Ohio Education Association Applauds Plans to Prioritize Educators for COVID-19 Vaccines
“We are grateful to Governor DeWine for listening to the concerns of the state’s educators, who have been nothing short of heroic in their efforts to reach and teach Ohio’s students through extremely difficult circumstances, often being forced to put their own safety and that of their families and communities on the line,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “The decision to prioritize teachers and educational support staff in vaccine distribution plans demonstrates Gov. DeWine’s commitment to prioritizing education in Ohio’s COVID-19 response plans.”
Earlier this month, OEA’s Board of Directors, a governing body composed of dozens of educators around the state, approved a policy urging the state and school districts to put education first through a four-point plan that reflects the best practices for ensuring Ohio’s children receive a high-quality education in a safe environment. The full policy statement can be found here (Adobe pdf).
“We will encourage all OEA members who are medically eligible to receive a vaccine when they can. However, the COVID-19 vaccine is not a panacea,” DiMauro said. “Because the vaccines have not been approved for children, pregnant women, or some other adults, including those who are prone to severe allergic reactions, many people in our schools will remain unprotected from the virus. Moreover, it has not yet been proven whether a person who has been vaccinated could still spread the virus to others. Therefore, even when educators are able to be vaccinated, it will remain critically important to continue following all CDC guidance to keep our schools safe and open for in-person instruction when possible.”
OEA believes the highest priority for vaccine distribution among the education community is to make it available in communities that have been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic, including high-poverty communities and communities of color. “The vaccine is a critical resource for saving lives and reopening economies,” DiMauro said. “We need to ensure that resource is available where it is needed most as quickly as possible.”
Ohio Education Association Urges Schools, State to Put Education First: Reset, Restart, Re-Prioritize, Resource
In light of the alarming explosion in community spread of the Coronavirus in recent weeks and the likely spike that will follow large family gatherings over the upcoming holiday break, OEA is urging all of Ohio’s public schools to immediately suspend all in-person instruction until January 11, to include a 14 day quarantine period after Christmas. “This reset period, whether schools delay instruction or educate students in a fully remote model, is critical not only to ensure student and staff safety, but also to give schools time to refine their delivery model and make other necessary adjustments to execute their instructional plan so students can receive the best education possible in the face of all of the challenges the pandemic presents,” OEA President Scott DiMauro explained.
To restart after the reset period, schools should be required to obtain sign-off on the safety of their instructional model from their local Board of Health, which should evaluate each district’s plans based on its ability to adhere to CDC guidelines for any in-person instruction while considering local conditions such as transmission rates and healthcare capacity. Schools that are unable to obtain sign-off must remain fully remote and shall not hold extracurricular activities. “Public health experts, not the elected politicians that serve on local school boards, should make the determination about whether schools are safe for students and staff to gather in person,” DiMauro said. “The state has thus far failed to provide true leadership or firm statewide policies. We therefore must depend on local boards of health to make difficult decisions and accept accountability when they approve any educational plans.”
An important element of OEA’s updated plans calls for local leaders to reprioritize education in their policies outside school settings to ensure our schools can remain safely open and communities can continue to recover. “The education of our children should be the top priority in every community. State and local governments should do whatever is necessary to slow the spread of this disease and diminish its impact on the delivery of instruction. These efforts should include mask wearing, limits on crowds, and expansion of testing and contact tracing programs,” the OEA Board of Directors, a body made up of dozens of educators from around the state, said in the policy adopted at its most recent meeting.
Finally, putting students first requires a commitment to fully providing resources needed to meet the needs of our students, educators, and the wider community until a vaccine is widely available and our nation can begin moving beyond these difficult times. This support should include delivering additional funding for schools to operate safely, subsidizing local boards of health, and providing unemployment and health insurance benefits for every worker and small business owner impacted by COVID-related shutdowns and restrictions. “We cannot wait any longer for federal lawmakers to finally pass the HEROES act or for the state to finally draw on the rainy day fund,” DiMauro said. “Our communities need these resources now.”
Ohio Education Association Urges Senate to Quickly Pass SB 376 After Companion Legislation was Approved in House
“OEA believes that Ohio should enact a student-centered formula that is equitable, adequate, predictable, and that ensures that all students have the resources to succeed regardless of where they live or their family’s income,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said in testimony before the House Finance Committee on Tuesday. “The FSFP formula represents the best hope for necessary structural change in the way Ohio funds the education of 1.7 million students.” DiMauro’s full testimony is attached to this message.
