Teacher World

With the vote on Ohio Issue 2 right around the corner, I felt compelled to share with you some facts that might help you make an informed and fair decision when you step into your local voting booth this November. I hope that you will read this information with an open mind.

I recently received findings from a report compiled by a former Ohio journalist, TC Brown. During his journalism career, he was the assistant bureau chief for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer in the Statehouse Bureau in Columbus, and he has written for several magazines and national publications. His stories drove reforms in many areas, such as changes in state policy for disposing of hazardous and radioactive waste and transformations in the manner in which the state determines its consumer fraud recovery, to name a few.

He has received national, state, and local journalism awards, and resides in Ohio where he works as a writer, editor, social media expert, media consultant, and an investigator.

I tell you these things to reinforce the veracity of the information that TC Brown reported when he turned his numerous skills to studying public workers. In his research, he found out some interesting information about the willingness of these public workers to sacrifice during tough economic times. The following are some of his key findings (which I quote directly):

•        Public union workers have saved taxpayers more than $1 billion through collective bargaining concessions since 2008.
•        State employees contributed $350 million in wage freezes, furlough days and increased healthcare costs.
•        Teachers and support staff accepted wage freezes in more than 90 percent of collective bargaining agreements this year – concessions not tallied in this report because they are not yet available.
•        Last year, at least 65 percent of public employee contracts included at least 1 year of wage freezes, some furlough days, reduced compensation, rollovers or economic re-openers.
•        Some of the lowest-paid public employees – non-teaching personnel such as custodians – have gone up to eight years without a pay increase in exchange for stable health care costs.
•        More than two-thirds of all teachers’ contracts increased employee insurance premium contributions or significantly changed their health plans, with the savings often used to improve educational opportunities.
•        More than 93 percent of public workers already pay for their own pension plans, with no contributions from their employers.
•        On average, county and state employees pay more than 15 percent for their health care plans.
•        A sample review of concessions in a half dozen Ohio cities shows that employees and safety forces have saved their towns nearly $11.5 million since 2008.
•        By far, the largest pool of concessions identified in this report came from public education unions, who are estimated to have saved school districts at least $700 million for the 2010-11 (fiscal) school year.
•        The collective bargaining law has been a successful tool that essentially eliminated much of the conflict the state saw three decades ago between public-sector unions and government managers.
•        When the economy is good, public employees have made modest gains through contract negotiations. When times are tougher, public employees have been willing to make concessions to preserve jobs, maintain programs and services and help their employers balance budgets

In fact, according to his findings, public employees made over $1 billion in sacrifices to help out their state and local budgets during these tough economic times.

Is it too much to hope that these sacrifices will not be overlooked in November? Public workers are not asking for much when you show up to vote in this upcoming election; just the right to have a voice in important decisions which affect our ability to do our jobs successfully. Who knows better than teachers, policemen, and firefighters how to best serve and protect those individuals we have agreed to serve and protect?

Do not reward our deep commitment by stripping us of our ability to speak up for our rights and our futures. Over $1 billion in sacrifices is surely worth that much, don’t you think?

Please, remember our sacrifices in November, Ohio, and vote no on Issue 2!

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The We Are Ohio group delivered more than 1.3 million signatures to Secretary of State Jon Husted, way more than the 231,000 required, in order to get Senate Bill 5 on the ballot in November. This suspends SB5 from taking effect until these votes are counted after November’s elections.

Senate Bill 5 was signed in late March by Ohio Gov. John Kasich. This controversial law restricts collective bargaining rights for over 350,000 teachers, police officers, and other public workers and bans employee strikes. Under this law, unions may still negotiate wages, but they can’t bargain on health care, sick leave, or pension benefits.

When approval of SB5 by the Republican-controlled state Legislature was announced shouts and jeers from protestors resonated in each chamber. But Ohio’s protests, which attracted about 8,500 protestors, paled in comparison to Wisconsin’s, which attracted upwards of 70,000 protestors, possibly due to Madison’s proximity to the University of Wisconsin and its labor heritage.

Ten thousand volunteers along with some paid workers passed around petitions to get this SB5 referendum on the ballot, which labor groups and many others claim is an unfair attack on workers. Meanwhile, Gov. Kasich and his GOP colleagues claim that SB5 will help city officials, school superintendents, and others to control costs at a time when all cities are feeling the budget crunch.

Now comes the real battle, with each side trying to raise enough money to finance the fight that lies ahead. Kasich is visibly supporting the law, and has directed others who support it to a website established by a group of individuals who are promoting SB5.

