(The Center Square) – An Ohio Senator plans to bring back a failed plan to change higher education, but this time he wants the country to follow.
Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirkland, introduced the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act on Wednesday. The bill includes plans from Senate Bill 83, which passed the Republican-majority Senate in the last General Assembly but never made it to a vote in the Republican-majority House.
The new House may be more inclined to take up the bill with former Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, now the House speaker.
At a news conference Wednesday, Cirino said the proposed legislation is designed to lead the nation in higher education reform.
At the heart of the bill is a free speech guarantee for students and professors on campus and in the classroom.
Ohio already has a law – signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2022 – that requires each state college and university to adopt a policy that affirms principles of free speech on campuses and establish a process that allows students, student groups or faculty members to file a complaint.
Critics say the law limits what faculty and students can discuss, creating a censorship Cirino says the law is designed to stop.
“Senate Bill 1 is a misguided attempt to micromanage higher education in Ohio, imposing unnecessary restrictions on our universities, faculty, and students,” said Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, a member of the Ohio Jewish Caucus. “This bill is not about promoting free speech, it’s about silencing diverse perspectives and allowing harmful misinformation, like Holocaust denial, to be presented as legitimate discourse. This bill undermines the integrity of Ohio’s educational system and jeopardizes critical thinking in our classrooms.”
Cirino says it does not limit speech, saying all topics can be discussed as long a diversity of thought is promoted.
“Critics who claim the bill promotes censorship have it exactly backwards,” said Cirino.
“Senate Bill 1 will allow students to exercise their right to free speech without threat of reprisal by professors or administrators,” Cirino said. “It will permit the marketplace of ideas to flourish, which is the ideal environment for any educational institution.”
The bill would ban diversity, equity and inclusion courses, training, litmus tests, required statements, and spending for DEI initiatives or programs with the same intent.
The legislation would also ban university or community college faculty labor strikes and establish posttenure periodic view.
Also, full disclosure of any donations made by an affiliate of China must be made.
“This is transformational legislation that is greatly needed in order for Ohio’s public institutions of higher learning to not only survive, but thrive,” said Rep. Tom Young, R-Dayton, chairman of the House Workforce and Higher Education Committee. “While universities face alarming declines in enrollment across the nation, this is a golden opportunity for us to show everyone how to reform the system so that it best serves the students and ensures our graduates a bright future.”
Weinstein called it government overreach and said it faced bipartisan opposition in the last session and received opponent testimony from nearly 500 citizens and organizations.
“Ohio’s universities should be focused on providing the best education possible to students, not bogged down by bureaucratic overreach,” Weinstein said. “SB1 is a distraction that takes resources and attention away from real educational priorities. It will make it more difficult for Ohio to attract students and faculty, which will only hurt our state’s economic competitiveness in the long run.”