Republican state legislatures across the country are debating significant reforms in state university systems. Some of the reform proposals are fairly modest, but others would substantially transform how higher education work in public universities. In several instances, those bills are now moving toward some resolution, and so a series of posts checking in on where things stand seems in order. I discussed North Dakota and Texas in earlier posts. Texas is still very much in play, but North Dakota appears to be done for now.
Next up is Ohio. The chairman of the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee in Ohio is pushing a single reform bill, Senate Bill 83. It enjoys the support of the National Association of Scholars and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. SB 83 currently sits in Senate committee. The "Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act" bundles a variety of proposals into a single legislative package. It is more sweeping than the proposals in some other states, but also generally less intrusive into the scholarly work on state university campuses.
