SB 5 threatened our ability to make a difference in students' lives
By Traci Arway, NBCT, primary multiple disabilities teacher, Columbus
Eleven years ago I started teaching special education so that I could make a difference in the lives of the students who need it most—children with severe and multiple disabilities. I live and work in one of the state’s highest poverty per capita areas, and I wouldn’t change what I do for the world. I didn’t become a teacher to get rich; I became a teacher to serve.
Not only am I a teacher, but I’m a mother of two small children and my husband is also a teacher. Like many of our colleagues, we come from a long line of educators, including my sister-in-law who is an educator and my mother who also is a teacher. My brother works for a public university and my father works for the state of Ohio. I also have a number of cousins who decided to serve Ohioans by working in state government.
But as much as Issue 2 affects my family, our livelihood and everyone else who chose public service instead of more lucrative private sector jobs, I worry more about my students and what will happen if we don’t defeat this unfair attack on public workers. With my students who have severe needs—social, academic and behavioral—Issue 2 silences the voices and effectively prevents professionals, like me from negotiating contract provisions that ultimately would benefit my students.
If passed, Issue 2 will result in a loss of local control and lead to a loss of collaborative spirit.
Education support professionals and teachers are dedicated to their students, and we’re overwhelmingly against Issue 2 because we know how much it will hurt students. Issue 2 is not about improving teacher or student performance—it’s about power, political payback, and very bad policy. My special needs students shouldn’t suffer because Columbus politicians are moving their own agenda, and that’s why I’m voting NO on Issue 2.
Issue 2 would hurt the future of public education
By Brad Sims, social studies teacher, Nashport
Collective bargaining becomes collective begging if one of the parties involved has the legal power to decide the final outcome with no legal recourse for the other party. Senate Bill 5, which is now Issue 2 on the ballot, does not revisit collective bargaining—it destroys it. It is similar to going to a dentist and he pulls all the teeth because in his professional opinion a few were bad.
The legislature had the opportunity to put a few reasonable items in place, but proceeded to add several punitive items. Issue 2 forces local school districts to base at least 50 percent of teachers’ compensation on student test scores, a method that is rejected by education experts and parents alike because it’s inaccurate.
As an educator and a Republican, I am puzzled by the commercial that claims Issue 2 would reward the best teachers. I have read SB 5, and that allegation is quite a stretch. For educators across Ohio, Issue 2 is not about performance. The buzz words being is used by those attacking teachers are intended to distract us from their real aim of Issue 2—to silence the voices of teachers and all public school employees by gutting their collective bargaining rights.
I believe that the passage of Issue 2 will discourage the best and brightest from considering teaching as a profession. It will send younger teachers looking for other options. The effect may not be felt immediately, but in a decade or two it will have a negative impact on public education. Do not be fooled by the commercials touting what will happen if Issue 2 is defeated or any bombshells the supporters of Issue 2 “create” during the days before the election.
Regardless of political affiliation, Ohioans see through Issue 2 and its real motives. Republicans, Democrats and Independents have come together to defeat Issue 2 because it hurts us all.
November 2011 Ohio Schools
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Teaching middle schoolers, it was more than a job—it was a calling
After 32 years in the teaching profession, I recently retired but work hard to stay current on educational issues and practices. I loved my career teaching middle schoolers. To me, it was more than a job—it was a calling.
That’s why I am so concerned about what is happening today to the teaching profession at the hands of Columbus politicians. They seem to think that they know more about what works to educate Ohio’s children than the experts who are actually doing the work—the teachers and education support professionals in schools and classrooms.
At the beginning of my career, we didn’t have collective bargaining rights. I’ve seen the difference these rights have made in leveling the playing field—and protecting students from arbitrary decisions. Collective bargaining has helped ensure fairness, provided a voice to workers, and emphasized the need for high-quality teachers in every classroom.
Knowing the positive changes collective bargaining makes to improve education, I worry Issue 2 will take us down the wrong path. I’m concerned for my colleagues still in the classroom—especially for teachers just starting out.
We need to attract the best candidates to the teaching profession, and stripping collective bargaining rights is only going to hurt recruiting efforts to get the right people we need into the profession. Issue 2 is going to have a negative impact—one that hurts students. Issue 2 hurts all of us, and it’s the reason I’m voting NO on Issue 2.
—Jerry Hayes, retired middle school English and arts teacher, Stow
Politicians may try to trick, but Issue 2 is NO treat
OEA volunteer reflects on her night of going door-to-door on Halloween
For those of us who routinely spend Halloween on the road campaigning for one issue or another, the canvass can seem monotonous. You knock on door after door, delivering the same message over and over again. If you’re lucky, you’re a part of a well-organized campaign, such as the one we’re working on—We Are Ohio’s “NO on Issue 2” campaign—which means that the IDs are solid, and you’re almost exclusively speaking to people who support your position. This makes the canvass quick, but sometimes less rewarding—it’s generally much less exciting to urge people to vote than it is to persuade them to vote your way.
But once in a while you come to a door which completely shifts your perspective. That happened to me tonight.
I knocked on the door of an older couple in a working-class suburb of Cleveland. When the woman and her husband came to the door, they looked tired, as though they had worked hard their whole lives. Their house was modest and the yard was perfectly manicured. An American car sat in their driveway. These were not political activists or party loyalists…just ordinary people trying to live their lives.
I introduced myself and asked if they planned to vote NO on Issue 2. The husband nodded and went back to sitting in his chair in the living room. The wife looked at me and said emphatically, “We are absolutely voting ‘NO’ on Issue 2.” I thanked her for her support, circled ‘1’ on my walk-list to indicate her strong support, and began to leave. As I turned back to wave good-bye, I caught the woman looking up, as though she was trying to fight back tears.
Then she looked down at me and said, “I don’t know how anyone could vote any other way.” I agreed, and asked her if she would consider volunteering for the campaign.
She sighed heavily.
“I can’t,” she explained. “My husband is sick. That’s why I feel so strongly about this issue. I have to call emergency services to my home frequently. I cannot describe the feeling of relief I have every time one of those paramedics walk through my door. It is an absolute disgrace that these guys could leave their job today to work at McDonalds and earn about the same salary. I don’t know what I would do…I just don’t know what I would do if we didn’t have these people. They’ve saved my husband’s life.”
And there it was in a nutshell. That’s what we’re fighting for here in Ohio. Nothing less than people’s lives. And I am thankful and honored and humbled to be a part of it—sore feet, and all.
—Laila Hirschfeld, OEA volunteer