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The Ohio Redistricting Commission, which is owned 34 constitutional maps, now has to draw three of them in a month.

COVID numbers are dropping off, but so did a lot of learning for kids over the last two years, and the Intel project has brought up an idea that economic experts have been tossing around for a while.

Reshoring the reverse of offshoring that's coming up this weekend.

The State of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio, I'm Karen Kasler.

This week, a new chapter in the saga to create new legislative and congressional district maps, the Ohio Redistricting Commission is now redrawing both sets of maps for the first time simultaneously and under a time crunch .

State House correspondent Andy Chow reports.

The Ohio Supreme Court has invalidated the second round of State House and Senate district maps, saying they're still gerrymandered to favor the Republican Party disproportionate to how Ohioans vote.

So the seven member Republican dominated redistricting commission must redraw those maps a third time.

But that's not all.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate admitted there isn't any Democratic support to get a ten year congressional map passed, so they decided to punt the responsibility of redrawing that map to the commission as well.

It became apparent that it wasn't possible to get a two thirds vote in the House, which would enable the map adopted to go into effect right away, and without that it wouldn't go into effect after the primary date.

So if it goes to the redistricting commission, it goes into effect as soon as the Commission Act.

The commission's job of drawing both those maps is now butting up against the start of early voting for the May third primary.

The commission's work has been dominated by Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp, both Republicans.

The latest Supreme Court decision invalidating the legislative maps notes that Huffman and Cupp never told their staff members who drew the maps that the commission approved to make sure they complied with the section of the Constitution that bans gerrymandering and that the ruling notes they had a quote an incorrect understanding of the proper methodology because they asserted that the share of Ohio voters preferring Republican candidates was somewhere between 54 and 81%.

Huffman said this week lawmakers might have to consider splitting the primary into two different dates a May third primary for local and statewide elections and another primary at a later date for legislative and congressional races.

I don't see how we can conduct an election for the General Assembly and the Congressmen on May third, or are you going to penalize everybody else and upset that?

No.

So I think we're all searching for solutions.

Democratic leaders and voter rights advocates have put the blame squarely on Republican leaders who have approved the now invalidated district maps in spite of vocal opposition from critics, saying from the start that the plans would be deemed unconstitutional and the court.

Cobb says the legislative maps will likely be first on the agenda since those are due to the court on February 18th before the congressional map, which is due in March.

Andy Chow, Statehouse News Bureau.

Democrats have now filled all the down ticket races on the fall ballot.

Marion Mayor Scott Scherzer has officially launched his campaign for state treasurer, joining Nelson Bill Auditor Taylor Subpotent, who jumped into the state auditor's race with his filing last week.

Local boards of elections are still certifying petition signatures for all candidates.

There may be a primary in the Republican contest for Secretary of State right now, features incumbent Frank LRO's former state representative John Adams and turps of former US.

A largely unknown conspiracy theory blogger and podcaster, Maris appears to be pushing the evidence free, untrue position that former President Trump won the 2020 election, which he did not.

In an interview this week, Adams says he believes there was fraud in six states and quote until they sort out that question.

In those six states, we have to look at it.

I don't know.

Dozens of court cases and multiple audits have shown no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

COVID numbers have been plummeting in Ohio this week.

The state dropped below 3000 COVID patients in hospitals, the lowest number since mid-November.

The total COVID positive patients in intensive care in Ohio dropped below 600 for the first time since August 23rd, but reported deaths are still high.

There have been nearly 35,000 deaths in Ohio during the pandemic.

That's equal to the population of Mason or Westlake or Boardman.

14,000 of those people in Ohio who died of COVID have been reported in the last six months.

Learning loss during the pandemic is real for a huge number of students.

The state has paused penalties against K through twelve schools, whose students are not performing well at school leaders and lawmakers looking at what can be done to help those kids recover and catch up, but also to deal with problems outside of school that the pandemic may have made worse.