I visited the website, Building a Better Ohio, and read the usual arguments that were voiced throughout the push to pass this bill at the beginning of this year. But I found a statement on this website that concerned me greatly, and reaffirms all of my fears regarding this law.

The statement reads: “The new law eliminates a common collective bargaining demand known as “last hired, first fired,” in which newer teachers are cut first in the event of layoffs. Because newer teachers are often paid less, districts are forced to lay off a higher number of teachers to fill a budget deficit. This strategy is not conducive to keeping more teachers in classroom.”

(I want you to know that this was copied and pasted directly from the website, so the typo “in classroom” was their mistake, not mine. Maybe they needed a teacher to proofread their statements before posting them. Ha! Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

All kidding aside, let me start out by saying, I do not support retaining teachers strictly because of seniority. I know that there are teachers of all ages and all levels of experience who range in ability from excellent to poor. I have always said that administrators and our teacher unions do us a disservice by keeping bad teachers strictly because they have more seniority than other teachers. This policy makes us all look bad.  So I am not adverse to an excellent teacher with less seniority being retained over a poor teacher with more seniority.

But, that being said, this statement seems to suggest that if SB5 was in place, districts would then by free to cut teachers with higher seniority in order to save the district more money and more jobs. This is a policy that scares the heck out of me, as I am a veteran teacher.

I believe that SB5, if it is not voted done in November, will lead to the practice by many districts of starting at the top when making cuts, not necessarily because those teachers are bad, but because it is a bigger cost reduction for the district allowing them to make as few cuts as possible. In the process, they may be getting rid of excellent, experienced teachers in order to keep newer teachers who certainly are not as experienced and may or may not be as good.

Now that isn’t fair, and it is the main reason I will vote down SB5 in November. And I am grateful to all of those volunteers out there who worked so hard collecting signatures, and for all of those who signed petitions saying this law needs to be repealed. 

Because Senate Bill 5 must go!

teacher layoffs, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog collective bargaining, Gov. John Kasich, Senate Bill 5, teacher seniority, unions, We Are Ohio

I’m certain that citizens of Ohio have heard the debate that fired up between President Obama and our Governor John Kasich. But in case the rest of you haven’t, let me fill you in on the drama in Ohio over SB5.

It started on Tuesday of last week when Cleveland’s Romona Robinson from WKYC TV met with President Barack Obama to talk about issues which Cleveland and Northeast Ohioans are facing in this tough economic time. Robinson’s first question was to ask the president’s view on Senate Bill 5, Ohio’s new law which would significantly restrict collective bargaining for 350,000 public workers. Under this law, wages and certain work conditions could be negotiated but not health care, sick time, or pension benefits.

Obama talked for awhile about the challenges all states are experiencing during these difficult times, stating that some of the problems being faced would have been worse if states hadn’t received funding through the Recovery Act implemented two years ago. He explained that this act provided a lot of relief that allowed states to balance their budgets and avoid laying off teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

He continued to explain that states are faced with tough choices now that the federal government is pulling back and their revenues have not fully recovered. So, what does that mean for public workers, as far as he is concerned?

President Obama stated the following: “The one thing that I’ve said very clearly is let’s make sure that we’ve got shared sacrifice; that we make sure that the burden doesn’t just fall on one set of folks. Let’s certainly not blame public employees for a financial crisis that they had nothing to do with, and let’s not use this as an excuse to erode their bargaining rights.”

“And so, whether it’s Wisconsin or what we’re seeing in Ohio, I strongly disapprove of an approach that basically says people who are doing their jobs, providing vital services to their communities, that somehow, they are finding themselves not able to collectively bargain. That doesn’t mean that they may not have to provide some concessions; that there shouldn’t be some negotiations about wages. All those things are appropriate, but let’s respect their right to collectively bargain.”

When Robinson asked him if he would campaign against SB5, he said, “Well, as I’ve said before, I think it is a mistake, and I’m happy for everyone in Ohio to know that I think that approach is a mistake.”

So, how did Governor Kasich, who supported and signed SB5, respond to Obama’s criticism of this law and its potential mistreatment of public employees?

In an interview on a Cleveland television station where he was asked how he felt about President Obama’s statements regarding SB5, Kasich said, “The president of the United States has, I think, a $13 trillion debt. Why doesn’t he do his job? When he gets our budget balanced and starts to prepare a future for our children, maybe he can have an opinion on what’s going on in Ohio.”

I am grateful that President Obama spoke out against this legislation which, like Wisconsin’s law, is clearly trying to break the power of unions at the expense of the workers these unions protect; workers who serve their community in so many important ways. But, I confess that I wish the president would do more than vocalize his concerns over SB5 and help to shut it down.

