Gov. gives historic State of the State

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (WDTN) - Ohio Governor John Kasich was in a much different place from a year ago when he delivered his State of the State address Tuesday and he thinks Ohio has followed suit.

Kasich gave his speech from the Wells Academy in Steubenville becoming the first governor to do the State of the State outside Columbus. Kasich says he knew a year ago that he wanted to give the address somewhere besides the capital.

Kasich told the crowd about how far he thinks Ohio has come in the last year, pointing to the state's status as the number one job creator in the Midwest after being ranked 48th nationally in the past.

But these aren't your father's manufacturing jobs. Kasich says they require a lot more technical knowledge and he believes we should be pushing more young people to take the blue collar route.

"Mom's and dad's stop telling your kids to not go into manufacturing," Kasich says. "If God wanted them to make things let them make things."

Aside from manufacturing jobs, Kasich spent time touching on everything from the 35 percent dropout rate in urban high schools to the low graduation rates at state universities. He even brushed off some hecklers at one point.

Some of his most encouraging words were for Wright-Patt and the research it's doing into unmanned aerial vehicles and sensor technology. He said he can't believe that what's going on at the base has gone unnoticed for so long.

He says his office is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to open up more airspace for those UAV's.

Lawmakers also recently asked the President to open up that airspace.