State House correspondent Joe Ingles reports.

A sixth of four and a seven, which one of the smaller number of those four Aria first grade teacher Alyssa Boost says she knows the pandemic has posed special challenges for many of her students at Worthington Park Elementary School near Columbus.

I think one of the things I noticed the most is that just the understanding of what school is for them.

Last year, some of them had a completely virtual kindergarten experience.

Some of them were here half of the time.

Some of them were homeschooled and some weren't even at the school.

So I think the biggest challenge for them has been having that stamina to stay focused long enough and to kind of have that same baseline for everybody to kind of all learn together.

But it's been a huge adjustment since the first part of the school year, but they've come a long way.

Worthington is more diverse than some other suburban Columbus districts, and it usually scores above average on statewide tests.

But even here, teachers know there are kids who need extra help.

Republican Andrew.

Renner heads the Senate's K-through-12 Education Committee.

He's been critical of COVID policies such as mask mandates and vaccine requirements, but he says COVID disrupted learning in all schools as kids and teachers became ill and had to quarantine.

He says some urban districts had a 74% chronic absentee rate, meaning kids had 18 or more days of unexcused absences.

And he says proficiency tests given in key grades last year show the schools that were most impacted were urban schools with remote learning.

Like Youngstown, for example, I've been asking people, What do you think the fifth grade proficiency rate was for the fifth grade math class in Youngstown city schools?

And I usually get and everybody thinks about it because they know that Youngstown has been under academic distress.

I'll get twenties, thirties and forties is the passage rate.

And then I told them the real number is 2.9%.

Meaning 97% of the kids failed the proficiency test for fifth grade math in Youngstown.

But they said that they outperformed these Cleveland city schools by four percentage point.

That gets people's attention.

And so we've got to do a much better job of working to get these kids back into school, getting them in full time.

And we need to remediate them.

A review of test scores by the Ohio Department of Education last September noted across the board, students were down about eight points lower in state language arts tests and about 15 points down in math.

Brenner says lawmakers have been talking to leaders at Ohio's colleges about allowing students who are majoring in education to tutor K through twelve students and maybe even get paid for doing it.

The Ohio Department of Education thinks tutoring is a good idea.

I think there's, you know, there's a there's a great interest in tutoring, you know, sort of intensive tutoring.

That's something that I think we're starting to see in other states in the state.

Districts are working with different partners and in part sometimes to get part of the challenge to speak out, to find a tutors.

I mean, obviously, we've got sort of larger, larger, you know, kind of workforce questions, but that is definitely something that folks are interesting interested in.

Again, I think you're starting to see some creative solutions.

And then we were talking to some folks and one of, you know, one of the one of our urban districts who is sort of doubling.

There's I mean, the phrase they were using was sort of like back to back teaching where they were sort of bringing two teachers into a room and sort of really focusing on sort of splitting the students.

But, you know, kind of, you know, tag teaming it a bit and brings the word instructional resources to it.

Back at the Worthington School District, teachers are using one on one tutoring as well as learning in small groups to deal with kids at different academic levels.

And they're trying to focus on needs that exist outside the classroom, too.

I get to serve as the assistant superintendent of academics.

Sometimes I wish that title was also the assistant superintendent of well-being.

Angie Adrian with Worthington Schools says students who need extra help and resources are being offered those through summer school with the help of community partnerships.

We were worried a little bit about staff.

Our teachers are going to be have the energy to come into summer school and teach all summer and they did and we had teachers there.

But we also have a really strong food service who provided food for our students.

Transportation jumped on board and said, How do we make sure that we are also a part of the solution and making sure that our students are provided transportation to and from summer school?

And our Worthington Resource Food Pantry stepped up and provided food for our students and summer school as well.

Those wraparound services, such as food tutoring and mental health counseling, were seen as important for at-risk kids even before the pandemic, and schools are able to use COVID relief funds to support them.