Ohio’s current school funding system was deemed unconstitutional in 1997 by the Ohio Supreme Court’s DeRolph v. State of Ohio ruling. OEA extends its deepest gratitude to Speaker Cupp, Representative Patterson, Senators Lehner and Sykes, other legislators, and education leaders for their hard work to deliver the fair school funding system our children and communities deserve more than 20 years later. “Ohio’s students have waited decades to get what they need. The Ohio Senate must act now to pass SB 376 and finally make our children their priority,” DiMauro said.
The funding plan would provide an additional $1.99 billion in state aid when fully phased in and provides about 70% of the increased funds to the poorest urban, small town, and rural districts in the
State, substantially reducing the need for property tax levies especially in our poorest communities. It recognizes the increased per-pupil costs of educating economically disadvantaged students and transporting students with disabilities, while calling for studies to determine the real costs of serving gifted children, students with special education needs, English learners, e-schools, and Educational Service Centers. FSFP also ends the practice of tying each district’s local share to fluctuations in the property value of other districts, determining the local share by using local property values (60%) and income of district residents (40%).
The plan would also end the use of gain caps and would reduce the number of districts from the state’s funding guarantee to fewer than ten of Ohio’s 613 districts. Caps and guarantees are artificial constraints a legislature has to put on school funding because districts receive either too much or too little funding under the formula. The more districts on caps and guarantees, the worse the state’s formula is at calculating educational need. Ohio’s current system is so bad at accurately calculating student need that every district in the state is either capped or guaranteed. “Accurately calculating what students need this is quite a welcome shift,” DiMauro said.
OEA applauds the FSFP provisions that directly fund charters and vouchers, replacing the current pass-through funding system and creating a system that is fair to public school districts and charters, as well as local taxpayers. As Ohio braces for the voucher expansion that is coming with Senate Bill 89, these changes will prevent public school districts from having to raise property taxes to continue to subsidize tuition to private, mostly religious schools that perform worse than their public counterparts, according to a recent analysis by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“No school funding model is perfect, but the FSFP formula focuses on what students need to receive a high-quality education,” DiMauro said. “The Senate must do its part and pass its version of the bill now. After nearly 30 years waiting for the state to fix school funding, Ohio’s children can’t wait any longer.”
* The vote was held open past the actual floor vote to accommodate any members who were not present during it, so the vote tally may change
Ohio Education Association Urges Governor to Reject Senate Bill 89’s Harmful Voucher Expansion
“Vouchers drain needed resources from the 90 percent of students who attend Ohio’s public schools. This drain forces too many communities into raising their property taxes, which then subsidize tuition for many students who never stepped foot in the public schools that are now financing their private school education. Diverting resources from public schools has real consequences for students who don’t take vouchers, including larger class sizes and reduced opportunities that would have set them up for future success,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro. “By grandfathering in previously voucher-eligible students, whether they had used the vouchers or not, SB 89 fails to curb the destructive explosion of the voucher program, contrary to proponents’ claims. There was no compromise and no consultation with the education community to strike the deal that was passed out by the conference committee. It’s a voucher expansion, plain and simple.”
Previously, the House-passed version of SB 89 contained many positive provisions, including moving away from pass-through funding of vouchers and dissolution of existing academic distress commissions in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland. These provisions were removed in conference committee. Instead, new voucher eligibility criteria was put in place that expands EdChoice beyond its current levels.
“The ill-conceived plan to extend EdChoice voucher eligibility to families making more than the median income undermines the stated aims of that program and punishes lower-income families, particularly in communities of color, that are losing critical funding to send wealthier children to private, mostly religious schools, which often perform worse than their public school counterparts, on the taxpayer’s dime.”
A recent analysis by the Cincinnati Enquirer shows that in nearly 9 of 10 cases, students in public school districts outperform private school voucher students in the same zip codes on comparable state tests that both groups of students take. Further, SB 89 does nothing to address the problem of pass-through funding that deducts voucher amounts from state aid to school districts.
“Absent a veto from the governor on SB 89, it is more critical than ever that the General Assembly pass House Bill 305 to directly fund charters and vouchers, reducing the damage to local district caused by the voucher expansion of SB 89,” DiMauro said. “HB 305’s funding mechanism would go a long way toward protecting public school districts’ budgets and preventing them from having to raise property taxes to subsidize private school tuition.”
