State Representative Ron Ferguson, State Sen. Frank Hoagland visit local schools

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ohio — State Representative Ron Ferguson and State Sen. Frank Hoagland visited Edison Local High School, and some other Edison schools on Monday to talk to students about the Heart and Souls Program, as well as key political issues.

Sophomore and senior government and politics students listened to the two local legislators share their story for a little under an hour.

“The Ohio Department of Education recently put out an initiative called the Hearts and Souls Project, which was basically to invite your local representatives and your state board of education reps into your district to have the opportunity to see what the day to day operations within your district looks like,” Superintendent Bill Beattie said.

The legislators began by talking with students about their backgrounds and how they entered the political field.

“We went around the schools. Edison was nice enough to give us the opportunity here to speak with some of the grade school stories and recently spoke with some of the high school kids the government class, and we had the chance to speak with the educators and superintendent,” Hoagland said.

“Hopefully the next state rep., next state senator is sitting right in the classroom. So, it’s always nice when you have people from the community grow up and then represent us in Columbus,” Ferguson said.

At the end, Beattie asked student in the room to rise if they faced internet issues last year when learning from home.

“I think it’s important for them to know where we are at and what we face in a rural district. It’s very hard to be in a position where you shut down a school due to a pandemic or where you are forced to shut down due to a pandemic. You’re learning at home and to do what you have to be able to do,” Beattie said.

“I didn’t want to let that go without them getting the opportunity to see that we truly do have an issue.”

It’s something legislators know about and plan to continue working toward solving.

“We are very active on trying to figure out the best way to come up for a solution for a problem,” Hoagland said.

At the end of the program, both legislators encouraged students to reach out if they ever have any questions about politics and what happens in Columbus.