The REAL state of school funding in Ohio
Monday, February 24, 2014 at 5:00pm, hundreds of Ohio workers gathered before Governor John Kasich’s State of the State address in Medina, Ohio to discuss the Real State of the State. Medina resident, 7th grade teacher, and President of the Medina City Teachers Association, John Leatherman, talked about the effects he’s seen in his own classroom as a result of Kasich’s drastic cuts to public education and the REAL state of school funding Ohio.
My name is John Leatherman. I am a resident of Medina County, a parent of two children who attend public schools, a veteran, a 7th grade history teacher, and the proud president of the Medina City Teachers Association. It is an honor to have this opportunity to speak before you today.
I see the familiar faces of dedicated teachers. I welcome our fellow policemen, firemen, nurses, steelworkers, AFL/CIO members — all labor groups. I welcome the Women’s Caucus, our local churches, and all community members who feel as I do today, concerned about the future of Ohio.
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to care about families here in Medina County as well as the families all around the State of Ohio. Please give the person next to you a round of applause.
I am here today on behalf of educators. I am here today to talk about the real state of school funding here in Ohio.
In only four years, under Governor Kasich’s “careful planning,” ONE HALF OF ONE BILLION DOLLARS — that’s EIGHT zeros — have been taken from Ohio’s public schools. Our state has never seen these kinds of cuts. These cuts have drastically affected our children.
Across the state, school buildings have been shut down. Long-standing academic programs and courses, that prepare our children for tomorrow’s world, have been eliminated. Entire fleets of busses have been parked or scrapped.
What’s even scarier, these cuts have resulted in fewer school-counselors, the very counselors who are desperately attempting to reach every child in need. And now, because of decisions that are made in an office in Columbus, many good teachers have been let go, all while classroom sizes are skyrocketing.
When does common sense take hold?
When will our Governor realize that his political cuts will continue us on a path that has a very dark end?
In Medina alone, these cuts have taken the jobs of over 20% of our teaching force. Twenty percent! These job cuts, and this unrelenting assault on education, is all by a governor who claims to be a job creator and a champion of education. I know he heard, loud and clear, what happened when he attempted to force through SB5!
Recently Governor Kasich and State School Superintendent Dick Ross discussed plans to “rid the legal hoops in our public schools.” Since this Governor has taken office, he has done nothing but continue to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars from our public schools directly to his friends and campaign contributors in for-profit, low-performing charter schools.
Make no mistake, while families are struggling, and while our children’s education is being compromised, his friends are becoming very wealthy by the very dollars we work for day in and day out.
These charter schools and their investors don’t play by the same rules we do. These schools enjoy huge sums of public dollars with no real financial oversight. These charter schools continue to underperform and yet year after year they rake in the profits.
In 2012, Ohio had 326 charter schools, many of which operate under businesses like White Hat Management. White Hat Management was recently brought before the Ohio Supreme Court for refusing to open their books to the public. Once again, more money funneled and more money lost.
Last year, in Columbus alone, 17 of these for-profit charter schools failed. Those charter schools took our tax dollars, shut their doors on their students, and walked away. Our doors are open. We educate our children. We are here for them.
Not only that, in November of 2013, Ohio online charter schools were cited by the U.S. Department of Education for failing to serve students with disabilities. We serve all students. We are here for them.
Know this: our public school teachers
- are highly qualified,
- have graduated from respected colleges and universities across our state and nation,
- are constantly improving on an ever-changing school curriculum,
- and are, year in and year out, engaged in professional development — much of which is at our own expense.
I know I speak for my colleagues here and across our state. We are a highly professional, very impassioned, and sharply focused group of public school teachers with high expectations for our children.
When it comes to our public schools, I have to borrow a quote from our brothers and sisters at Ford: QUALITY IS JOB ONE!
Charter schools are a business, plain and simple. We’ve seen the business model in education. It doesn’t work!
- We don’t make a product. We create opportunities for future generations.
- We don’t produce widgets. We create community leaders.
- We’re not an assembly line. We create life-long experiences.
In the New York Harbor, it’s scripted on The Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. … I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” This speaks directly to the best of our public schools. We don’t refuse any students, rather we embrace them and educate them.
You see, public schools are a melting pot! It’s that dream on which our forefathers founded this country. Yes, that’s us, the public schools.
Governor Kasich’s policies are punishing Ohio’s economy, punishing our families, and punishing our communities. Most importantly, to me, his policies are punishing our students, our children.
His policies have forced us to constantly return to our voters for more and more levy dollars. He put the strain of educating our children squarely on our families.
As the proud president of our association, I have watched many great teachers lose their jobs. We’ve been forced to cut effective programs from all schools, at all levels. Here in Medina, we’ve suffered deep cuts in the areas of Media Specialists, Gifted Teachers, Reading Intervention Teachers, and Guidance Counselors. These devastating cuts are occurring across the state.