OEA Optimistic About SB 376’s School Funding Proposals
“Ohio’s current school funding system falls far short of meeting the needs of students and the school districts that educate them, and OEA has long advocated for state lawmakers to address the failures of Ohio’s school funding system,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Ohio must end the band-aid approach to the school funding formula and enact a student-centered formula that is equitable, adequate, predictable, and that ensures that all students have the resources to succeed regardless of where they live or their family’s income.”
The Senate plan builds upon earlier proposals to reform the state’s unconstitutional funding formula. OEA urged revisions to the 2019 version of HB 305 to improve the overall equity of the formula through changes to the local capacity percentage range, among other suggested modifications.
“OEA appreciates the work of Senate Sponsors Lehner and Sykes, as well as HB 305 co-sponsors Reps. Patterson and Cupp to improve upon prior drafts of this bill,” DiMauro said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for Ohio to adopt a new school funding formula to meet the needs of all 1.7 million kids served by Ohio’s public schools. Now is the time to act.”
“For more than 20 years, Ohio lawmakers have failed to remedy the state’s harmful school funding system, which was deemed unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1997’s landmark DeRolph v. State of Ohio ruling,” DiMauro added. “Senate Bill 376 and House Bill 305 represent an important pathway to finally address some of the greatest issues raised by that decision.”
OEA Calls for State, Federal Leadership as COVID-19 Numbers Rise
“Ohio’s educators want nothing more than to be in their classrooms with their students, but only when it is safe, and our members are doing everything in their power to meet the educational and health and safety needs of all of their students, both in-person and remotely,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro. “Unfortunately, the scope of what local district leaders and educators can do is quite limited, especially given the budget crisis currently facing our state’s school districts. Only the state and federal governments can provide the direction and funding needed to implement the measures necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 right now.”
OEA is urging Governor Mike DeWine to begin releasing money from the state’s $2.7 billion rainy day fund immediately to aid all schools in their efforts to follow all CDC guidelines. “Because of Ohio’s unconstitutional, inequitable school funding system that has created huge state and local funding disparities, some districts are able to keep their communities safer than others,” DiMauro pointed out. “Where Ohio’s students and educators live and work should not determine their relative health and safety.”
OEA continues to call on the state to require schools to follow best safety practices prescribed by public health experts for any in-person instruction in counties in the lower tiers of Ohio’s public health advisory system. Schools in counties where COVID-19 infection rates are highest should remain open only for remote instruction as long as that is necessary. The OEA Board of Directors’ Position Statement can be viewed here: OEA Board Position Statment on Safe and Equitable School Reopening (.pdf file).
“Statewide guidance is critical to ensuring the safety of all of Ohio’s students,” DiMauro said. “While OEA appreciates the importance of local control in many educational decisions, the current piecemeal district-by-district approach fails to protect some students and educators from unacceptably dangerous conditions in their classrooms, truly putting lives at risk. Ohio must do better.”
While a coordinated response from Ohio’s governor, lawmakers, public health experts, and the Ohio Department of Education would represent a critical measure in addressing the new COVID-19 spike for our schools, OEA recognizes how important federal assistance is in implementing any plans to keep the state’s children and educators safe.
“We need the U.S. Senate to pass a COVID-19 stimulus package for our communities. Ohioans need to call Senator Portman to demand action,” DiMauro said. “Ohioans have waited too long already for relief from the federal government, and playing politics by delaying stimulus until after the election only further hurts Ohioans and Ohio schools that need help now.”
Ohio Education Association Calls for Full Remote Learning in Counties in Highest Tiers of State’s Public Health Advisory Alert System
A poll of OEA members in mid-July found that 69 percent of education professionals statewide do not believe that schools and campuses will be able to reopen safely in the fall.
“OEA stands with its members, parents, and community partners in recognizing the critical role schools play in academic and non-academic success of our students,” the OEA Board of Directors, which consists of more than 50 educators, education support professionals and higher education faculty statewide, said in a unanimously adopted Position Statement on Safe and Equitable Reopening Plans for Schools and Campus Buildings. “Given the dangers posed by the spread of COVID-19, however, OEA believes that reopening for in-person instruction prematurely poses unacceptable risks to the lives and health of students, adults who work in schools, and the people they care for.”
