Teaching the Success Sequence
Senate Bill 156 would teach students in grades 6 through 12 the “Success Sequence”, finish school, find work and marry before having children, as a research-backed route out of poverty.
Issues Education
As the legislature titles itTo enact sections 3301.0717 and 3313.6025 of the Revised Code regarding the success sequence curriculum.
CCV at the Statehouse
76 people filed testimony on this bill in total. The full witness record is the legislature’s.
Overview
The Success Sequence is not a complex formula. Research finds that people who take three steps in order, graduate from high school, hold full-time work and marry before having children, very rarely end up in poverty as adults. CCV puts the figure at 97 per cent.
SB 156, sponsored by Senator Al Cutrona, would put those outcomes in front of Ohio students in grades 6 to 12, so a young person can weigh them before making the decisions they describe. The Ohio Senate passed it 24 to 9 on 22 October 2025 and it went to the House.
On 17 February 2026 the House Education Committee heard testimony from three witnesses: Dr Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies, Ian Rowe of the American Enterprise Institute and CCV’s policy executive director David Mahan. Wilcox presented family structure as the strongest predictor of a child’s economic mobility, often outweighing school quality. Rowe argued the sequence gives students agency rather than a victimhood narrative. Mahan asked lawmakers to fund building strong children now instead of rebuilding broken adults later.
Ohio ranks 29th on the Family Structure Index, the measure CCV publishes with its Hope and a Future report. CCV first testified on the bill in May 2025 and continues to press for it.
Testimony
- Most recent
- Feb 20, 2026CCV publishes its account of the hearing and the three written filings.
- Feb 17, 2026Ohio House Education Committee hears Brad Wilcox, Ian Rowe and David Mahan.
- Oct 22, 2025The Ohio Senate passes SB 156 by 24 votes to 9. The bill goes to the House.
- Oct 15, 2025At the Statehouse: teaching the Success Sequence and protecting children online.
- May 6, 2025CCV testifies on the bill for the first time.
- Earliest
Every entry is a post CCV published, with the date it carries. The chamber’s own journal, sponsors added, motions, readings, should be fed from the legislature once this is wired.
