COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican candidate for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy is still pushing to shut down public colleges and universities if he believes they are 'subpar,' he said Tuesday evening.
Over the past decade, enrollment at public universities in Ohio has declined 14%.
Census data shows that Ohio has an aging population, and a growing number of students are turning away from college due to high tuition and student loan debt.
Some Republicans say college isn't always needed.
"The value of a degree is going down," Ramaswamy said during a Turning Point USA event at Ohio State.
Students who have been protesting at the Statehouse for years point to recent controversial legislation that overhauled the higher education system. Senate Bill 1 forced universities to eliminate DEI programs and cut courses with low enrollment. Now, there are threats to defund universities that aren't up to the GOP's idea of compliance.
RELATED: Ohio bill would defund public universities for promoting DEI
"The best and brightest may not be attracted to what's going on here," OSU senior Brielle Shorter said.
Whatever the cause, Ramaswamy thinks he has the solution.
"We have too many of them," the Republican said in a video posted to his Threads account. "They need to be consolidated."
In an opinion article he wrote for The Columbus Dispatch, Ramaswamy encouraged shutting down what he called struggling universities. He referred to Cleveland State, the University of Akron, Kent State and Central State University as having previous challenges.
He doubled down on that idea Tuesday.
"I don't think you should be funding subpar universities," Ramaswamy said to a student asking a question.
Colleges shouldn’t replicate each other, he said, and the strongest programs should be the ones to survive.
"Let them excel in a couple of areas and really bring tuition down in the process," he continued.
A school that is top rated at nursing doesn't need to have the best "philosophy program," he said.
Ohio State should be the premier university, he said.
OSU professor Dr. Pranav Jani said this proposal would not only hurt education but also damage the economy in college towns.
RELATED: Ohio House bans DEI, passes education overhaul bill
"It's an attack on faculty, an attack on students, an attack on the idea of education as a higher good," Jani said.
Removing universities from urban centers could make college a harder proposition for commuter students, the professor added.
"We need to find ways to give them access to that, not shut places down on the argument that they're inefficient — when that inefficiency has partly been created by the conditions that politicians have generated," he said.
Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton’s running mate, David Pepper, said this shows how out of touch Ramaswamy is with the everyday Ohioan, pointing out that the Republican came up with the idea of cutting college funding to help pay for a total income tax cut.
Ramaswamy, in the Threads video, specifically brought up the college consolidation while talking about cutting income tax.
"A tax break that helps everyone at the top, and students, particularly in poor communities, are told by Vivek Ramaswamy, 'Get in the car, go pay room and board hundreds of miles away, because I'm gonna deprive you of the local opportunity you have to get a degree,'" Pepper said.
Ramaswamy argued his plan will help protect taxpayer dollars.
"Give graduates the bang for their buck," he said.
We reached out to CSU, UA, KSU and Central State.
Cleveland State's president, Dr. Laura Bloomberg, said consolidations can't be the only option:
"We need to honor the identity of our public universities, which were formed for specific purposes to meet the needs of their region. All options need to be discussed – there are many ways to think about programs and strategic partnerships that are far short of consolidation and achieve the goals of being more nimble, efficient institutions of higher education.
Cleveland State is proud to call itself Cleveland’s university. We are a public research university located in the heart of the city. For more than 60 years, we have been essential to the region and the state. Our longstanding and growing relationships with the community and employers directly benefit our students. More than 85% of CSU graduates live and work in Northeast Ohio, contributing directly to our region’s economy.
CSU welcomes the opportunity to meet with any gubernatorial candidate to show them our campus and discuss the transformational impact we have on our students and the region. And we look forward to partnering with our state’s new governor on the future of our higher education institutions at the conclusion of the election."
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