Worthington Elementary School principal Patrick Geraghty says there's one more thing that's crucial right now, focusing on self-control, self-awareness and other skills that help kids work and play together.

The hardest part of all of this is supporting our students with that social, emotional learning and recognizing that we're not getting our consecutive 180 plus days face to face with kids.

We are triaging situations where kids are out of school because they are sick and out of school for things they cannot control based off of close contact.

So really making sure that when we are losing students and not having that in-person, we're finding ways to connect with them outside of the school setting, ensuring they're getting work at their house, making those phone calls, doing Zoom sessions when possible to get those kids connected and really just connecting and making sure they feel comfortable at school.

Education leaders say there's one thing that's become clear during this pandemic different children have different needs, and they say the remedy to lifting up students who are behind is meeting them where they are and making sure they're educational as well as emotional and physical needs are being met.

But that will take time.

Joe Ingles Statehouse News Bureau.

The huge Intel project got a boost last week when Democrats and one Republican in the US House approved a massive bill aimed at helping the US compete with China.

It includes $52 billion in federal investment in computer chip manufacturing.

All twelve of Ohio's Republican congressmen voted against it, though Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown had supported the Chips for America Act funding when it was in the Senate.

When the House and Senate bills are worked out, this could mean that Intel can talk about its future in Ohio.

Going from $20 billion to build two fabricating plants to $100 billion and as many as eight fabs.

The project will go up in Licking County, and the president of the local Port Authority is also on the state's jobs.

Ohio board says it's bringing forward the concept of.

Reshoring companies and jobs back to the US.

You've been talking about reshoring for a long time, for a long time, we heard about companies outsourcing and offshoring.

This is kind of the opposite of that, is it not?

It is.

I mean, I think people were woken up by 20 billion reasons from Intel.

But it's something that's been happening and really been been necessary for a long time.

Intel used the phrase Ohio's built for this.

And I think we are.

And so the intel has really put a spotlight on reshoring, but it's something that's been necessary and happening.

And I think there are examples throughout our state, but also where where I sit in Central Licking County, we've been seeing it as well.

Where do you go from?

The idea of offshoring, which was supposedly companies, were saying it was necessary to lower costs to reshoring.

Doesn't that imply that costs are going to go up, that the reverse is going to happen?

Well, I'm a student of Joel Kotkin, who's who's written a report for Jobs Ohio called Reshoring America.

Can the heartland lead the way that came out over a year ago?

But for a long time, he's written the concept that we have GDB competitors that China is the obvious one Japan and Germany.

These are countries that have been losing working age population.

In the case of Japan and Germany for decades, they've been losing actual population.

There's a reason Honda had to come to America to sell their cars and make them here.

You've got to come to the United States to sell in the United States.

And when you have a shrinking working age, population is just enough to serve your own economy.

Whereas we are still in the United States, the number one manufacturer in the world.

And in Ohio leads the way with that as third largest manufacturing state.

So we are built for this in terms of being able to supply the world, but certainly to supply our country.

If you're going to message has been from the Port Authority a long time.

If you're going to sell in the U.S., you've got to come to the U.S..

So how does Intel play a role in Ohio's part in reshoring?

I mean, Intel has fabs all over the country.

How does the Intel Ohio plant work in all this?

Well, again, it's a it's a two by four between the eyes when it's so big.

As a kid growing up in northeast Ohio in the seventies, I mean, I remember hearing about the Honda plant coming.

And now that I live closer to it, I see the impact that stretches across really the central part of Ohio and into places you don't even realize.

Sometimes this is four times bigger, you know?

So what Governor DeWine is accomplished with this is something that's going to have an impact, truly generational impact for a long, long time to come.

And but it really is intel bought into when you hear their reasons behind why they made this decision.

They're the same reasons that companies have been making reshoring decisions in Ohio.

But just exaggerated because it's such a big announcement.

Well, like what are some of those reasons that they specifically cited, right?

