(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

MEDINA, Ohio- Gov John Kasich (pictured in blue tie) delivered his fourth State of the State address Monday evening to a capacity audience at the Medina Performing Arts Center in Medina, Ohio, a city 30 miles south of Cleveland. And Cleveland was center stage from Ohio Courage metals that the Republican governor bestowed on Ariel Castro's ten -year hostage and rape victims Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight, all three looking lovely on stage, to his highlight of the Cleveland schools education reform plan.

The Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools was enacted in 2012 through a state law passed by the state legislature from  companion bills dubbed House Bill 525 and Senate Bill 335, HB 525 co-sponsored in the Ohio House of Representatives by state Rep. Sandra Williams (D-11), a Cleveland Democrat, and SB 335 co-sponsored in  the Ohio Senate by state Sen Nina Turner (D-25), also a Cleveland Democrat. It is a sweeping overhaul of the majority Black school system that, among a host of initiatives, sets parameters to increase parental involvement, establishes charter schools run by the district and strips teachers of tenure. And it is supported by the Cleveland Teachers Union.

Kasich and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, a Democrat who as mayor controls the city schools under state law,  teamed-up to lobby for the plan that they say is an ambitious multi-billion dollar educational reform agenda with more oversight relative to teachers and administrators and tools to enhance educational outcomes.

"It is a new day and a new way for the city of Cleveland and our children who are on their way to success," the governor said of the schools reform plan that was contingent on a subsequently passed 15-mill schools operating levy that will bring in $77 million annually to the financially strapped school district.

Kasich's hour long speech, which drew several standing ovations,

showed his skill as a seasoned politician and was a campaign speech for sure.

"Every Ohioan deserves a chance at equal opportunity," said Kasich.

A former congressman who lost his parents to a car accident at the hands of a drunk driver when he was 38 -years- old, Kasich, 61, facing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald in a much watched contest for governor this year, also catered to women and minorities as recent polls say that women and Blacks will likely make or break the race.

A recent Qunnipiac poll shows a five point gap, with Kasich leading FitzGerald, a Cuyahoga County executive, 43 percent to 38 percent.

"We have to help our minorities in this state," said Kasich. "We haven't helped our minorities."

The number of unemployed Ohio workers was around 416,000 in December 2013, reports show.

The unemployment rate for Ohio is 7.2 percent and was at 9.0 percent when Kasich took office three years ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is at roughly 14 percent for Black Ohioans. The total national unemployment rate is at 6.6 percent,  down from 8.3 percent in December 2012 and 7.9 percent in December 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month. That same report shows a national unemployment rate for Blacks at 12.1 percent and reveals that unemployment rates overall are down from last year in 42 states, coupled with increases in two states and Puerto Rico, and no changes at all in nine states.

The national poverty rate is interestingly stagnant at 15 percent, with figures that double for Blacks.

Though he left out Senate Bill 5, a state law that limited collective bargaining that firefighters, police and teachers unions across the state led voters in repealing in 2011, Kasich also touched on veterans,  heroine addiction, taxes, health care, human trafficking, and whatever else he could hit on. He caught people's attention when he said that his tenure as a first term governor has brought Ohio in the Black with a surplus and a balanced budget.

The governor did not mention Senate Bill 238, which he signed into law last week and that curtails early voting hours and eliminates Golden Week, a time when Ohio voters can both register to vote and cast an in-person absentee ballot, also known as early voting. Nor did he mention Senate Bill 205, also signed into law last week and that prohibits county boards of elections from providing postage paid ballots to all voters in their jurisdiction.

Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (D-11), a Warrensville Heights Democrat and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress (CBC), was outraged over the passage of the two contentious voting laws, both viewed by Fudge and many Black leaders and Civil Rights organizations across the country as voter suppression bills that unfairly and unconstitutionally target minorities, senior citizens and poor people. Kasich and his fellow Republicans say the laws save money and deter voter fraud, the latter not supported with any empirical research data.

Kasich promoted JobsOhio in his speech, his brainchild and a hotly debated program he initiated six months into office in 2011 that uses private sector entities to propose public policy initiatives for state funding for what he says has increased jobs. Democrats hate it and want it gone. Kasich argues it creates jobs, and job opportunities have grown statewide, data show. The Democrats, however, say job recovery development is reflective of a national trend and was in place when Kasich took office and that JobsOhio is management driven and keeps unions and the resources they bring from the table.

"No one rescued them, they recused themselves, " said Kasich of Berry, 27, DeJesus, 24, and Knight, 33, the young women rescued last year by Ramsey from Castro's since demolished home on Cleveland's largely White west side.

DeJesus was 14 when Castro kidnapped her, Berry was nearly 17, and Knight was 21. Both Berry and DeJesus were snatched within blocks from their homes. All three of the women have book deals.

Castro, 52, took his own life last year, less than a month into a life sentence for his crimes, including multiple counts of rape and kidnapping.

But the governor did not mention any substantive strategies or funding initiatives to deal with the crisis in Ohio of the rape and murder of women across racial lines, particularly in Cleveland, the state's second largest city next to Columbus, the capital. Castro and serial killer Anthony Sowell put Cleveland on the map as to heinous crimes against women, Sowell, 53, now on death row for murdering 11 Black women whose remains were found beginning in 2009 at his since demolished home on Imperial Avenue on the city's largely Black east side.

And though the governor said that the state has unleashed a public school funding formula with more state aid to schools, the Ohio State Legislature continues to defy numerous orders by the Ohio Supreme Court that it comply with its 1997 DeRolph decision and revise the state's unconstitutional public school funding formula. That formula, the court ruled, violates the 'thorough and efficient' clause of the Ohio Constitution by relying too heavily on property taxes and creating 'property rich' and 'property poor' public school districts to the detriment of Ohio's poor children. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)