Wisconsin’s law, which will affect 175,000 workers (exempting police and firefighters), is temporarily blocked, and opponents of SB5 are busily collecting signatures in the hope that voters will be able to overturn this measure. Public employees must collect 231,000 signatures by June 30 in order to get a referendum on the November ballot.

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Ohio union workers are gearing up for the fight of their lives; the fight to strike down Senate Bill 5, a law that would limit the bargaining rights of roughly 365,000 public union workers along with many nonunion public employees throughout Ohio. A referendum drive has begun to vote down SB5.

The first skirmish in this coordinated effort to halt the bill has already been launched. We Are Ohio, a group which is leading this drive, circulated both a petition with a short description of the bill and one with a more detailed summary of the bill. They only needed 1,000 signatures for this step in the process but were able to gather more than 3,000 signatures on each.

This first hurdle will be cleared upon verification by the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office that the group met the requirement of 1,000 signatures, and an evaluation of the accuracy of the description of the bill as stated in the petitions by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Two petitions were circulated by We Are Ohio in case the language in one of them is rejected.

Upon successful completion of this stage of the process, the real battle begins; the collecting of 231,147 signatures, about 6% of the total vote cast for governor in the last election, before June 30. Signatures need to be acquired from 44 of the 88 counties in Ohio, and the number of signatures from each county must be equal to 3% of the total vote for governor in the last election. However, Dennis Willard, the spokesman for We Are Ohio, said that the group’s actual goal will be to collect double the required signatures; between 470,000 and 500,000. Residents from every county will have the opportunity to sign these petitions.

If this leg of the campaign is successful, the final battle will occur in November, when all of those who are against SB5 will have to work to convince voters to show up and vote this law down. This will be a challenge in a municipal election where there is an historically lower turnout.

“I think it’s going to be something people haven’t seen in a long time,” said John Wagner, executive secretary and treasurer of the Akron-based Tri-County Regional Labor Council. “I think this has really galvanized the labor movement. I think it’s really galvanized the Democratic Party. It’s woken a lot of people up.”

This battle has huge ramifications for Ohio and the whole country; if this bill prevails, it could be perceived as a sign of support for other equally unpleasant reforms, such as pension changes, right to work, and further limitations to collective bargaining in other states.

“Ohio is make or break for both sides,” said Willard. “So many people are fired up! It’s not, ‘How do I sign?’ It’s, ‘How do I circulate?’”

The referendum drive is getting additional support from a grassroots program called Proud Ohio Worker. According to their website:

“The Proud Ohio Worker program was created to allow merchants across the state to show that they recognize public employee support for their shops. We are asking merchants to show their support in return for public employees by affixing our sticker to a window in the front of their store. This sticker is a signal to public and private employees that their shop is worker friendly, simply recognizing that public dollars are spent in their store.

Proud Ohio Workers wants to ensure that small shops all across Ohio will remain open. If public employee wages are reduced and jobs are cut, local businesses will suffer. Supporting the creation and retention of good paying middle class jobs is good for local economies.”

A battle is underway here in Ohio, and a worried nation watches anxiously to see what happens here. This is not a time to be complacent or to expect others to fight for us. Those of us who are public employees need to work together to do what needs to be done to regain those rights which guarantee our jobs, our salaries, and our working conditions.

Rise up and volunteer to circulate petitions! Rise up and let your voice be heard while there is still a chance! Thank the members of Proud Ohio Workers in your community for joining our cause. If there ever was a time for us to take a stand and be counted, this is such a time!

Rise up!

Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog collective bargaining, petitions, Proud Ohio Worker, public workers, referendum, Senate Bill 5, unions, We Are Ohio

Just when you think you have heard all the bad news you could possibly hear, there’s more! A new bill has been introduced which will undoubtedly become part of the negotiations over Senate Bill 5 in Ohio. It’s House Bill 136, and what it would do to public education is of huge concern to those of us who are employed in public school systems.

Here is what it proposes: Sponsored by Republican Representative Matt Huffman, House Bill 136 would establish a statewide voucher program which would provide taxpayer revenue to students to pay for their tuition at a private school of their parent’s choice. Household income would be the qualifying factor; a family of four whose income exceeds $100,000 would qualify for these vouchers.

So, why are those of us in public education upset? The public school district in which an eligible student resides would essentially be the one to pay for this student to attend a school other than theirs because, according to the proposal, the amount of the voucher would be deducted from that school district’s state funding. So, it’s not bad enough that we might lose students whose parents think their child will get a better education in a private school, but we must lose additional revenue as well! We are expected to pay the tuition for students to attend private schools and not be concerned that these families would knowingly bleed us dry!

