... we want to take a moment to thank the many people who have worked hard to keep kids a top priority over the past several months. First and foremost, we are grateful to Governor DeWine who, from the first policy agenda he released on the campaign trail, has shown a strong commitment to investing in young children, which was clearly reflected in his executive budget proposal. We also applaud the dedication and passion of Director LeeAnne Cornyn and her team at the Office of Children's Initiatives who are working hard to ensure investments in Ohio's child-serving systems are translating to improved outcomes for kids. As the budget moved to the General Assembly, our Senators and Representatives spent late nights and countless hours meeting with stakeholders, hearing testimony, and drafting amendments as they created their versions of the budget bill. We are especially grateful to President Obhof, Speaker Householder, and members of the House and Senate Finance Committees and Subcommittees for listening to the needs of Ohio's young children and supporting investments that promote quality early learning and healthy development as they each passed their bills with bipartisan support. Conferees from the legislature and members of the Administration are now meeting to create the final budget, which we anticipate seeing some time in the next few days (or hours!) before it's passed by the House and Senate. Once the bill is passed, the Governor has 10 days to sign, at which point the FY 20-21 budget will go into full effect. Thank you once again to the hardworking members of the Administration and General Assembly, as well as their staff, for dedicating so much time and energy to the creation of the budget over the past few months. We also want to say a BIG thank you to dedicated advocates like YOU who wrote letters, testified, sent postcards, and met with legislators to make sure kids remained front and center throughout the process. We look forward to sharing more details about the budget with you in the coming weeks once it's passed!
Groundwork Ohio Shares Equity Learnings at QRIS 2019 Conference
Groundwork Executive Director Shannon Jones and Policy Director and Legal Counsel Lynanne Gutierrez joined hundreds of early learning experts from across the country at the Build Initiative's QRIS 2019 National Meetings this week in New Orleans. In addition to having the opportunity to hear from an incredible group of speakers throughout the week, Groundwork also hosted a session on "Advancing Early Childhood Equity in a Red State" and met with other Ohio attendees to discuss how best to advance quality in our state. Thanks to the Build Initiative, QRIS Learning Network, and event sponsors for making the QRIS 2019 National Meeting such a great success!
The Health Policy Institute of Ohio this week released two new data crosswalks that provide sources of disaggregated data for metrics included in the 2019 Health Value Dashboard. The Dashboard is a composite measure of Ohio’s performance on population health outcomes and healthcare spending and examines Ohio’s rank and trend performance relative to other states and highlights gaps in outcomes between groups for some of Ohio’s most at-risk populations. Check out the 2019 Health Value Dashboard page for access to the newly released data crosswalks!
