Kasich: Withhold ‘Capital Dollars’ From Colleges If They Don’t Provide Information on Available Jobs

Republican presidential candidate Ohio Governor John Kasich stated he would withhold “capital dollars” from colleges that had students “walking in there and walking around in circles for two or three years, not getting a degree, ringing up the debt, and they’re worse off than if they had never gone” during a town hall broadcast on Wednesday’s “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel.

Kasich stated, “[W]hat I think we should do across this country, I would urge them all to do — when you enter the two-year, or you enter the community college, to pick up some experience, where you go to the four-year school, you should be made aware, what are the jobs that are available? What is it that is your passion? And what is it — do you know what that job pays? And by the way, this is what it takes for you to get one. In other words, we need to have somebody guiding us all the way through our higher education experience, so we don’t ring up all this debt, and then we go, we’d like to get a job, but there’s no jobs. We know what the in-demand jobs are across this country, and we need to be training people for them, based on your God-given passions and what you want to do with your life.”

He added, “I’m telling our universities, you will do this. I’m telling you, you don’t mess around with me on this. I don’t want any student walking in there and walking around in circles for two or three years, not getting a degree, ringing up the debt, and they’re worse off than if they had never gone. Our universities are going to be doing this, and we need to do this in K-12. We need to start, and we are doing it in our state, telling young people about occupations. What does a weatherman do? What does a policewoman do? What does a teacher do? And then as they become older, it becomes more sophisticated, and then they begin to realize a path for them, basically, on the direction that they want to go. So, you know, that’s the way I think we have to think about it.”

When asked how he would do it, he responded, “I say you’re going to do it, or you’re not going to get any capital dollars out of me.”

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