In early July, Governor Mike DeWine issued a set of guidelines to shape school reopening plans. Most of that guidance was in the form of recommendations, rather than requirements, for things like masks, sanitization, and social distancing protocols. OEA has been calling for greater accountability and enforcement of those measures. Ample testing must also be available to ensure individuals afflicted with COVID-19 are negative prior to returning to school, and evidence-based protocols for contact tracing must also be in place.
Under Ohio’s Public Health Advisory Alert System, OEA believes that any school or campus building located in a county designated as Level 4 (purple) or Level 3 (red) must remain closed to in-person instruction. Until a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 is widely available, schools in all counties, including Level 2 (orange) and Level 1 (yellow) should be permitted to open for in-person instruction only if all CDC requirements can be fully met.
Any safe reopening plan will require adequate resources, including funding for a sufficient number of educators, support staff, nurses, and custodial workers to meet the needs of students in the classrooms. Adequate funding will also be needed for technology devices and high-speed internet access to ensure all students have reliable, quality access to remote learning platforms, regardless of where they live.
“No education employee in any setting should be forced to choose between their livelihood and their health or safety,” the OEA Board of Directors said. “OEA will continue to organize and engage members to effectively advocate for healthy and safe learning and working conditions, essential legal protections for members, and equitable learning opportunities for all students.”
The OEA Board of Directors’ Position Statement can be viewed here: OEA Board Position Statment on Safe and Equitable School Reopening (.pdf file)
Ohio’s Educators Expect Education Policy Answers from Presidential Debate
“The president can greatly shape the direction of education policy for the nation, directing national policies for everything from whether to provide schools with crucial COVID-19 relief funding to whether to hold for-profit charter schools to the same level of accountability as America’s public schools,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Ohioans have a right to know where each candidate stands on the educational issues before they cast their ballots in this election.”
Early in his campaign, Joe Biden released a comprehensive plan for K-12 and higher education in the United States, pledging to invest in universal pre-kindergarten, triple the funds for Title I schools to ensure resources go to low-income communities where the need is highest, address racial injustice, and expand community schools. Biden also supports small class sizes and free tuition at community colleges, as well as at public colleges and universities for families making less than $125,000 a year. Throughout his career, Biden has championed America’s educators, including his wife, Jill, and has promised to appoint a teacher to serve as Secretary of Education, if he’s elected.
“Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, has no experience in a classroom and no plans for America’s public schools, other than continuing to funnel federal funding to private and for-profit charter schools, which perform poorly in comparison with local public schools serving similar students,” DiMauro said. “President Trump and Betsy DeVos have continued to push for so-called ‘school choice’ on principle, without any consideration for the actual educational outcomes or the damage these voucher programs cause in low-income and communities of color, especially.” Detailed analyses of the disastrous results of Ohio’s voucher program can be found here and here.
Ohioans are also anticipating a robust discussion on Trump’s latest ideological overreach: his proposal for a ‘1776 Commission’ to shove a federally controlled curriculum down our kids’ throats. “Shaping curriculum content is not a federal responsibility; it has always been a state’s right. One would think that Trump and his allies would have remembered parents’ outrage over the Common Core before backing this even greater federal government overreach. It would strip American school districts of their legally-enshrined local control, which is, in itself, concerning. The truly propogandist nature of the Commission’s curriculum is downright alarming, It’s what China does and the Soviet Union used to do, never the United States. Until this President,” DiMauro said.
“As a Social Studies teacher, this attack on public education is personal,” DiMauro added. “I became an educator 30 years ago to provide students the critical thinking and decision-making skills they need to be successful citizens in our democratic society. These skills can only be learned through a well-rounded and robust curriculum that neither hides nor celebrates all chapters of American history. Silencing educators with executive orders that create heavy-handed national commissions and threatening to withhold critical federal funding from schools that don’t fall in line with federal dictates is wrong in every way.”
President DiMauro and several educators across Ohio will be available after Tuesday’s debate to offer their perspectives on education issues raised by the candidates. Please contact OEA Media Relations Consultant Katie Olmsted to arrange interviews.
In Wake of Release of Barebones 2020 Ohio School Report Cards, Ohio Education Association Urges Overhaul of State’s Broken Report Card System
“These latest school and district report cards shine a spotlight on the major problems with the entire report card scheme,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “The fact that the state recognizes that any 2020 letter grades and rankings would be useless without spring testing data proves just how overly-reliant the existing grade card system is on standardized tests. If the essential value of the state’s report card system is standardized test results – which do not accurately represent how a student, teacher or school is performing — the state’s current report card system has no value at all.”
