While cuts to higher education were not as severe as some expected when Gov. John Kasich released his “Jobs Budget” proposal last month, one area that affected Ohio State was the cuts to Program Series 8, General Public Service.
In fiscal year 2011, the OSU John Glenn School of Public Affairs received $277,500 to “engage students in public service and support the creation and dissemination of policy research,” according to the budget. It will receive no money the next two years.
Charles Wise, director of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, said the Glenn School has received this money from the General Public Service program for years.
“This is just part of the total John Glenn school budget,” Wise said.
Wise said they used the money for many public services and assistance to the government.
“One part of our activities is to provide training and assistance to state and local government and technical assistance to state agencies and local government. We provide a variety of services that the money helped support.”
Wise said that without the money, the level of service they currently provide will be different.
“We won’t be able to provide the same level of service,” Wise said. “We respond to the requests from state official, elected officials and appointed officials for those services. We will be less able to respond to those requests.”
As part of Program Series 8 under the Ohio Board of Regents budget, two programs, other than the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, had their state funding discontinued. Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs will not receive state money. The Voinovich School received $326,000 in fiscal year 2011.
Several attempts to contact the director of the School of Voinovich, Mark Weinberg, were unsuccessful.
The other program that had its state funding eliminated was the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. John Green, director of the Bliss Institute said the money assists their institute in normal operation of the institute.
“All three of these institutes or centers work on public affairs,” Green said. “These state funds have helped all three institutes do practical research on how to improve public institutions including state and local government and also providing assistance to people in public affairs.”
The Bliss Institute received $257,474 through this program in fiscal year 2011, and will not receive state money the next two years. Green said without the money they will continue to run their programs, but with increased difficulty.
“It is going to make it much more difficult to continue these types of programs; we are certainly not going to cease to exist,” Green said. “However, without the funding it will be much more difficult to run these programs.”
Kasich’s budget said the reason the program is being eliminated is to prioritize as much funding as possible to the State Share of Instruction, a primary source of state aid for tuition, according to Ohio.com.
“(This money) supported our internship program, we’ve been able to place many undergraduate and graduate students in state office,” Green said. “Not only did it help them, but it helped the state government”