Needless to say, OEA is fervently opposed to House Bill 136 or any voucher program that uses taxpayer money to fund parental choice when it involves enrolling students in private schools. As they stated to their members in a document explaining this new bill: “The fiscal impact of this proposal could be devastating for school districts throughout the state. In a tough economy facing budget deficits, we need to focus on the essentials. Vouchers drain scarce resources from public schools that serve the majority of Ohio’s students and are open to all.”

Is it any surprise that those of us who make our living educating students in public schools all over our nation feel as though we have a target on our backs? We face the fear of losing staff members due to budget cuts and the threat to take away our right to collective bargaining. We nervously anticipate the reduction of our salaries, which for most of us in education is already minimal, as we are forced to contribute more to our pensions and pay more for health costs. Now, in Ohio, we face the latest threat; that we will have to watch as our schools subsidize private schools in spite of our own budget deficits.

Is it surprising under the circumstances that teachers’ morale is low and tension is high? We discuss and dissect what is happening all around us with trepidation and frustration because we feel powerless to change what is coming. We’ve written our letters and made our phone calls to our representatives and we’ve attended rallies, but nothing seems to impede the inevitable.

So, here we are, anxious for the future, but determined to do our job to the very best of our ability because we love teaching and we care about our students or we wouldn’t be here. But that target sure is getting uncomfortable to carry around.

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Voting on Senate Bill 5 in Ohio has been delayed as lawmakers look over lengthy changes recommended by Republican state Senator Shannon Jones, the bill’s sponsor. New plans are underway for the committee to meet Wednesday in order to discuss the 98 pages of changes that Jones submitted.

My first thought is: Are you kidding me? After all of the discussions senators have had over this bill, now, when they planned to take a vote, there are 98 pages of amendments to read, discuss, and agree upon? Is this just an attempt to push forward legislature which senators do not have enough time to adequately consider before pushing for a vote? Does it sound a little like our health plan? Is this just more smoke and mirrors?

Here is a sample of the long list of amendments Jones is proposing:

* Allows all current contracts with public employee unions to be re-opened as if under fiscal emergency.
* Allows collective bargaining rights for state employees on wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment, within limits.
* Bases future pay increases on merit and keeps those merit raises within established pay ranges.
* Caps vacation leave at 7.7 hours per two-week pay period after 19 years of service, as opposed to current 9.2 hours per two-week pay period after 24 years of service.
* Caps annual sick leave for state and local government employees and employees of state colleges and universities at 10 days a year.
* Identifies areas not subject to collective bargaining, such as health care benefits, pension pick-ups, privatization of services, and work force levels such as maximum classroom sizes for teachers.
* Bans striking for all public employees.
* Establishes penalties for strikers that include firing and sanctions of up to twice the employees’ daily pay each day the strike continues; violating a court injunction against a strike could mean up to $1,000 in fines, up to 30 days in jail, or both.
* Gives each public employer’s legislative body the ability to settle unresolved contract disputes after reviewing the employer’s last best offer, the union’s last best offer, and holding a public hearing and public vote.
* Clarifies public employer rights on hiring, firing, discipline, work assignments, employee qualifications and other rules.
* Excludes firefighters in supervisory roles from collective bargaining and establishes new firefighter bargaining guidelines.
* Excludes management-level employees of public universities from collective bargaining.
* Bases teacher layoffs not only on tenure but also on teacher performance as measured by level of license and other qualifications, student performance and performance evaluations or other evaluations set by the school board.

In my early 20’s, I was seriously ill and making repeated visits to doctors’ offices and undergoing numerous tests in an effort to find out what was wrong with me. This agonizing process went on for almost three years, and after awhile, with no definitive diagnosis in sight, the stress became overwhelming, which, in turn, made me sicker. When I finally was diagnosed, even though I was not happy with the diagnosis, I was able to accept my situation and learn to deal with it. The torture was in the not-knowing; knowing brought acceptance and the ability to learn to cope with the difficulties I knew I would face in the future.

This waiting, worrying, and stressing over what is going to happen to my job due to Senate Bill 5 is a little like what I went through in my early 20’s. No matter how much I call in or write to my senators, I can’t control what is looming in my future, anymore than I could control my illness, and I just want to know what it all means for my school system, those I work with, my pension and health plans, my salary, my ability to pay my bills, and my ability to retire someday.

I don’t think I am alone when I say: I want the details. I want to know what I face and then, torturous as it may be, I will find a way to accept it and make the best of it.  Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating that this bill get passed, amendments and all, without careful consideration by our state’s senators, but quit throwing more into it and let’s end this stressful, torturous stand-off.