“These tests and the algebraic contortions the state’s report card system twists them into have always been stacked against low-income students, especially. OEA is not afraid of accountability. But the state must design a fair, informative, and transparent accountability system,” DiMauro said.
Spring standardized testing was suspended in Ohio after school buildings shut down in March to protect students and educators from COVID-19. As schools return to session this fall, many Ohio lawmakers recognize the futility of resuming standardized testing in an environment that is now anything but standard.
Not a single educator has indicated to us that missing the spring tests harmed a single student.
If passed, Senate Bill 358 would require the Ohio Department of Education to seek a federal waiver of testing requirements and suspend the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment and the fall 3rd grade English test.
Further, SB 358 calls for suspending school and district report card ratings for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years – a measure welcomed by OEA. “Due to COVID-19, school districts will continue to experience barriers to education service delivery and instability in student data (particularly in districts with high concentrations of poverty). It would be misleading and unfair to require report card grades or punitive measures based on report card data during this time,” OEA Vice President Jeff Wensing said in support of SB 358 in early September. Click here to read Vice President Wensing’s full statement.
“Senate Bill 358 is a good start, but much more work is needed to address the foundational issues with Ohio’s current school report card system,” DiMauro said. “The cookie-cutter A-F grades are a meaningless and simplistic way to describe students’ educational experiences. All they accurately measure are a student’s and district’s wealth. Using these tests to punish low-income students by providing cover for taxpayer money to be diverted to worse-performing private and charter schools while undermining local control in poor districts is a stain on Ohio’s education system. The state needs a truly informative accountability system that fairly identifies improvement areas while empowering stakeholders to direct resources where they are needed most. That – rather than punishing poor kids and schools – should be lawmakers’ guiding light.”
More information about OEA’s recommended reforms can be found at ohea.org/oea-calls-for-sweeping-changes-to-state-report-cards/
OEA Leaders Working to Shape State, Federal COVID-19 Response Policies
On Wednesday afternoon, OEA President Scott DiMauro delivered a statement to the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine on the need to prioritize teachers and other education employees as allocation plans for the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine are made. OEA Vice President Jeff Wensing testified before Ohio lawmakers Wednesday in support of proposed changes to the state’s education laws in response to COVID-19.
“As the school year begins our students and educators are facing many challenges. Whether classes are in-person, online or a combination of the two, it is unlike any year that came before. Recognizing this, Senate Bill 358 (SB 358) would extend flexibility in several areas,” Vice President Wensing told Senate Education Committee members. Click here for Wensing’s full statement
OEA applauds calls in SB 358 to require the Ohio Department of Education to seek a federal waiver of testing requirements and suspend the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, some high school end-of-course exams, and the fall administration of the 3rd grade ELA test. OEA also supports the provision of SB 358 allowing local flexibility on teacher evaluations and urges lawmakers to amend the bill to extend the House Bill 164 prohibition on using student growth data in teacher evaluations through the 2021-22 school year. SB 358’s suspension of school and district report card ratings for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years is wholeheartedly welcomed by OEA.
“Due to COVID-19, school districts will continue to experience barriers to education service delivery and instability in student data (particularly in districts with high concentrations of poverty). It would be misleading and unfair to require report card grades or punitive measures based on report card data during this time,” Wensing said. “Further, OEA continues to urge legislators to overhaul Ohio’s broken report card system. Now is the time to act with urgency so we don’t go back to using a report card widely regarded as fundamentally flawed.”
While Ohio lawmakers debate measures to address the educational challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, national leaders are making decisions about distributing COVID-19 vaccines when they become available. Speaking on behalf of the National Education Association and its 3 million members, OEA President DiMauro urged the National Academy of Sciences to place all education employees in a higher tier of prioritization to receive vaccines. The current draft framework would place teachers in Phase 2 of the plan to equitably allocate vaccines, but DiMauro encouraged Academy members to include teachers, paraeducators and other education support professionals, specialized instructional support personnel, librarians, administrators, and higher education faculty and staff in Phase 1b, in recognition of the crucial role educational institutions play and the underlying vulnerabilities of many of the employees who work in them.
“Nothing is more important than ensuring that we return to safe and equitable in-person instruction,” DiMauro said. “It is crucial for any vaccination plan to incorporate the voices of front-line workers, including educators.”