A preview of next October

I'll keep this simple.

Per the Toledo Blade:

Ohio is eliminating grants of up to $2,496 for low-income community college students, and cutting them by more than 50 percent for low-income students at four-year universities. The state is axing $640 grants for 58,000 private school students and grants of up to $4,000 for 22,500 students attending two-year, for-profit schools.

"That's a lot of money to someone like me," said Maria Zimbardi, a 33-year-old mother of three in Youngstown, Ohio, who will not receive the nearly $3,300 grant she got last year. She is working part time as a waitress while learning administrative and accounting skills at National College, and is taking out more student loans — which now total $29,000 — so she can graduate next May.

Massive cuts in education.

Thousands of college aged students unable to go to college thanks to the cuts made in Strickland's budget. Countless numbers unable to get retrained for new jobs due to a lack of financial aid.

But what was Ted Strickland quoted as saying in today's Lancaster Gazette?

I've been working over the last several months to convince Ohioans that, if the economy is going to rebound, we need to have educated, well-trained workers in Ohio," he said. "We can choose to be status quo and satisfied with what we've always done or we can commit ourselves to education.

If ensuring that thousands of low-income Ohioans are unable to go to college is thanks to you "working" for Ohio, Governor, I think it may be time you try another field.

And what did Ted Strickland promise in his first State of the State address?

We know an educated workforce attracts jobs – economic forecasts show that more than 60 percent of new jobs will require a college degree. And yet, Ohio is 47 percent above the national average in public university tuition costs and 37th in producing college graduates.

My goal is clear and my budget sets the stage. In 10 years, we will increase the number of Ohioans with a college degree by 230 thousand, and we will increase the graduation rate among those who start college by 20 percent.

Well Ted, you have one helluva way to go about it.

This is yet another in a long line of failures and broken promises from Ohio's Governor. The only difficulty next October will be deciding which of these to highlight to voters throughout the state.