In Medina County, we have one school in state financial receivership and another school nearly had to drop to a state minimum of 5-hour, school day. That’s not what schools should be concerned about. Ever.
In a recent story by Stephen Dyer on Jan. 30th, he stated that children in Medina County schools will have 13.7 million dollars less in state revenue in the next two years, that is, as compared to the two years prior to Kasich taking office. Medina City Schools alone saw its funding cut by 4.4 million dollars. That figure grows throughout the state.
The numbers get more staggering. All of this was taken from our county while charter school funding increased! In fact, every Medina County dollar that funded a charter school went to one that performed worse on both the performance index and the state report card.
Statewide, the story is the same. Schools are losing great teachers, programs are being cut, and our kids are getting the short end of the stick. In fact, in Ohio next year, charter schools are slated to receive a 23% increase, which is up $150 million dollars from last year. That totals $887 million dollars — close to ONE BILLION of your tax dollars!
This Governor caters to a very select group in the State of Ohio. He is very much okay with separating the “haves” and “have-nots.” What’s worse, the “have-nots” are increasing at an alarming rate. 31,000 more Ohioans are out of work as compared to last year. In fact, during his first three years, Ohio’s economic recovery has come to a grinding halt. Not only are more Ohioan’s out of work, but they are also making less money under his watch.
This governor went after educators with a nasty piece of legislation called SB-5. You all remember SB-5! Well, when SB-5 arose, so did the citizens of Ohio. Speaking out at rallies like this and taking it to the voters in Ohio is what defeated his landmark start to governing our state. A 20-point loss is not just a loss, it’s a horrific flameout.
So, what we’re doing today is a great, great thing. It’s our constitutional right. Be proud to say you were here. Give yourself a round of applause.
One last thing: for me, it’s about the kids. It always has been about the kids. I didn’t get into teaching to get rich. I became a teacher because I love working with kids. I speak for the 3rd grade teacher who, day in and day out, loves a classroom of 8 and 9 year olds. I speak for the middle school teacher who deals with a special group of children at a bizarre age. I speak for the high school teacher who prepares teenagers for adulthood. It’s what we do; it’s our passion. We just want to provide our young students’ the opportunities they deserve, those opportunities are fast being lost under this Governor’s watch.
This evening I will attend this State of the State address in our public school auditorium. It was a tough decision, one that I didn’t make until just last week. I want to be the person in the audience who represents you. I want to be the person in the audience that when Governor Kasich looks out and sees me, he sees you and thinks of our children. I want to be the person who reminds all of our public officials that we are not silent.
I respect the office of the governor. I respect the offices of our public officials. I learned that from a teacher of mine a long time ago. Respect the office and don’t be afraid to be a voice. It’s the same message that I teach my students. I can only hope that our governor will learn by our example. Give public education, our teachers, and most importantly, our students the very same respect.
Thanks. You have been a great audience.
It’s time for the PEOPLE to be in charge, as our forefathers intended.
They’ve stolen our voice, our vote, and our power. Every ten years, Ohio goes through a process known as “redistricting” in which the boundary lines for Statehouse and Congressional districts are redrawn. The process was originally designed by Ohio’s forefathers to protect the voice of the people, but – sadly – it no longer works that way.
Instead of ensuring fair and balanced district lines, the politicians and lobbyists have rigged the system to make sure they have all the power to protect themselves and their friends. With uneven, unfair district lines, the voters never have a real choice. The special interests will always be able to spend enough campaign cash on mudslinging, misleading political ads to win an election for themselves, not us.
Having unfair districts is how we end up with …
- Unaccountable, dishonest politicians.
- Politicians focused on an extreme agenda instead of job creation.
- A do-nothing Congress infested with partisan bickering.
- Laws that benefit corporations at the expense of the middle class.
Issue 2 sends a message that we’re tired of politics as usual. It puts citizens in charge of a process that politicians have corrupted. The choices we make today have a profound effect on the lives of our children and grandchildren. Vote YES on Issue 2, because when elections are fair, the people win.
Brushing Teeth and Gathering Signatures
Every morning my wife and I fight with my 2-year-old daughter, Ellie, to get her to brush her teeth. She squeezes her mouth shut and squirms, as we try to find a small crack in her lips to fit the toothbrush into her mouth. We make the toothbrush an airplane coming in for a landing, complete with whooshing airplane noises. Sometimes, it takes my wife and I working in tandem to get Ellie’s teeth brushed. Sometimes, we even use toothpaste. We plead with Ellie, telling her that her teeth will fall out and that she will have stinky breath.
I think about the struggles I have with brushing Ellie’s teeth, as I work to collect signatures for the Voters First petition drive, which seeks to create a bi-partisan committee of non-elected officials to redraw US Congressional Districts.
