Ohio changed almost everything about education over the last 15 years. There’s just one problem: our students aren’t performing better because of it.
Ohio’s decline in student achievement is real. After examining the data, I don’t believe the evidence fully supports two of the most common explanations.
“It’s the fault of one political party.”
The timeline doesn’t fit. Ohio’s rise, peak, and decline in academic performance occurred across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“We simply didn’t spend enough money.”
Ohio is not a low-spending state. While our property-tax-based funding system raises legitimate concerns about equity and fairness, spending levels alone do not explain the decline in student achievement.
So what happened?
Between 2010 and 2019, Ohio repeatedly changed academic standards, testing systems, teacher evaluations, accountability measures, reading initiatives, graduation requirements, school-choice policies, and funding formulas.
That’s a lot of change. But it did not produce sustained improvement in student outcomes.
At the same time, chronic absenteeism was already becoming a significant challenge.
Then COVID hit.
The result was a perfect storm:
- Constant policy churn
- Persistent literacy challenges
- Too many students missing school
- Historic pandemic disruption
Ohio still performs above the national average on several important measures.
But we are not performing at the level Ohio achieved roughly a decade ago.
Perhaps the next education debate shouldn’t begin with Republicans versus Democrats.
Perhaps it shouldn’t begin solely with how much money we spend.
Instead, it should begin with a simple question:Â Are Ohio’s children learning more?
Because the true product of an education system is not another program, mandate, assessment, or funding formula.
It’s a child who can read, write, think critically, and succeed in life.
👉 In my next post, I’ll examine the five major factors that appear to have contributed to Ohio’s loss of ground in student achievement, and what we can do to reverse the trend.
Keep an open mind. Improving our children’s education should be one of the few goals that brings us together rather than divides us.
Sources
- National Center for Education Statistics (NAEP), The Nation’s Report Card — Ohio historical reading and mathematics performance and state/national comparisons.
- Ohio Department of Education & Workforce — Ohio State Tests, Third Grade Reading Guarantee, attendance and chronic absenteeism data. Ohio reported that 24% of students were chronically absent in 2020–21, a substantial pandemic-era increase.
- Ohio Revised Code §3313.608 — Documents the Third Grade Reading Guarantee and the expansion of K–3 reading diagnostics/interventions beginning in 2012–13.
- Ohio Department of Education, Testing Report & Recommendations (2015) — Documents Ohio’s transition to new, more rigorous state tests and concerns about testing burden during the reform period.
- National Education Association, Rankings & Estimates (2026) — Ohio spends about $16,856 per student based on fall enrollment, ranking #27 nationally—supporting the narrower conclusion that Ohio is not among the nation’s lowest-spending states.
For Facebook, I would actually add this compact version directly to your post:
Sources: National Center for Education Statistics (NAEP), The Nation’s Report Card; Ohio Department of Education & Workforce, Ohio State Tests and Chronic Absenteeism Data; Ohio Revised Code §3313.608, Third Grade Reading Guarantee; Ohio Department of Education, Testing Report & Recommendations (2015); National Education Association, Rankings & Estimates (2026).