Number one was world class institution educational institutions.

That's what we heard from from the VP of manufacturing at Intel.

When you look at engineers are going to be a big part of what they hire and a lot of companies, that's the case in manufacturing.

You know, manufacturing consumes 70% of research and development.

What is research and development except to actually make something with the product?

So engineers, let's just pick on that one field.

Ohio, all of our institutions, Ohio graduate on a typical year about 6000 engineers.

That's one out of every twelve that are graduated in the United States.

So we are built for this.

I mean, so and I've seen I mean, we've all seen a lot of those folks that get those degrees and are attracted to go somewhere else in the country.

Well, we can get those folks back to some of those folks that do need to come back to fill these jobs are going to be folks that left the state the first time and that we all know are homesick to come back.

When you talk about the good parts of the Intel project, and certainly there are, I mean, the impact on this is tremendous.

Lieutenant Governor John Houston was on the show last week talking about some of the impacts on Ohio's GDP, even if just only the two fabs are being built now.

Apparently, with the Chips for America Act funding folded into that House bill, maybe there might be more up to 100 billion dollar facility there.

That could mean a lot of impact on Licking County, mostly a rural area, not a lot of housing and schools and hospitals.

How do you prepare for an influx of thousands of people working at a huge facility on all those different things?

Yeah, really.

I don't have a crystal ball.

I don't think anybody does or some that do that, I think are a little clouded.

Yes, frankly, history is our guide.

So I like the fact it's a parallel that the largest clean room operation in Ohio today, a place with STEM skills engineering and engineering technology folks in the largest manufacture corridor in central Ohio is owned by our port authority.

It's a facility that 70 years and three days prior to this announcement by Intel.

So it's January 18th 1952.

It was announced that this facility was going to be built in Heath, Ohio.

What is it?

It's actually now occupied by Boeing.

It was a former Air Force Base facility that never shut down as a base and continue to operate.

It's got the largest concentration of clean room space in Ohio right now.

It will be surpassed.

It's home to in the middle of the largest manufacturing corridor in central Ohio between Newark Heath and Hebron and Granville, and in it.

We're employing STEM skills with people doing micro, electronic working, those clean rooms that has been around for a while.

People think they're driving through cornfields in cow pastures.

I'm afraid of cows.

I've only had an encounter with a cow at one time.

I mean, again, that the model here, the history is our guide.

That was a town of 5000 people that less than 5000 at the time.

Heath that had to welcome an influx of 2000 new jobs coming the scale blew their minds, I'm sure back then.

And guess what?

It's worked and it's still there.

I think there are a lot of people looking at like it in the central Ohio housing market, for instance, and seeing how hot the housing market is and the home prices thinking, how can I ever afford a home?

And now you've got more people potentially coming here?

Is that a concern?

I think we've got enough time to address those concerns with the market.

People are already I'm getting phone calls as our port authority owns property in Lincoln County.

We're not going to be involved in the housing side.

But if if the housing side is any indicator from what we're seeing on the industrial side, people are already thinking about how do they pick this market on where to go.

History is our guide and it shows us that we'll figure this out because we've done it before in Ohio and in Lincoln County, we're going to do it again.

I know that there are some environmental concerns Intel has made certain commitments and in other parts of the country, those commitments have been honored in terms of making sure that they respect the environment.

There are, though, toxic chemicals involved in computer chip manufacturing.

There's a lot of water involved.

Lieutenant Governor Houstons said last week that a water treatment plant is going to be built with state investment in Licking County.

How do you make sure that the environment doesn't get damaged by such a big project?

Well, again, I think those speak to the fears that people have about manufacturing.

You know, I grew up in a steel town that doesn't make steel anymore.

But the church that I went to is is is blackened by the sort of the steel mills of the thirties.

It's not your grandfather's steel mill anymore, and Intel knows how to do this.

They've been in the chip business for a long time.

