Public Education Matters

As the countdown to Election Day continues, Ohio Education Association members are asking the candidates for Ohio governor where they stand on public education issues. OEA has invited all of the declared gubernatorial candidates - both Democrats and Republicans - to share their thoughts. The two Democrats in the race accepted OEA's invitation, and we're hearing from both in this two-part Candidate Conversation series. This is part two. 

• John Cranley
  • Democratic candidate for Ohio governor
  • Former Cincinnati mayor
    • John Cranley has devoted his life to helping others and implementing real-world change. His father, a Vietnam veteran, and his mother, a school teacher, taught him the values of faith, service, integrity, and making the world a better place. Raised in the Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, John attended St. Williams Elementary School and St. Xavier High School. He then went on to earn his undergraduate degree from John Carroll University and graduate from Harvard Law School and Harvard Divinity School.
    • Motivated by a deep sense of social justice, John co-founded the Ohio Innocence Project in 2002, which by using DNA technology has exonerated and freed 33 wrongfully convicted people. 
    • John Cranley was elected Mayor of Cincinnati in 2013 and since then has led an unprecedented revitalization of his city; Cincinnati has shown positive population growth for the first time in 60 years. In 2021, the Milken Institute ranked Cincinnati as the best performing city in Ohio, a ranking that evaluates job and wage growth, housing affordability, and high-tech GDP. Throughout his career, Cranley has led historic police reform—Cincinnati is safer while arresting fewer people annually. Under his leadership, the city has also outpaced both the nation and the state of Ohio in poverty reduction. And Mayor Cranley is spearheading an effort to invest in solar energy to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and make Cincinnati a leader in clean energy.
    • Recognizing that climate change is real and that it is going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to address it, John got to work on the municipal level. As mayor, John is overseeing the construction of the largest municipal solar farm in the country to help power Cincinnati. After it is online, city government services will be effectively carbon neutral.
    • As governor, John will lead an Ohio comeback. After years of one-party rule in Columbus, Ohio needs a change. 
    • He has a plan to create 30,000 jobs every year that pay at least $60,000 per year rebuilding roads and bridges, building up broadband access, and creating manufacturing and renewable energy jobs. He’ll help pay for it by legalizing marijuana and using the revenue to rebuild our economy.
    • John will return our energy resources back to the people through an energy dividend. By increasing the severance fee on energy profits, John will provide Ohio families $500 per year; money that can help stretch a family budget. They do it in Alaska and we can do it here.
    • John's wife Dena is the daughter of immigrants. With Sister Barbara Lynch, First Lady of New Jerusalem Baptist Church, she co-founded the First Ladies for Health, an interdenominational effort to improve community health and is currently working to help improve vaccination rates. She also serves as the Program Director for Urban Health at the University of Cincinnati. John and Dena are raising their son Joseph with their values of family, faith, and looking out for the vulnerable among us.
    • Source: Meet John | John Cranley

• Democrats
  • Nan Whaley (Click here to listen to the Education Matters episode featuring OEA's conversation with her)
  • John Cranley 
• Republicans
  • Mike DeWine
  • Jim Renacci
  • Joe Blystone
  • Ron Hood

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• The Ohio Education Association represents about 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. She lives in Central Ohio with her husband and two young children.