Ohio advocates, lawmakers say governor’s address missed key child welfare points

The reactions to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s final State of the State address have been as varied as the topics he touched on in the speech. In the area of child care and education, however, legislators and advocates alike focused on what he didn’t say more than what he did.

Care and education advocates said a lack of messaging on child care spoke volumes, and legislators said his praise for success in the realm of infant mortality was overstated.

In his speech on March 10, DeWine covered everything from parks and recreation to energy policy, while reflecting on his years as governor, marking the last of such speeches he’ll make as term limits end his time in office.

When it came to child welfare and education, he lauded individual efforts in the state to battle chronic absenteeism, and announced the April launch of a statewide attendance dashboard to bring more data to the topic.

He pushed for even more work to keep cell phones out of schools, and remarked on the state’s vision program for kids.

But the education part of his speech focused largely on his staunch support of the Science of Reading program, which new state laws require be taught in schools, and First Lady Fran DeWine’s efforts to broaden the impact of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

“Reading is the key to everything, so it’s essential that children learn early about the importance of books and reading,” DeWine said.

But the speech never mentioned child care, which has been a consistent struggle for the state, with regard to both accessibility and affordability.

“Tell me how you can be pro-growth, and pro-business, and pro-Ohio when you are telling parents you should stay home rather than have us invest in your child care,” said Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, in a press conference after the speech.

Isaacsohn took umbrage with other priorities DeWine mentioned, including DeWine’s lengthy praise of Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel’s efforts to lead a fitness challenge in schools across the state.

“With all due respect to our lieutenant governor, a wall-sit is not going to take care of gun violence,” Isaacsohn said. “A wall-sit is not going to provide child care for Ohio families. A wall-sit is not going to make sure that our schools have what they need.”

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, pointed to Ohio families who she said are “living in crisis mode” despite DeWine’s confidence that the state is better off now than before.

She mentioned workforce losses in the state, “due in large part to a lack of professional opportunities and an unwelcoming atmosphere created by culture war nonsense on the part of this legislature.”

“Ohioans are struggling to find affordable, quality child care, keep a roof over their head, and food in the fridge,” Antonio said.

Following the speech, child care advocates noted the absence of child care measures mentioned in it, and called for future legislation to help with the ongoing crisis.

Though DeWine mentioned all the ways in which reading is important, “he neglected to point out that reading often starts with our early childhood educators and child care providers, the very workforce he failed to mention,” advocacy groups Policy Matters Ohio and the Care Economy Organizing Project said in a joint statement.

“When we invest in child care, we aren’t just helping parents afford it – we are fueling the engine that allows every other industry in Ohio to operate,” said Tami Lunan, director of the Care Economy Organizing Project.

Education advocates like the Ohio Federation of Teachers said there was a “disconnect” between DeWine’s words in the speech and the actions the teacher’s union has seen over the last seven years.

While OFT President Melissa Cropper said the organization agrees with DeWine’s focus on literacy, chronic absenteeism, and other important parts of the education process, Cropper said the governor’s actions “have completely undermined school districts’ ability to accomplish these goals,” including changing the Fair School Funding Plan model in the last state budget.

“We are already seeing the impact of these budget cuts in school districts across the state,” Cropper said in a statement.

“Fewer teachers, fewer support staff, larger class sizes, fewer electives, and a higher burden on local taxpayers as districts try to make up the difference with additional levies.”

Republican legislative leaders, for their part, said the governor was right to point to the successes around the state in the time he has led it, and said arguments that public school funding is one of the problems resulting in low proficiency scores and a lack of student achievement are unfounded.

“We have 10% of third graders who can read, that’s unacceptable,” said Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, in a separate press conference following the speech. “And it’s not because there’s not enough money, in my estimation.”

Ohio Senate President (and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor) Rob McColley agreed with Huffman that it wasn’t money that was the source of the issue, but how the money was being used by school districts.

“There are a lot of school districts across the state who are doing an awful lot, and are delivering great results for less dollars,” McColley said.

Outside of education, DeWine talked of “historic investments in moms and babies,” that allowed the state to reach the lowest infant mortality rate in two decades, as of 2025.

Infant mortality is a statistic measured by children who are born, but who don’t make it to their first birthday.

In the most recent state operating budget, DeWine asked the General Assembly to earmark $7.5 million to support maternal and infant health programming.

By the time the budget was passed, that earmark had been reduced to $5 million, as suggested in the Senate version of the budget.

As of the most recent national data in 2023, 909 infants died in their first year of life, a mortality rate of 7.2 per 1,000 births, according to CDC data.

Black children disproportionately die at a higher rate than all other children in the state.

In 2025, the March of Dimes gave Ohio a “D” rating for preterm birth rates, ranking the state 37th of all states, along with Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

While state Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, chair of the Ohio Democratic Women’s Legislative Caucus, said Ohio has made progress in the infant mortality ratings, the problem is still a major one.

“Ohio is still in the bottom 15 states,” Abdullahi said. “We don’t want to be there, that is not something to celebrate.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.