Vendors pitch AI, virtual reality and industry partnerships as tools to boost classroom instruction and workforce pipelines

A string of education‑technology and workforce organizations told the Senate Education Committee they can deliver AI tools, virtual‑reality learning and industry‑aligned credentialing to improve classroom instruction and connect students to Ohio jobs — and several asked for pilot funding in the state budget.

Charlie Mulligan and Stiegler EdTech described an e‑sports‑linked micro‑credentialing model used in North Carolina to train high‑school students for STEM careers and recommended a modest pilot in Ohio targeting 1,000+ students across several districts. Mulligan said the state’s participation made scaling easier in North Carolina than district‑by‑district contracting.

Vendors described classroom AI and accessibility tools. Curtis Barnes of 1EdTech urged funding for a centralized operational infrastructure to help districts track and publish vendor data‑privacy agreements and swap manual vendor‑vetting processes for a shared statewide resource aligned with federal privacy laws. Glenna Wright Gallo of Everway, formerly an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, told senators about assistive‑technology suites (uPAR and Read&Write) that screen literacy and provide accommodations to support students with disabilities.

PRISMS founder Anurupa Ganguly described a virtual‑reality platform used in dozens of Ohio districts and cited a third‑party study showing an 11 percent gain on Algebra I benchmarks in pilot classrooms. Transfer, a VR career‑exploration company, and Argonaut, which operates an aerospace and maritime themed public high school in Cleveland, asked for state seed funding for immersive career exploration and to expand industry‑connected programming.

Merlin Mind, which offers voice‑enabled classroom orchestration tools, argued that technology should augment but not replace teachers and suggested voice controls can reduce “techno stress” and recover instructional time lost to poorly integrated systems. Several vendors requested line‑item pilot funding or targeted grants in House Bill 96; committee members deferred budget decisions to the ongoing appropriations process.

Witnesses stressed two common themes: professional learning for teachers is necessary to adopt technology effectively, and pilots or state support can reduce inequities between districts that can afford new devices and those that cannot. No committee votes were held during the hearing.