These aren’t the only potential pitfalls facing

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Last year, the state budget set aside $20 million for the Governor’s Merit Scholarship. This program, which officially launched in December, aims to incentivize Ohio’s top high school graduates to remain in Ohio to attend college rather than enrolling in universities out of state. State leaders designed the program in light of data indicating that more than a third of Ohio’s highest-achieving high school graduates attend college in another state each year, and roughly two-thirds of all college students stay to work in the state from which they graduate.


This scholarship could help convince talented high school Laos Phone Number Data grads to stay in the Buckeye State. But with a little tweaking, it could also help bolster Ohio’s teacher pipeline. Under current law, the Governor’s Merit Scholarship provides up to $20,000 in financial assistance over four years to seniors in Ohio’s public and private high schools[1] who graduate in the top 5 percent of their class.[2]







The scholarship can be used to cover not just tuition and fees, but also other educational expenses, such as books, room and board, or transportation costs. By expanding it to provide an additional $5,000 per year—making the scholarship worth $40,000 total over the course of four years—to students who pursue teaching degrees at an accredited college or university in the state, Ohio could incentivize its best and brightest to teach.