Education in Ohio is provided by both public and private schools, colleges, and universities.Ohio's system ofpublic education is outlined in Article VI of thestate constitution, and in Title XXXIII of theOhio Revised Code.Ohio University, the first university in theNorthwest Territory, was also the first public institution in Ohio. Substantively, Ohio's system is similar to those found inother states. At the State level, the Ohio Department of Education, which is overseen by theOhio State Board of Education, governs primary and secondary educational institutions. At the municipal level, there are approximately 700 school districts statewide. TheOhio Board of Regents coordinates and assists with Ohio's institutions of higher education which have recently been reorganized into theUniversity System of Ohio under Governor Strickland. The system averages an annual enrollment of more than 400,000 students, making it one of the five largest state university systems in the U.S.
Education has been an integral part of Ohio culture since its early days of statehood. In the beginning, mothers usually educated their children at home or paid for their children to attend smaller schools in villages and towns.[1] Early on, the US was interested in creating a national public schooling system, but the irony came to be that, in Ohio, the various religious groups who had settled here refused to allow one another any say in what their own children would be taught, causing the issue to be constantly put on hold. In 1821 the state passed a tax to finance local schools.[2] In 1822, Caleb Atwater lobbied the legislature and GovernorAllen Trimble to establish a commission to study the possibility of initiating public, common schools. Atwater modeled his plan after the New York City public school system. After public opinion in 1824 forced the state to find a resolution to the education problem, the legislature established the common school system in 1825 and financed it with a half-million property levy.[1]
They ultimately chose to relax state authority over school curriculum and gave Ohio schools regional authority over the matter. It would remain as such until the 20th century, but has caused a fairly erratic, confusing and sometimes lacking schooling experience in some subjects, even if generally adequate to get by.
School districts formed, and by 1838 the first direct tax was levied allowing access to school for all.[2] The first appropriation for the common schools came in 1838, a sum of $200,000. The average salary for male teachers in some districts during this early period was $25/month and $12.50/month for females.[3] By 1915, the appropriations for the common schools totaled over $28 million.[2] The first middle school in the nation, Indianola Junior High School (now theGraham Expeditionary Middle School), opened in Columbus in 1909.McGuffey Readers was a leading textbook originating from the state and found throughout the nation.
Thefirst dental school in the United States was founded in the early 19th century inBainbridge. TheOhio School for the Blind became the first of its kind in the country, located in Columbus.
After 2000, Ohio State government began experimentally exerting more control over schools, as they attempted to help the state's education system evolve with the times. As of 2020, it largely seems to have done just as much harm as good and re-exposed a lot of the issues inherent in how Ohio schooling was originally organized, which they are now desperately trying to solve.[4][5]
In the 19th century Ohio was energetic in the creation of new institutions of higher education. It soon had more than England.[7] In the 21st century Ohio institutions consistently ranking in the top 50 nationally of theU.S. News & World Report of liberal arts colleges are Ohio Big Three;Denison University,Oberlin College, andKenyon College. Ranking in the top 100 of national research universities typically includesCase Western Reserve University,Ohio State University andMiami University.[8]
TheUniversity System of Ohio is the nation's largest comprehensive public system of higher education. The University System of Ohio was unified under GovernorTed Strickland in 2007.[9] In 2008, ChancellorEric Fingerhut proposed creating common academic calendars for all of the system's universities: the goal was to simplify transfer between institutions and allow students to be recruited at the same time for jobs and internships.[10] After spending more than $26 million starting in 2008, the transition was completed by the 2012academic year.[11]
