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DAYTON — Ask Anthony Lewis what needs to be done to help Ohio's lagging economy, and he has a ready answer: "Job training programs, and a way to pay for college for low-income families," the 30-year-old Dayton resident said.

Lewis speaks from experience. After being laid off from two assembly jobs in four years, the message was clear to Lewis — upgrade his skills or face a future without financial security. He took a job as a cook in a nursing home and applied to Sinclair Community College, but discovered he couldn't afford the tuition on his low wages.

Luckily, Lewis found someone who would pay to train him — a local union hall. He's now an apprentice electrician and on his way to a new career.

Liberals and conservatives disagree on many of the remedies for Ohio's economy, but both sides say investment in education and retraining programs is critical.

"The solution is not to put up trade barriers but to improve education for the jobs of the future," said Dan Griswold, a trade expert with the libertarian Cato Institute. "K-12 education needs to be accelerated, especially in science and math. The community college system needs to be upgraded to meet the new opportunities out there."

Amy Hanauer, executive director of the liberal think tank Policy Matters Ohio, goes a step farther by saying the nation should offer all eighth graders a "Contract for College" that blends grants, loans and work study to help students pay for college without excessive debt.

Pat Thieke of Washington Twp. said she was disappointed with the education her children got in Ohio schools and colleges. "The standards aren't high enough. If companies aren't seeing Ohio's young people coming in and being able to take their jobs, they're going to leave the state."

Labor Day may be mostly barbecues and family picnics, but its also a time to assess the state of the economy, and in Ohio it's not a pretty picture, particularly for those without a college education.

A new Policy Matters Ohio study released today, Aug. 31, found that, on average, workers in Ohio with a college education earn more than twice as much as those with no high school diploma — $22.48 per hour versus $9.30, or a difference of $13 an hour. In 1979, the education gap was just $5.50 an hour in inflation-adjusted dollars, the study found.

Of broader concern to groups like Policy Matters is the increasing inequality between rich and poor, both nationally and in Ohio. Since 1979, the pre-tax income of the top 5 percent of Ohio households grew by more than 80 percent, while income in the bottom 20 percent declined and those in the middle gained only slightly, according to the group's study.

In 2006, the richest 1 percent of families in Ohio captured more than 15 percent of income, while the entire bottom half of the population shared less than 15 percent, the study found.

Outsourcing, free trade and a decline in union membership have all taken their toll on the hourly wages of the less educated, Hanauer said. Still, even college graduates have not been immune to Ohio's stagnant economy — the wages of the median worker with a bachelor's degree or more has not grown in the past eight years, she said.

None but the highest wage earners and those earning major investment income have benefited from the nation's increased productivity since 1979, the group's study found. For almost 50 years after World War II, the growth in the nation's productivity was matched by gains in workers' wages. From 1973 to 2005, however, the nation's productivity grew by more than 105 percent while family income rose less than 31 percent. And in the last five years of that period, 2000 to 2005, median family income actually fell by 2.3 percent despite a nearly 17 percent gain in productivity.

David Hansen, president of the conservative Buckeye Institute, says the key to Ohio's comeback is cutting taxes, particularly for entrepreneurs launching start-up companies. "We clearly have policy burdens that keep us from growing, and it's not just in manufacturing."

States with lower tax rates have been growing since 2000, Hansen said: "Texas has added on the order of 50,000 new jobs since 2002 when we've been losing on the order of 2,000."

But liberal economists say allowing states to compete with one another for jobs by slashing corporate taxes only ensures a race to the bottom for everyone. They say the federal government must step in to set limits on corporate tax breaks.

To reverse the growing income gap, Policy Matters urges broad action at the federal level — new investment in education and green technology, trade policies that hold foreign competitors to safety and environmental standards, guaranteed health care and paid sick days, more bargaining clout for unions, tighter controls on credit rates and a major rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure.

Ohio can't do it alone, said Ned Hill, vice president of economic development at Cleveland State University. Statewide efforts to raise the minimum wage, mandate sick days and provide universal health care coverage place an unfair burden on Ohio employers and put them at a competitive disadvantage.

Joseph McKinney, a professor of international economics at Baylor University in Texas and an adviser to the Bush administration, says some of the benefits accruing to all consumers from free trade ought to be shifted to workers who find themselves displaced. In addition to retraining, he advocates portable health insurance and pension plans workers can take to their next job.

To Ohio residents like 49-year-old Joanne Adams of Trotwood, the recipe for recovery is simple: "Stop giving these tax breaks that move our jobs out of the country, bring our men home from Iraq and give us universal health care," she said. "Now if we can get these things accomplished in about 30 days, I'll be OK" with the new president.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or

jdebrosse@DaytonDailyNews.com.