By: Megan Henry

The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.

Ohio lawmakers are introducing bills that would require high school students to take a computer science course before graduating.

State Reps. Don Jones, R-Freeport, and Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, are introducing legislation in the Ohio House and state Sens. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, and Catherine D. Ingram, D-Cincinnati, are introducing a bill in the Ohio Senate. Both are set to be introduced next week.

The bills would require Ohio public high schools to offer at least one computer science course starting with the 2027-28 school year and would require public school students to take a unit of a computer science class in order to graduate starting with the high school class of 2032.

“The goal of this bill is to set students up for success by allowing them to develop valuable skills such as problem solving and computational thinking and make Ohio a leader in tech education,” Manning said Thursday during a press conference.

Jones, who was unable to attend the press conference, introduced a similar bill during the last General Assembly, but it only had sponsor testimony.

Slightly more than a third (38%) of Ohio’s high schools don’t offer any computer science classes, said Rick Carfagna, Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s senior vice president of government affairs.

“Ohio’s economic competitiveness depends on having a technologically proficient workforce that is prepared with the skill sets for jobs that have yet to even be invented,” he said.

In Ohio, 61% of public high schools offer computer science classes, said Julia Wynn, director of state government affairs for Code.org.

“Rural and urban schools are slightly less likely in Ohio to offer (computer science) than suburban schools,” she said.

Ohio’s statewide percentage is less than most of most of its neighboring states, she said. For instance, 91% of Indiana public high schools offer computer science classes, 78% of West Virginia schools offer them, 76% of Kentucky schools offer the courses, and 75% of Pennsylvania schools offer the classes.

“This is where education and economic development converge,” Cirino said. “Economic development is critical in Ohio.”

It’s crucial to the state’s workforce that high schools are graduating students with a baseline computer science knowledge, he said.

“It’s almost like we’re talking reading, writing, arithmetic, and computers anymore as the new mantra,” Cirino said. “They’re not going to be equipped. They aren’t going to be able to study psychology or architecture if they’re not computer literate, you just have to have that tool in your toolbox.”

Ohio will fall behind if the tech workforce lags behind, said Chris Berry, president and CEO of OhioX, a statewide technology nonprofit association.

“As AI becomes more prevalent and becomes ingrained into every type of business, again, big or small, we need a workforce,” he said. “We need technology workers that are going to be able to take the lead on that and really push and innovate and build the industries of tomorrow for the state of Ohio.”

Arkansas, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee all have laws requiring public school students to pass a computer science course, according to a 2023 Code.org report.