DeWine outlines education policies in interview

FINDLAY — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's proposed two-year budget speaks to policies introduced about religious expression, student protections and parental rights in education. Senate Bill 1, passed by the Ohio Senate this week, also seeks to regulate speech on college campuses across the state. DeWine, along with newly-minted Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, gave an exclusive interview with Ogden Newspapers Wednesday, which involved editorial staff from The Courier. During the interview, he discussed policies for education put forth by the Ohio Legislature and those he offered in his budget proposal. The "Parents' Bill of Rights" is a bill outlined in the proposal, granting parents the authority to opt out of schools' suggested healthcare changes or lessons pertaining to discussions of sex, sexuality and gender identity, as identified in the bill. DeWine signed the bill Jan. 8. Critics say this limits what a teacher can and cannot say in the classroom, restricting open discussion on certain topics. DeWine said parental authority is not new to the classroom. "It goes back to what parents want to do," DeWine said. "As long as I can remember, whether it was a law or not, parents could tell the teachers, 'I don't want you discussing, or you talking to my child about this or that.' That has always been the way that has been worked out. I don't think that this is particularly anything different from what we've normally done." Taking effect on Feb. 25, the Protect All Students Act mandates that schools and universities be required to designate bathrooms for gender assigned at birth for students. This law has resulted in debate over the restriction and potential discrimination of transgender and nonbinary students. According to the Ohio House's description of the bill, under this law, multi-occupancy restrooms, changing rooms and overnight accommodations accessible by multiple students at once must be designated solely for either male or female students. This includes school facilities and locations where school-sponsored activities take place. The legislation is part of a recent spate of policies aimed at moderating discussions of gender and sexuality in schools. Those in favor of the bill believe it provides privacy and safety in school bathrooms, while those opposed say it marginalizes LGBTQ+ students. Ohio has become the 14th state to enact the act, dubbed the "bathroom ban bill." Senate Bill 1 Legislative motions to regulate speech in Ohio classrooms have also extended to colleges and universities. Senate Bill 1 would limit discussion related to topics such as diversity programs, climate policy, electoral politics, foreign policy and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage and abortion. DeWine said he believes colleges should remain a place encouraging openness of ideas, though he didn't condemn Senate Bill 1. "Colleges should be a place where there is free debate and no ideas should be said that you can't talk about it," DeWine said. "We shouldn't have a situation where we have to screen out debate because it might be offensive to somebody. "Now, we don't want hate. Colleges have the ability to set the culture and set the norms for no hate speech, but ideas, whether you're far to the right, far to the left, whatever you are, are legitimate things that we should be able to be debated on college campuses." The bill would also ban diversity and inclusion efforts, prevent faculty from striking, shorten university trustees' terms from nine years to six and require all students, no matter their major, to take an American history course. The bill would affect public universities and community colleges, but not private institutions. DeWine said he has heard that individuals with certain views can sometimes feel silenced on campuses. "I do think that one of the complaints from the conservative side has been that all views are okay unless they are conservative views," he said. "The culture has to be, and the norm has to be, that you're entitled to your own belief. We want to teach them to be critical thinkers. We can't tell them what to think, but we can teach them how to use facts to be able to support the arguments that they are making. "I think that's where the focus should be — a robust debate, using facts, extrapolating from the facts, all the ways that we work in a democracy." A former president of Youngstown State University, Tressel said the idea of a university has always signified to him the concept of "unity in diversity." "I grew up right on campus and I saw lots of different people that I had never been around, different cultures, different ethnicities, different religious beliefs, different ideas about what they thought was right or wrong, and I always marveled at how there were conversations going on in the campus and you were learning," said Tressel. "In my mind, the intention of a university is to give the students those experiences to become aware of, to learn about, to grow to respect, to grow to appreciate, to grow to understand each other in what we've experienced and what we think." The Ohio Senate approved SB 1 on Wednesday by a 21-11 vote. All nine Democrats and two Republicans voted against the bill, which will go to the Ohio House for consideration. More than 800 people submitted testimony opposing SB 1 less than 24 hours before its approval on Wednesday, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.