At the start of the Ohio 2024 Legislative Session, lawmakers would do well to heed Gov. Mike DeWine’s thoughts on what should be prioritized and accomplished. Speaking with WCPO, DeWine appeared to hope lawmakers would move away from distracting nonsense and instead focus on doing real good for Ohioans — particularly when it comes to education, mental health and addiction.

“Focus more and more on mental health this coming year … kind of go back to John Kennedy 60 years ago,” DeWine said. “When he signed The Community Mental Health Act, the promise was that no matter where you lived, whatever neighborhood, whatever community, if you had a mental health problem, you have a loved one who does, we’re going to have a place for that person to get the help that they need.

“But we never really, as a country, lived up to this, and so my goal is for Ohio, for people to say we’re making sure that people with mental health problems — some people with a drug addiction problem, whatever their barrier is — that we can break those barriers down and live up to their full potential.”

DeWine told WCPO it is unacceptable that one-third of our children cannot read at grade level. There are efforts undeway to address that, too, if lawmakers will simply focus on them.

But while there was plenty to applaud in DeWine’s goals for the upcoming session, Buckeye State residents must hope he and lawmakers are cautious in their attempts to put “guardrails” and “guidelines” on measures already approved by Ohio voters.

Sure, the governor says he respects “the will of the voters,” but he also encouraged lawmakers to tweak matters such as abortion and recreational marijuana. Elected officials will have to be careful about giving lip service to the will of the voters while fully intending to undermine that will by “(taking) action so that we can actually put this under some control,” as DeWine put it.

Voters spoke. Other than cleaning up loose ends or clarifying conflicting language, lawmakers must not meddle to the degree of ignoring what their constituents intended. Instead, they would do well to focus on education, mental health, addiction and continued economic diversification and expansion.

If they put as much effort into those as they have been into tilting at socio-cultural windmills, Ohio — and Ohioans — will be better for it.