All in favor say Aye!

Merit Pay for Teachers, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog amendments, collective bargaining, Senate Bill 5, Senator Shannon Jones

A sad day today in our state’s capital, as the dreaded Senate Bill 5 passed this afternoon by one vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. The only good news to share tonight is that all four Democrats and one Republican, Senator Bill Seitz, voted against the bill.

According to Cincinnati.com, the approval for this bill only came about after Senator Seitz, who expressed his disapproval of the legislation, was replaced by the Senate leadership. Sounds a little deceptive, doesn’t it? Bears some striking similarities to the deceptive nature of Wisconsin’s vote.

Be that as it may, this new bill would ban public worker strikes, establishing penalties for anyone who is involved in a walkout, and though it allows unionized workers to negotiate wages, hours, and certain work conditions, it does not allow input on health care, sick time, or pension benefits. It also would establish a new process for resolving contract disputes which involves elected officials.

Seitz’s response to this change: “Remember that old saying, you can’t fight City Hall? Under Senate Bill 5, public employees can’t talk to City Hall.”

This bill could affect about 350,000 teachers, firefighter, police officers, and other public workers. And I am sure that all of those 350,000 public workers will be watching and waiting anxiously as this bill goes to the House (also Republican-led) for final passage in the future.

It is a sad day when our government can strip us of the rights we hold so dear. It is a very dark day indeed.

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Have you contacted your representatives about Senate Bill 5 yet? Let me relay information to you directly from an attorney about what this bill would mean for education.

The firm of Muksovitz & Lemmerbrock, LLC, Attorneys at Law, sent a letter to the Cleveland Teachers Union on February 17, about SB5 after studying it in detail, and gave permission for this information to be shared with “anyone who cares about education, cares about children, and cares about teachers.” A copy of the original letter was sent to our union as well as, I’m sure, most unions throughout Ohio, and, since I believe that anyone who is reading my blogs, cares about education, children, and teachers, I am sharing the contents of this letter with you in the hopes that you will be outraged enough to do something about it, too.

Quoting from the letter directly:

“Senate Bill 5… moves forward with mandates that dictate how local school boards must operate in ways that are anti-teacher and anti-student. For example, the proposed legislation would do the following:

1. Tenure-SB5 eliminates all continuing contracts for new teachers and dictates that limited contracts may not be for more than one year. This provision will undermine the ability to attract the best and the brightest into the teaching profession.
2. Wages- It would be unlawful for school districts to base teachers’ salary on experience and education. Without any guidance whatsoever, the bill requires school districts to base salary solely on ‘merit.’
3. Health Insurance- It would be unlawful for school districts to negotiate the type of health care offered to employees, or the level of benefits available. It would be unlawful for a school district to charge employees less than 20 percent of the total premium for health care, although they could charge more.
4. Layoffs- It would be unlawful for school districts to base layoffs of teachers on seniority, within certification-which is the current method. Instead, school districts would be mandated to base layoffs on the ‘quality of performance’ of the teachers. This ‘quality of performance’ would be determined solely by the school district by considering the level of license the teacher holds, whether the teacher is ‘highly qualified,’ the value-added measure the school board uses to determine the performance of students assigned to the teacher’s classroom, the results of the teacher’s evaluation, and ‘any other criteria established by the board.’
5. Class Size- It would be unlawful for the school district to negotiate class size, or the number of teachers required in any category, such as the ratio of special education students assigned to special education teachers or to regular education teachers.
6. Leave Provisions- It would be unlawful for school districts to negotiate sick leave, maternity leave, injury leave, or assault leave provisions. These provisions must be set unilaterally by the school district and adopted as board policy.

As I stated earlier, SB5…makes the relationship between teachers and their school district worse than ever before. It mandates unilateral control over teachers and classrooms without any checks and balances in place. It outlaws collaboration. It is not designed to help children. It is designed to demonize teachers and destroy public education.” The letter is signed by Susannah Muskovitz.

Sobering news, but not surprising in the current atmosphere in which education’s woes are dumped on the doorstep of the public education system. This government will not be content until public education is a thing of the past, and they can get on with the business of treating education like a privatized business. And if we don’t raise our voices high and in huge numbers, that is exactly what will happen, and SB5 is just the tip of the iceberg.

Stand up! Speak up! Call and write your local representatives. Send the message that Senate Bill 5 is unacceptable! If there was ever a time to come together as educators in this country, it is now!

Teacher-World's Blog Senate Bill 5, students, teachers