That 300 million investment in water reclamation, you know, is going to be state of the art.

So I mean, when when we're filling in the blanks, when we don't know some things, it's fair that we're asking questions.

But let's make sure that we're answering them with with the logic that it deserves.

I mean, when you spend 300 million, that's more than some cities have spent on their treatment plants.

That's that's pretty impressive sign that things are going to be worked out in a positive way for everyone.

Just in the last couple of days, Peloton had announced that it was planning to build a 400 million dollar facility in Ohio, but now it's it's packing that up along with other manufacturing plants around the country.

What happens if that happens here?

Is there a possibility that what happening with Intel again?

Everyone wants to have a crystal ball?

I don't know anyone that actually has one yet.

This is why we need to continue in our communities, not just in Lincoln Camp, but around the state to get ready for reshoring so that we are not just dependent on one or two industry to one or two companies.

You know, there's no reason to predict anything bad happening.

There's all reasons to protect good, but it's just smart to be prepared.

You know, there is an opportunity for more reshoring.

This report that Jobs Ohio received a year ago is evidence that the heartland is going to be doing the patriotic thing, and Ohio's leading the way on it to make sure that we are prepared to be the ones that can cause this reshoring to happen, and it's going to be broader than just one industry or two industries.

Now you're on the Jobs Ohio board, so I'm sure you've probably heard that there are parts of the state that are maybe not real happy that this is coming to central Ohio because they wanted it.

They wanted the Intel project in northeast Ohio or in southwest Ohio, in southern Ohio.

How does the rest of the state benefit from this?

Is there anything that the rest of the state, other parts of the state can feel like they've gained from the Intel project?

What I've seen has been positive.

I had a county commissioner from four counties over come and meet with me yesterday, and he was brainstorming about how their community could take advantage of this news.

I saw an op ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer that talked about really ticked off the reasons why their community can get more ready for not just this in Intel, but also reshoring in general.

To me, the reaction has been very positive.

Certainly, that's a fair question.

Why didn't happen here?

But that's from that's how you learn.

You know, how could you have assembled 3000 acres in six months?

I mean, that's an incredible task that was done.

Where's the capable leadership to be able to accomplish in the community?

Where's the STEM learning effort?

Where are the sites?

All those are things that every community should be asking themselves, but I think the answer is get ready because there's more to come.

And as I understand it, though, the man and the chips will be manufactured here, they still have to go back to Asia for testing.

And so the project, the the manufacturer of computer chips isn't completely in the US or in Ohio.

Is there a goal to try to get it to the point where it stays here completely?

I I'm not familiar with with that process, but I do know that it's imperative reshoring is imperative.

So we've got to make sure if there is something that still needs to that covered really in this impact of COVID showed that there are some times that that little thing in the supply chain that prevents everything from happening.

You know, we own 1,000,000 square feet of building space and try to do our roof project last year.

We could get the roof material for the top, the roof material for the bottom, but the in-between was out of supply.

And so we couldn't do a roof last year.

And so if that is true that there are some kink in the armor.

Still, demographics show that we have to get this done and figure it out.

And the Intels just a big, loud proof that that we are in Ohio capable of winning and figuring it out.

So reshoring for the average person watching this is important because it does deal with some of those holes that are in the supply chain that we're seeing in grocery stores and home improvement stores and all those places worships.

The role for everybody in Ohio is what I call economic development.

Parents and families, what are we doing to encourage those homesick or displaced Ohioans to come back?

What are we doing?

I'm a parent of four.

I hope to be a grandchild from at least one of those four.

I hope they're watching this and get the message when they're old enough and married.

But that, you know, the message has changed that we now have an opportunity for generations in Ohio.

I grew up in a steel town.

Don't make steel anymore.

I know what the other side of the coin looks like, and I'll pick the growth side every time.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our web site at State News DAUG, and you can follow us and the show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Med Mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP, now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.ORG.