I had originally planned to write this diary yesterday but life interfered and you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Anyway, today I awoke to this piece from Linda Chavez.  It’s a good summary, but it glosses over so many of the more important points.  Still, in the interests of fairness, I am guessing that Linda Chavez didn’t attend the townhall meeting that she refers to in the piece.

I did.

And let me tell you, what I saw was impressive. No, not the glitzy presentations – oh, wait, there wasn’t any glitz, it was all substance – but the fact that everything presented was a piece of carefully constructed, well-oiled machine designed to drive Ohio job growth.

Let me start by highlighting five things I picked up on the night. These were not rolled out in a single slide — these came from various times during the evening.

• 50% of students at the state universities in Ohio take 6 years to complete a 4 year degree;
• Kasich would like to most everyone complete in 4 years, with many completing in just 3;
• Rewarding K-12 teachers for teaching more than a year’s curriculum in the year;
• Expand the current AP-test system statewide;
• Ohio lost 400,000 jobs in the recession; at an average of $35,000 in salary, that’s $14 BILLION in lost payroll

Now I suspect many RedState readers have already added up these five things and figured out what I believe he’s doing, but I’ll spell it out.

• K-12 Teachers will get a $50 bonus per student, per class for kids that can learn 1.1 year’s curriculum in a year.  (Add it up; nice bonus!)
• Kids will be far better prepared for college
• Many kids will have completed standard education for grades 1-12 by the end of year 11, and will have also gained college credits at the same time
• The final year can now be used to, basically, complete a year of college.

What’s in it for Ohio?

• Money savings — college is expensive; reducing the time there reduces the amount of student loans required, and it reduces the need for capital expenditures to manage all the students who are taking more than 4 years currently to graduate; even more savings when you consider the rest could be done in as little as 2 or 3 years!
• K-12 teachers benefit with nice annual bonuses if they do what, lets face it, they should be doing anyway;
• 20 year olds with degrees are cheaper to hire (because they have less expenses) than 23 year olds with degrees, creating a well-educated, ready pool of labor for businesses.
• 22 year olds with masters degrees? Sounds like a good thing to this business person…

Oh, and did I mention that his long-term plan involves eliminating the income tax?  Just couldn’t be managed in the first budget because of the $8 billion hole the previous occupant of the Statehouse left us.  (I just can’t bring myself to use the words Governor and the last guy’s name in the same sentence.)

In the end though, this is all about one thing: J-O-B-S.  This new administration has a vision to rebuild our state that has been lacking for decades.   Ohio, it’s time for a new State Song.
Sing with me:

“Oh-Hi-I-Oh, It’s back to work we go…”