Higher Education Restrictions

Question A: The restrictions in SB1 will reduce long-term enrollment in Ohio's public universities.

Question B: The restrictions in SB1 will lead to a less educated state workforce in the long-run.

Question C: The restrictions in SB1 will harm Ohio’s long-term economic growth.

Question A: The restrictions in SB1 will reduce long-term enrollment in Ohio's public universities.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Uncertain	4	Some things, like requiring a Gen Ed class in capitalism, probably will tend to push students away to states with less Gen Ed requirements, and limiting interactions with China will certainly reduce enrollment from the nation that sends by far the most students abroad. But creating watered-down 3-year degrees might attract more students, so the net effect is ambiguous.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	8	elimination of small majors will affect very few students; civics requirement will dissuade few UNLESS, for example, the government of China objects to its citizens having to learn U.S. civics and forbids its students to study in the U.S.
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Strongly Agree	10
Kevin Egan	University of Toledo	Disagree	2	There are so many factors that determine college enrollment. I don't see SB1 topping the list of factors. The usual factors: cost of tuition, state of the economy, and expected earnings returns from college.
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Uncertain	9
Vinnie Gajjala	Tiffin Univeristy	Uncertain	8
Will Georgic	Ohio Wesleyan University	Strongly Agree	10	There are a variety of ways that this bill could reduce long-term enrollment in Ohio's public universities. Chinese students will be less likely to choose Ohio's public universities over those in more welcoming states, the number of fourth year seniors will decrease if more students graduate in three years, and some domestic students will choose schools with less direct state regulation of curricular decisions. On the other hand, there are few potential ways in which the bill could increase enrollment.
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Uncertain	6	I believe some students might opt of attending a public university on principle but the effect will be small. Other students, however, might see this as a sign that the school is more in line with their views.
Nancy Haskell	University of Dayton	Strongly Agree	9
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Disagree	7	I suspect most of this is irrelevant to the vast majority of potential Ohio college students. Elimination of low-enrolled majors is a red herring, in my experience very few college students are driven by a unique major choice.
Christian Imboden	Bowling Green State University	Uncertain	5
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	2
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Disagree	7	Many choose public universities because of cost and major, not political ideology.
Bill LaFayette	Regionomics	Agree	6	One of many initiatives of the General Assembly telegraphing that Ohio is an unwelcoming state.
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Disagree	7
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	Uncertain	10
Iryna Topolyan	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Agree	10
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Disagree	5

Question B: The restrictions in SB1 will lead to a less educated state workforce in the long-run.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Agree	4	I doubt it will have a big effect, but it will be harder to attract talented faculty and students if this reduces free speech on campus and politicians start dictating what all students must be taught about the history of capitalism. Plus, the watered-down 3-year degrees look like a movement toward diploma mills.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Disagree	8	so few majors affected
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Strongly Agree	10
Kevin Egan	University of Toledo	Disagree	2	Everyone still needs 120 credit hours to graduate so the same quantity of "education". Any topic can be discussed from the perspective of science with hypothesis IF this is done THEN this happens. This is science. No one is saying what we SHOULD do. Our role as educators is to inform students how the world IS. They can then be more informed about how they think the world SHOULD be such as changes to policy. For example, it is easy to cover the basic science of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie and the science of what policies would be most impactful. Then all students are more informed on the topic, and they can decide for themselves what they think we SHOULD do about it, including the option of do nothing or consider the discussed policy options.
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Uncertain	9
Vinnie Gajjala	Tiffin Univeristy	Uncertain	8
Will Georgic	Ohio Wesleyan University	Strongly Agree	7	If enrollment in state public universities falls in the long run then those missing students will either attend in-state private institutions or out-of-state institutions. Graduates of both types of schools would be less likely to permanently reside in Ohio than graduates of Ohio's public universities, so lower long-run enrollment directly leads to a less educated state workforce.
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Disagree	8	When all is said and done, the impact will be minimal.
Nancy Haskell	University of Dayton	Agree	8
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Uncertain	7	This might change the mix of people who choose to work as professors in Ohio. But it's not obvious to me what the result of this would be.
Christian Imboden	Bowling Green State University	Agree	6	3 year degrees will be watered down versions of 4 year degrees.
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	5
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Agree	9	Professors may stay away from normative topics that are essential to critical thinking.
Bill LaFayette	Regionomics	Uncertain	4	The required civics education, if it is more than perfunctory, will be a very good thing. I am teaching this semester and we were told that we can run our classes pretty much as we always have.
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Agree	9
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	Agree	8
Iryna Topolyan	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Agree	10
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Disagree	5

Question C: The restrictions in SB1 will harm Ohio’s long-term economic growth.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Uncertain	7	Again, I doubt it will have a measurable impact, but the point of this is clearly NOT to increase the economic productivity of students, so there is no reason to think that it would be good for economic growth. The main points are to impose a politically correct ideology of capitalism, restrict interchange with China, make it easier for politicians to monitor individual classrooms and ban subjects that the politicians decide are too "controversial" to be spoken. You can have high economic growth under an authoritarian educational system (witness China) as long as the schools are also teaching a lot of useful stuff in addition to the politically correct dogma that the current regime is promoting. And just because talented faculty and students might go to another state to avoid our politically-stifling regime doesn't mean that graduates won't return to Ohio to work as long as the rest of our institutions remain free and healthy in the state.
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	8	so few students affected; the only wildcard I see is if a foreign government restricts its students from studying in Ohio in response to the law change
Ron Cheung	Oberlin College	Strongly Agree	9
Kevin Egan	University of Toledo	Disagree	2	I have little certainty in my answers but I expect the impact to be small. The state of Ohio could choose to subsidize state public universities more and that would be way more important for future enrollment of students which would lead to future long-term economic growth. In reverse, if they reduce state subsidy, that would reduce enrollment and long-term growth more than SB1.
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Uncertain	8
Vinnie Gajjala	Tiffin Univeristy	Uncertain	8
Will Georgic	Ohio Wesleyan University	Agree	9	Barring some catastrophic policy failure at the state or federal level, Ohio's state economy will continue to grow. But that growth will be slower with a less educated workforce than it would be otherwise. Economic literature on growth and human capital makes that fairly clear.
Bob Gitter	Ohio Wesleyan University	Disagree	7	There will be very little, if any, impact.
Nancy Haskell	University of Dayton	Agree	9
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Disagree	7	I doubt these restrictions will have much long-term effect. Compliance costs will be non-zero, but economically unimportant in my opinion.
Christian Imboden	Bowling Green State University	Agree	7	The overall level of higher education in Ohio will decrease in the long run as talented academics avoid teaching in the state of Ohio and choose other states instead.
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	6
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Agree	8	Students will think less critically if the bill is implemented and enforced.
Bill LaFayette	Regionomics	Agree	5	To the extent that students are less prepared to deal with a diverse population, that members of underrepresented populations receive fewer admissions and less support, and that attraction and retention of students and graduates will decline.
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Agree	9
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	Uncertain	7
Iryna Topolyan	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Agree	10
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Disagree	5