As COVID-19 cases climb, a new report from Policy Matters Ohio and the Ohio Student Association (OSA) shows that the pandemic is driving down enrollment at Ohio colleges and universities, straining institutions’ budgets and dramatically reshaping campus life. The situation is made worse by insufficient state support and the failure
Today, College Now Greater Cleveland, the Ohio Student Association and Policy Matters Ohio sent a letter to Ohio Speaker of the House Robert R. Cupp, urging him to support college students harmed by punitive debt-collection and transcript-withholding policies. The group called on Speaker Cupp to hold hearings on legislation introduced
Private for-profit colleges received a disproportionate share of federal relief funding for Ohio’s higher education institutions, according to a Policy Matters analysis of national data compiled by the Center for American Progress. For-profit schools enroll fewer than 4% of all Ohio postsecondary students but were allocated more than 8% of
ACLU of Ohio and Policy Matters Ohio unveil new analysis of COVID-19 data showing Ohio represents an outsized share of nation’s prison deaths Today the ACLU of Ohio and Policy Matters Ohio released disturbing new data showing that the COVID-19 death rate in Ohio prisons is nearly 10 times higher
People with loved ones who are incarcerated in Ohio prisons joined with six advocacy organizations and urged Governor DeWine to quickly release from Ohio’s corrections facilities people who are at low risk for recidivism or high risk for contracting COVID-19. See a recording of the tele-press call here. The conference
Policy Matters Ohio researcher Piet van Lier recently received a letter written by a man who expressed fear that conditions at North Central Correctional Institute in Marion, where he is incarcerated, make people in detention there especially vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. “We are in groups of 210, could be more,
Governor Mike DeWine and his administration have acted quickly and decisively over the past week to protect the health of Ohioans by “flattening the curve” of coronavirus. Closing schools, restaurants and other gathering places, and postponing Tuesday’s election will slow the spread of the virus, protect our most vulnerable and
Black, first-generation and low-income students hit hardest State law requiring Ohio’s public colleges and universities to send student debt to the Ohio Attorney General’s office for collection hits students with onerous fees and exorbitant interest rates on top of amounts they owe, a new Policy Matters Ohio report shows. Because
State legislators are scrambling to patch Ohio’s badly flawed EdChoice school voucher program by February 1, when the next voucher-application period opens to families. Given the looming deadline, it’s clear that Ohio public school districts need a quick, short-term fix. As policymakers craft amendments to attach to unrelated bills that
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas has generated heated debate in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, three of the states that sit above the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. Like the workers who constitute the bulk of the drilling workforce, hydrofracking has migrated, from sparsely populated
Recent opinion pieces published in The Plain Dealer have urged Clevelanders and state policymakers to support Mayor Frank Jackson’s school plan. U.S. cities struggle with education, and Cleveland is no exception — change is needed. But what kind of change? Quick change seems to be a top priority for many.
Improve education in Cleveland by treating problem, not symptoms
Almost a year has passed since new levy money began flowing to the Cleveland school district and partnering charters. Since then, the schools have become more deeply engaged in many encouraging initiatives, the best flowing from collaborative efforts among the district, the teachers’ union and community partners. There have been