COLUMBUS — New hope may be on the horizon for those who haven’t completed college as lawmakers push a higher education reform bill to rebuild the workforce.
Republican Sens. Jerry Cirino and Terry Johnson introduced a Senate bill, which could give those who dropped out of four-year institutions tuition relief through the second-chance voucher program. That means, they could take tuition already paid for a program they didn’t complete and apply it to an alternative program at a community college or technical school certified by the state.
The idea is to get them into viable jobs while boosting the state’s workforce. Other options in the bill would help students get on track with credit hours.
This could prove to be helpful as the average in-state cost for college in Ohio can run upwards of $16,000 to nearly $60,000 for a four-year institution.
“We need to make sure that those students don’t just drop out of the workforce, and that they get in some way incentivized and directed and counseled to participate in some training program, so that they can, in fact, have a viable career,” Cirino said.
The bill would also give students the chance to enroll in a four-year college, but take classes in the first two years at a community college while paying community college prices.
As senators prepare for hearings on the bill, some say the potential cost of it all could be a significant problem for taxpayers who would foot the bill.
