Ohio Governor John Kasich has worked to change the state’s reputation, declaring his intent to remake the state as part of the “Knowledge Belt.” But that’s going to be hard to do without getting more actual knowledge. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Ohio ranks 37th in terms of the percent of residents with bachelor’s degrees, and 30th in terms of advanced degrees. The state has no flagship public university system to rival the University of Michigan, University of Illinois or University of Wisconsin systems. The state provides comparatively little funding for poor residents to attend college, suggesting a lack of commitment to higher education.
Nor is Ohio getting sufficient talent from overseas. International students fill U.S. graduate schools, immigrant workers staff U.S. tech companies, and the foreign-born start much more than their share of businesses. But when it comes to immigrants, Ohio is a laggard. Of the eight cities with the lowest foreign-born share of population (of the 109 cities measured by the Census Bureau in 2009), four -- Akron, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo -- are in Ohio.
