Today, Ryan Burgess, Director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, spoke with me in regards to some of the undefined, esoteric parts of Kasich’s provision in the hopes of answering some of the community’s concerns — specifically if these provisions will be for all teachers.

“It would apply to all teachers, not just career tech educators.” Burgess said.

Burgess told me that these kinds of provisions are written “broadly for school districts, so they can determine how best to work the ‘externship’ into their plans,” Burgess said, “the state board will set the big picture parameters, while local will determine what the exact details are.”

When asked what the difference between an ‘externship’ and an ‘internship’ is, he said there isn’t a semantic difference but that they want to focus on teachers and business leaders working on external relationships.

“People are interested in the details, but there are counties that are already doing these externships including Licking County and Summit County. We’ve gotten feedback that the teachers there have had a great experience in developing relationships with their local business leaders.”

In press documents, the ultimate bottom line goal for these provisions was, “continuing the transformation of Ohio’s workforce training system by opening new pathways to college degrees and professional certification, while aligning Ohio’s education and workforce preparation systems with the most in- demand occupations of today – and tomorrow.”