COLUMBUS, Ohio — Days away from the Ohio 2024 Legislative Session, Gov. Mike DeWine spoke about what he wants lawmakers to accomplish and why he feels this year will feature more bipartisan legislation.
DeWine said there is a "real consensus" from legislators that education (specifically the science of reading method), mental health and addiction are the top three issues they hope to tackle this session.
"Focus more and more on mental health this coming year ... kind of go back to John Kennedy 60 years ago," DeWine said. "When he signed The Community Mental Health Act, the promise was that no matter where you lived, whatever neighborhood, whatever community, if you had a mental health problem, you have a loved one who does, we're going to have a place for that person to get the help that they need.
"But we never really, as a country, lived up to this, and so my goal is for Ohio, for people to say we're making sure that people with mental health problems — some people with a drug addiction problem, whatever their barrier is — that we can break those barriers down and (they can) live up to their full potential."
There was already more than $100 million in the last budget to address education changes, and DeWine said he expects the focus on the science of reading to continue.
"It's unacceptable a third of our kids are not reading at their grade level," DeWine said. "We have to fix that problem, and we're making progress."
When it comes to possible changes to recreational marijuana, DeWine said that while he "(respects) the will of the voters," lawmakers need to create some guidelines for it.
"I was on the other side of (the vote), but I respect that. But I don't think anybody who voted for this thought you'd have the situation that we have today," DeWine said. "We've got to get our hands around this, and the legislature needs to take action so that we can actually put this under some control."
Some Republican lawmakers in Ohio have also spoken about wanting to amend the abortion amendment voters approved in November 2023.
"The voters spoke, but I don't think the issue is ever totally over," DeWine said. "I think most public policy issues, people continue to evolve, they continue to look at what is going on, what the situation is. I think it's important that we protect, in Ohio, the guardrails that we put in place over a period of time."
DeWine said that while he thinks Ohio is better off now than when he first took office, "there are some challenges that are out there." He said in 2024, the focus will continue to be on the people.
"2024 is going to see us really continue to focus on people," said DeWine. "The other thing that is really important is that we remove barriers for people. You know, people have some barriers that stop them from living up to their full potential."
