The top priorities for Ohio’s next governor should be keeping jobs in Ohio, improving the state’s educational system and providing quality, affordable health care.

On that much, the candidates agree.

But Democratic candidate Ted Strickland and his Republican opponent, Ken Blackwell, differ in their plans to pursue those goals, with Blackwell favoring a more business-friendly approach and Strickland advocating a more education-oriented plan.

Strickland, a U.S. congressman representing Ohio’s 6th district, said he would like state government to pressure public universities into stopping rapid tuition increases. He also said he supported a plan to enable parents to open post-secondary education savings accounts.

“Boards of trustees have to start seeing themselves as student advocates,” Strickland said. “I think the state can use some pressure (withholding financial resources).”

A spokesman for Blackwell, Ohio’s secretary of state, said Blackwell wants to create an educational system that emphasizes completion of 16 years of schooling, with a college degree being the ultimate goal. He said under Blackwell’s administration, the state would increase funding to universities pursuing specific research initiatives — such as Ohio State University’s work on biomedical engineering — and discourage other institutions from researching the same topics.

“The idea is to make the goal of Ohio’s education system a college degree, where education isn’t considered to be complete after high school,” said Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell. He added that Blackwell has proposed allowing children to stay on their parents’ health care plans until age 29 to further reduce college expenses. Children now are taken off their parents’ health care plans at age 21, LoParo said.

Both candidates have campaigned to keep jobs in Ohio and have said maintaining those jobs will keep students from leaving the state after graduation. Strickland’s job-retention plan calls for state investment in Ohio’s strengths — such as producing alternative energy sources — while Blackwell’s plan calls for a re-evaluation of the tax code and a leasing of the Ohio Turnpike to fund a public infrastructure project for northern Ohio. LoParo said that plan would generate $6 billion in revenue.

“I want to stop the bleeding,” Strickland said. “(A lack of jobs) will result in a brain drain.”