One state Board of Education member at the event, which took place at the Athens Community Center, addressed concerns about an estimated $6 to $8 billion shortfall in Ohio's next biennial budget, and heard feedback from area educators.

The situation is already dire, one participant noted, with classrooms being combined for full days because in one scenario the school district couldn't afford to pay a substitute.

The event was put on by Voices for Ohio's Children, which holds these community briefings each year. It featured speakers from various children's advocacy groups, as well as state Board of Education member Dannie Green, who is from Gallipolis.

In an interview following his presentation, Green said he's pleased to see the level of participation and concern about this issue, but wishes he could do more about it.

"The school board gives their input for what we want to do in the budget for education," he said. "But the state Legislature is going to do what they want with it anyhow."

He said the board will tell the Legislature what Ohio schools really need to keep the system going. He said that he thinks the state will succeed in implementing the "evidence-based model" that the Legislature passed last year to reform the state's education system, but it will take time.

Green said that the more people who are aware of the budget situation, the better off the state is going to be and the more people will work together to find a solution. That is the value in meetings such as this, he said.

"We just want to make sure that every child has a quality education, or the opportunity for a quality education," he said.

Amy Swanson, Voices for Ohio's Children executive director, said that these meetings are held to pull together information and opinions on what Ohioans would like to see implemented in state policy.

From information gathered during previous years, she presented Ohioans' vision for children in the state to be safe, educated, healthy, connected and employable.

These events, she said, force the collision of various stakeholders in communities so that they can network and better coordinate their efforts to help Ohio's children.

"Kids issues don't see geographic borders," she said. "So the things that we are hearing here in Athens are the same types of things we heard in Cincinnati."

Voices, she said, will take the results of these briefings and synthesize them into a series of policy change recommendations that they will bring to the state Board of Education. These will be presented formally Sept. 13, she said. The board actually can set more statewide policy and direction than some people think, she said. So her group will ask them to do so in a series of ways.

"If we're about improving Ohio's economy, we need to be about investing in Ohio's children," she said. "There's no better time to do it."

Voices has also been meeting with various political candidates around the state, and during the event Tuesday provided a seminar on how participants could be more effective political advocates as well.

Voices has an election-advocacy brochure online at www.vfc-oh.org that includes tips on what to ask questions at candidate forums, how to conduct voter registration guides, how to host candidate forums or send out a candidate questionnaire, and how to support or oppose various ballot initiatives.

The organization has also put together some risk metrics for Ohio children including three indexes indicating various levels of risk. Alarming risk metrics include kids experiencing or witnessing trauma, children in poverty, youth suicide, infant mortality and child obesity. Serious risk metrics include high school dropouts, uninsured but eligible children, fourth-grade reading scores, teen pregnancy, preschoolers being expelled, kids without access to afterschool programs, and incarcerated children. Minimal risk metrics include children with insurance and immunizations, and kids with dental sealants by third grade.