Last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Higher Education announced the receipt of a $50 million Talent Search Grant, the largest award in the grant’s history.
What are Talent Search Grants? Issued by the U.S. Department of Education, Talent Search Grants are intended to increase the number of young people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds who earn a high school diploma, enroll in college, and complete their postsecondary education.
Ohio will receive $10 million per year for five years to provide wraparound supports to 20,000 low-income and first-generation college students annually across 130 schools. The state will work in concert with community-based organizations—including College Now, ESC of Central Ohio, Sinclair Community College, Toledo Tomorrow, the Growing Rural Independence Together (GRIT) Project, Junior Achievement, and the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative—to deliver timely, relevant assistance and resources to students.
In an exclusive for Whiteboard Notes, we sat down with Mike Duffey, chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, to learn more about the impact of the grant, and how these dollars help maximize the potential of every Ohioan.
Q: What do you see as the biggest opportunity this grant creates for Ohio students, and what would you consider success at the end of the five-year award?
Duffey: Until now, states didn’t play much of a role in these federal grants. This grant is very much about helping return education to the states, giving work like advising and FAFSA a statewide perspective and that’s important if we want success for many students.
The work that occurs between K-12 and higher education has been, at times, unclaimed by either. For example, sometimes K-12 thinks higher education should be responsible for helping high school students complete the FAFSA.
Sometimes higher education thinks K-12 is solely responsible for students’ readiness and subsequent success or failure in college. But from my perspective, when a college admits a student, they give up the ability to complain about readiness. There’s an assumed responsibility by the college itself to provide the support needed to help a student actually be successful, or don’t admit them at all.
Success is not overnight outcomes, but building the network that better supports students who lack the support structure. And that should 100% be based on what works. Talent Search conveniently aligns to some important current Ohio policy initiatives, such as College Credit Plus, Guaranteed Admission, and Direct Admission.
In five years, our intent is to have meaningfully moved the needle on high school persistence and college matriculation for low-income, first generation students.
Q: You framed this as an example of “returning education to the states,” what does that mean for how Ohio can run this program differently than if it were administered directly by the federal government?
Duffey: State agencies are uniquely positioned to lead work at scale. They also have an ability to identify and leverage other statewide resources that exist, whether that be experts in evidence-based practices, state longitudinal data systems, or aligned statewide initiatives that can be embedded into the work. This increases efficiency and effectiveness.
When a state administers a program, we want as many students as possible to benefit. In Ohio, we aim for all 88 counties. TRIO is federally limited to certain income levels, but our approach will still be across many regions. With states leading this work, we can emphasize evidence-based practices through a more consistent statewide lens.
Q: Where does this grant fit within the broader priorities Gov. DeWine and ODHE have set for education and workforce development in Ohio?
Duffey: Gov. DeWine has focused on maximizing the potential of every Ohioan since his first day in office. He cares deeply about lifting students and families toward success, no matter where they were born. The Talent Search Grant is focused on populations facing barriers to postsecondary education, so this award is perfectly aligned with Gov. DeWine’s vision.
In higher education, we know Ohio’s campaign for talent will require students from all walks of life. More students. More degrees. Ohio is fortunate to have a surplus of jobs and CNBC’s No. 1 state for business ranking, but that also means we must increase our talent production.
Q: Ohio is positioning itself as a model for other states here. How does this effort connect to a broader national movement to link higher education more directly to economic opportunity and good-paying jobs?
Duffey: All degrees are not created equal, as students and families already know. Return on investment data, primarily through enhanced wage records to track real-world outcomes for students, is the hottest area of research and policy in higher education today.
Since 2011, when Ohio first implemented performance-based funding, to the 2019 six-year graduating cohort that finished in 2025, Ohio’s graduation rates increased 13.1% versus a national average of 4.7%. This places Ohio in the top 5% of states in increasing graduation rates over this period. Last year, Ohio took the next logical step, investing $100 million specifically in employment outcomes for public colleges and universities.
To qualify for funding, Ohio’s colleges and universities must place a student in a job within one year of graduation and the funding received is directly proportional to wages earned by their graduates one, five and ten years after graduating. We use the Census PSEO data to do this.
We are directly aligning the financial incentives the State of Ohio offers institutions with the long-term goals of Ohio’s students and families. This is more-or-less the question Do No Harm and Workforce Pell both also address. Talent Search grants fit within this matrix because they serve the United States’ most disadvantaged students with a goal of actually lifting them up in economic mobility.
Programs that return education to the states increase the alignment between the triad, these students and the labor market. States are the ones approving the programs and shutting down low performers, and so if you’re going to have a program for at-risk students, you want states to be empowered to help them succeed.
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