ohioans with jobs, a task he delegated in part to newly minted Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel. DeWine talked about helping seniors, former prisoners and those with mental disabilities enter the workforce. He didn't mention that fears of a recession are rising, in part because of economic uncertainty brought on by Trump's tariffs and massive cuts to federal spending, including the firing of thousands upon thousands of federal workers, including some in Ohio. DeWine talked about the importance of kids getting vision screenings, glasses and dental care in schools. He didn't mention that he is moving to reinstate a work requirement for those receiving Medicaid, which would likely lead to some people losing their medical coverage. Or take higher education. DeWine trumpeted a program that gives $5,000 yearly scholarships to Ohio high school students who graduate in the top 5 percent of their class to attend college in Ohio. He also proposed a new policy that would guarantee admission to the main campuses of Ohio's public colleges and universities to that same cohort of students. The idea behind both is to get Ohio students to study here. Yet DeWine didn't mention the divisive Senate Bill 1, which would, among other things, eliminate DEI programs, ban faculty strikes, alter tenure rules and lead to micromanagement of the way controversial topics are discussed in classrooms. The bill, understandably, has sparked opposition not only from large numbers of faculty members, but also from many of the very students DeWine wants to keep from leaving the state to study elsewhere. Some students have promised to do exactly that, although Republican backers of SB 1 have downplayed that possibility. When it came to K-12 public schools, DeWine, a Republican, renewed his push for a ban on students using cell phones during the school day. He asked for something similar last year, but the best he could manage was a requirement for school districts to devise a cell-phone policy. (We have been skeptical of a total cell-phone ban because of the need for students to communicate with parents, including during emergencies.) What DeWine didn't delve into, though, was public-school funding. That's emerged as a key issue as lawmakers contemplate DeWine's proposed budget, which would cut about $103 million in funding for public schools. An analysis from Policy Matters Ohio found that school districts in Lorain County would lose more than $7.6 million combined. Nor did DeWine address musings from House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, about not fully implementing the third phase of the state's Fair School Funding Plan for public schools. (Despite the proposed cuts, DeWine's people have argued that his budget would technically fully fund the plan.) This at a time when school districts across the state will find it more difficult to persuade voters to approve tax increases that public schools rely on for much of their funding. That's because rising property values have already driven up property taxes. (Discussions among state lawmakers about how to address rising property taxes have yet to produce a workable plan.) What DeWine did talk about was doubling the tax on sports betting from 20 percent to 40 percent to pay for renovating or building stadiums for professional sports teams. That money, we've argued before, would be better spent on public schools. "We have the playbook," DeWine said as he wound down his speech. "We have the team. And now, together — let's go win." We appreciate the governor's optimism and applaud some of his ideas, but Ohio faces real challenges. The first step to addressing those challenges is to talk about them. If DeWine wants to keep Ohio as strong as he says it is, he should start there.