Ohio Senate budget alters the Governor's Merit Scholarship, ties funds to Senate Bill 1 compliance
College students graduating. Getty Images.
The Ohio Senate's version of the state's two-year budget would reduce the number of students who would be eligible to receive the Governor's Merit Scholarship and it would come with strings attached.
The Governor's Merit Scholarship currently awards the top 5% of each high school graduating class a $5,000 scholarship each year to attend an Ohio college or university. The Senate's version of the budget would reduce it to the top 2% of each high school starting with the 2027 fiscal year.
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The Senate also added a provision requiring students who receive the scholarship to stay in Ohio for three years immediately after graduation. Students attending graduate school would be an exception, but the expectation would remain that they would come back to Ohio for three years after graduate school, said Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon.
'Part of the reasoning for that is we want to keep our best and brightest in Ohio,' McColley said. 'It stands to reason that if we want to keep them in Ohio, we should actually require them to stay in Ohio post-graduation.'
If a student who received the Governor's Merit Scholarship moved out of the state within those three years after graduating, they would have to pay back a portion of the aid they received, McColley said.
'We do want some teeth to that,' he said.
Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said the three-year requirement would be almost impossible to implement.
'I think it would be extraordinarily difficult to police saying you must stay in Ohio for three years,' Huffman said. 'I suppose we can try to penalize them and all that.'
Todd Jones, president and general counsel of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio (AICUO), said he is open to the state's three year retention after graduation.
'We're very sympathetic to the need of the state to help retain people in Ohio who are getting financial assistance,' he said. 'We wouldn't oppose it not being there, but it's certainly a judgment call for the legislature to make on that, and we're sympathetic to their desire to keep folks in Ohio.'
The Senate's version of the budget eliminated provisions the Ohio House added regarding additional requirements for private colleges to continue to participate in the Governor's Merit Scholarship.
The House had added language to the budget that would have required private colleges to comply with parts of Senate Bill 1 — Ohio's new higher education law that bans diversity and inclusion efforts and regulates classroom discussion, among other things.
Jones was happy that was nixed from the budget.
'It's important that we retain students in Ohio and keep our best and brightest here,' Jones said.
The Senate decided to take that language out of the budget after hearing concerns from many private universities, McColley said.
The Governor's Merit Scholarship was enacted through the last state budget two years ago and 76% of the state's 6,250 eligible students from the class of 2024 accepted the scholarship. Eighty-seven percent of Ohio students accepted the scholarship in its second year and 11 rural counties had a 100% acceptance rate.
The Senate's version of the budget trims how much money is allocated to the scholarships. It keeps it at $47 million for fiscal year 2026, but reduces it to $56.4 million in fiscal year 2027. Gov. Mike DeWine's and the House's version of the budget allocated $70 million for fiscal year 2027.
The Senate's version of the budget ties a portion of the State Share of Instruction to compliance with Senate Bill 1.
'We wanted to make sure that everybody at the university level was following through with the conditions and regulations in Senate Bill 1,' said Ohio Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland. 'We have the ability to decide how we're going to fund things. … If they are viewed as in compliance, nothing will be withheld from their SSI share, which would be their normal proportion of the SSI dollars.'
Huffman said he supports tying a portion of the State Share of Instruction to compliance with S.B. 1.
'If the universities aren't going to apply state law then there needs to be some incentive to make sure that they do,' he said.
House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, is against tying State Share of Instruction to compliance with S.B. 1.
'I firmly oppose S.B. 1, so tying more compliance to S.B. 1, which I think is an extremely flawed piece of legislation, obviously we oppose that portion,' she said.
Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood, said she thinks the provision is outrageous.
'It's also following the pattern that we're seeing at the national level of intimidation and bullying, frankly, telling people that if you don't comply with what we say, then we'll just punish you and we'll withhold money,' she said.
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