Gubernatorial candidate Mary Taylor discusses upcoming campaign with College Republicans

Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor spoke to Ohio University College Republicans about education at her campaign event for Ohio Governor on Thursday.“Coming out of high school, (students) should have the skills they need to take a job that exists in Ohio today, and there are lots of jobs that don’t require college degrees,” Taylor said. She said she wants to give high school students the tools necessary to either go on to college or be successful in a career. One way she suggested to help with making college more affordable by continuing secondary education programs like College Credit Plus (CCP) more available. CCP allows students to take college level classes while still studying in high school. Taylor addressed concerns about tuition costs from OU students. She also said she supports Gov. John Kasich’s textbook initiative and wants to push universities to cut costs and come up with plans to better use their resources. “We need to ask our public universities to do a better job of helping us drive down the cost of tuition, and I think long-term they’re going to get on board, and be a partner to driving down the costs of a college education,” Taylor said.Taylor also shared with OUCR members her past accomplishments as state auditor and victories with Gov. John Kasich. During her 2006 state auditor campaign, she was the only Republican to win statewide in that election.“I wasn’t lucky, they say luck is where hard work and preparation cross paths, and then you end up with this thing called luck,” Taylor said on that victory. She explained that during her time as state auditor, there was a billion dollar deficit that would have left the budget unbalanced, and this inspired her campaign for lieutenant governor in 2010.“We identified that the state was going to hit a billion dollar deficit and that’s really why I decided to run with John Kasich (as lieutenant governor),” Taylor said.She said Gov. Kasich’s campaign trusted people, rather than the government, with their hard-earned tax dollars, and that it paid off when around 450,000 Ohio residents were back to work and taxes were cut by around five million dollars. “I’m running for governor because I think Ohio is on a great path. We are going to have some future challenges, but I think with those challenges are going to come future opportunities,” Taylor said. “I think that our team and the people that I’m surrounding myself with… have the right solution for our future.”