In a policy report I authored earlier this year, The Buckeye Institute detailed how public policy in Ohio has failed to keep pace with changing economic conditions. And the pandemic only made things worse by exacerbating existing issues and making their consequences more visible. During the pandemic, Ohio’s existing skills gaps worsened, persistent problems in Ohio’s tax and regulatory environments were exposed, and existing shortcomings in the state’s education system were laid bare.

The good news is, there are solutions. The Buckeye Institute recommends that Ohio officials modernize the state’s K-12 education system by requiring all public high schools to teach computer science and reform the state’s antiquated occupational licensing rules that bar qualified professionals from teaching computer science. 

In the state’s last operating budget, Ohio officials took the first step in modernizing its policies by creating the State Committee on Computer Science—tasked with developing and publishing a plan to make Ohio a national leader in primary and secondary computer science education. The committee recently released its draft report, featuring 10 recommendations on how Ohio can become a national leader in computer science education. Included among the recommendations are suggestions to create an office of computer science, change computer science funding design, make computer science education more accessible, update computer science licensing requirements, work more closely with industry, and introduce ideas to increase interest in computer science education.

The Buckeye Institute submitted public comment on the two recommendations that closely align with Buckeye’s suggestions in its policy report, Modernizing Ohio’s Policies to Seize New Economic Opportunities. Recommendations from the State Committee on Computer Science report are bolded below, and Buckeye’s comments follow.

RECOMMENDATION 3: One Credit in [computer science] as a Graduation Requirement by 2030.

Far too many rural, urban and female students in Ohio have never experienced a single computer science class despite the potential of CS to offer a high-paying career. Many school districts will not hire CS teachers unless required for graduation. Yet two-thirds of Ohio parents feel CS is “just as important” as traditional subjects required for graduation. The committee recommends a single-credit graduation requirement by 2030. This would be similar to Ohio’s existing half-credit “health education” and “financial literacy” requirements. And it would allow Ohio students who never considered a career in CS to experience it just once. 

As Ohio adjusts to an increasingly digital economy—featuring investments from multinational tech corporations like Intel—employee computer skills have become increasingly attractive to employers. Ohio’s tight labor market with job openings near all-time highs has allowed workers to seek better employment opportunities. In response, many companies have changed their hiring procedures to include employing talented high school graduates with an aptitude for the computer sciences. Unfortunately, Ohio was unprepared to take full advantage of this opportunity, ranking 31^st in high schools offering computer science, 37^th in computer science college graduates, and 44^th in computer science graduate growth rates. These poor showings are not surprising considering that only about half of Ohio public high schools offer even one computer science course. 

There is already a significant gap between available computer-skilled workers and employer demand for them, and that gap is expected to widen every year over the next decade. Accordingly, Ohio must aggressively reform its computer science education policy or risk being economically left behind. Despite some ambitious policy recommendations in the State Committee’s draft report, merely requiring Ohio high school students to take one foundational computer science course by 2030 is not nearly ambitious enough. That requirement deadline should be 2027 at the latest. Additionally, all Ohio public high schools should be required to offer at least one foundational computer science class by the beginning of the 2025 calendar year. The Committee’s recommended Computer Science Promise will make progress on achieving this goal, but it unwisely shifts the burden from school districts onto other taxpayers. Some schools may not have the teachers required to meet the mandate, but instead of simply throwing more taxpayer money at the problem Ohio should redirect adequate funding toward computer science classes, aggressively reform occupational licensing requirements, and restructure computer science teacher salaries to attract more teachers.

RECOMMENDATION 6: Rethink Teacher Licensure and Professional Development.

Ohio lacks sufficient CS teachers to ensure every Ohio student has access to this critical area of study. To establish adequate numbers of CS teachers, Ohio should create “Teach CS” professional development funding covering 100% of the cost of educator courses to become qualified to teach CS. The state should also establish new grade bands for teacher licensure in grades K-5, 4-9 and 7-12. Ohio CS teachers should be paid modest stipends of $2,000 per year for five years if they commit the time necessary for this upskilling.

The Committee’s recommendations would improve Ohio’s antiquated computer science licensing structure, but they do not go far enough. The recommended stipend of $2,000 per year for five years indicates a willingness to rethink teacher compensation, but the stipend is entirely insufficient on its own. Because computer science instruction is economically uncompetitive compared to private sector employment alternatives and collective bargaining agreements prevent school districts from paying computer science teachers more, Ohio now faces a state-wide computer science teacher shortage. Fortunately, under current state law, when local school boards determine that a subject area suffers from a teacher shortage, school districts may increase teacher compensation for that subject area in order to attract more teachers. Ohio should expand this local power state-wide and recognize a computer science teacher shortage across the state—a shortage that will become more apparent as computer science becomes a graduation requirement. State officials should then empower all public school districts to increase the pay of computer science teachers as needed. 

After allowing differentiated pay for computer science teachers, Ohio should then remove the 4–8-week pedagogical training requirement for computer science teachers and replace it with supervised instruction for those working in relevant fields. Ohio does not require pedagogical training to teach at community colleges or universities, and adjunct college professors should not be required to complete such training simply to teach in Ohio high schools. Adjunct professor-led classes would improve the status quo and help close the gap with other states that have been ahead of the curve on computer science instruction. Ohio should welcome computer science teachers from other states and should recognize out-of-state computer science teacher licenses as an immediate qualification for teaching computer science in Ohio. 

As The Buckeye Institute recommended in Modernizing Ohio’s Economy to Seize New Economic Opportunities, Ohio should also make permanent and expand the statutory exemption that allows already licensed teachers to teach computer science upon completing a professional development program. That exemption currently only allows computer science teachers to teach in the school that employed them while completing the development program. That restriction needlessly limits student access to quality computer science instruction. 

More can and should be done to connect Ohio students with qualified computer science teachers. The Committee’s proposal has incentives, but they must be made stronger, more effective, and more universal.

Final Comments

The State Committee on Computer Science deserves commendation for rethinking Ohio’s outmoded computer science licensing structure and for recommending changes to equip high school students with the skills needed to succeed in a modern digital economy. Many of the recommendations are appropriately aggressive and should be implemented immediately. Others, however, are too modest and do not adequately reform poor policy. 

The Committee’s recognition of a state-wide computer science teacher shortage should spur necessary compensation reforms. Pedagogical high school teaching requirements for college instructors should be removed. Out-of-state computer science teachers’ licenses should suffice to teach in Ohio, and college professors teaching high school computer classes should not be subject to the state’s complex and burdensome occupational licensing schemes. Finally, existing regulatory exemptions should be relaxed so that teachers can teach in schools other than the one that employed them while completing their development programs. 

Ohio’s economy is changing faster than its rules. The regulatory barriers that inhibit the state’s adjustment to new economic realities must come down—and that starts in Ohio high schools.

If Ohio adopts these changes and further pursues reforms in worker retraining and education, occupational regulation, and globalization, it will put Ohio on a path to correct policy mistakes and meet the economic challenges of an increasingly digitalized world.

Logan Kolas is an economic policy analyst with The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center.