Let me be clear: My wife and I do not hold people down and force them to sign petitions or turn the petition into an airplane and fly it towards people to sign it (though the latter may be worth a try).
Nevertheless, I do see some similarities between the brushing teeth and gathering signatures.
Many Ohioans don’t understand the need for the Voters First Amendment any more than Ellie understands the need for good oral hygiene. But in either case, not to decide is to decide — to endorse the status quo that has the foxes from guarding the henhouse, drawing districts in secret to ensure wins for themselves and their party. And who wants to support politicians who are rigging the system with crazy-looking legislative districts designed to keep one party in power.
Many Ohioans do not realize that with our current system, the winner of the November election is already determined by the primaries — by politicians who are likely to be too far to the left or the right of the majority of their constituents and out-of-touch with the general public.
Just as making a child brush his/her teeth is obviously a good thing, the Voters First proposal is clearly better than our current system of drawing lines. It’s intuitively more fair, transparent and non-partisan. I’ve collected signatures from people who have only ever voted Republican, as well as from people who have only ever voted Democrat. Regardless of party, people understand that competitive races benefit everybody.
But unlike with Senate Bill 5, which aroused so much passion in people that they actually sought me out to sign my petition, not as many people make themselves available to sign the Voters First petition. Not because they disagree with the proposal, but because they see it as an “innocuous” little problem, which could not be further from the truth. Once I talk to people about the Voters First proposal, they are glad to sign. I explain that rigged districts are a long-lasting problem that affect nearly every piece of legislation. I ask them to look back to SB 5 because it was a perfect example of what happens when extreme and out-of-touch politicians are elected.
All Ohioans need to make signing the Voters First petition their highest priority.
We can do this. We can take back our voice and vote this November, but first we need to circulate petitions and gather signatures to get the Voters First proposal on the ballot.
So just as I remain vigilant about removing tartar, bacteria and general stinky breath from my Ellie’s mouth, I am committed to the effort to collecting the 386,000 by the July 4 deadline to submit signatures to the state. Together we can do it. Now!
By Dan Greenberg, Sylvania Education Association
We deserve to be at the table, not on the menu
Jumbo shrimp. Civil war. Freezer burn. A fine mess.
These are examples of oxymorons, expressions that combine contradictory terms. I discovered a brand-new one when I read a recent article referencing the governor’s yet-to-be-unveiled education overhaul plan.
The plan actually doesn’t belong to the governor so much as it belongs to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering acknowledged that Jackson’s plan contains many provisions that were “also in Senate Bill 5.”
Then she unveils her oxymoronic creation. Jackson’s plan, says Lehner, “…takes the best of Senate Bill 5.”
The best of Senate Bill 5 was than 1.3 million Ohioans signed petitions in less than two and a half months to send a message to the extreme politicians that passed the bill, that more Ohioans voted AGAINST SB 5/Issue 2 than voted FOR the governor who campaigned for it and that the 2011’s election turn-out was the largest in more than 20 years of Ohio election history.
Ohioans in the crosshairs of Senate Bill 5 fought against it because politicians rammed it through the legislature. Instead of being asked about what systemic changes should be made, we were told “This is how it’s going to be from now on in Ohio.” The legislation’s passage helped make We Are Ohio into an effective, dynamic organization that achieved its single goal—the repeal of SB 5.
This is an example of how the relationship between any school district and its teachers should work. Both sides share the same goal; to ensure their students’ success, but neither side can do it alone. They’ve got to work together. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in Cleveland right now.
Rather than speak with the Cleveland Teachers Union about his transformation plan, Mayor Jackson held back-door conversations with city’s business community. Instead of putting teachers at the table, Jackson’s plan puts them on the menu.
Some his ideas sound strikingly similar to Senate Bill 5. There is a curiously strong focus on collective bargaining, and it is reminiscent of a letter Jackson wrote to legislators in June addressing his requests for the state budget.
The mayor knows that his transformation plan won’t happen without the assistance of the governor and the Ohio General Assembly. “Quite simply,” Jackson writes in this plan, addressing state legislators, “we cannot do it without your help.” The governor got Jackson’s message and is watching.
“I’m counting on Cleveland to deliver the goods,” said the governor in his 2012 State of the State address, adding, “Oh, I’ll work with them. I’ll go door-to-door to every one of their offices.”
What happens in Cleveland will have statewide implications for us all. We must make legislators realize that collaboration is key to the success of our students. We must refuse to be cast as the villain. We as teachers are part of the solution, not part of the problem.
A fine mess indeed.
By Phil Hayes, Columbus Education Association
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.
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
Issue 2 unfairly creates two sets of rules
For more than 30 years, I have been teaching students with disabilities in an urban school district. Teaching kindergarten, in a tough school—to students with disabilities—is a difficult job, but I love it. The growth I witness in my students with disabilities, including developmental delays, autism, and traumatic brain injury, are worth all my efforts every day.
Teaching is a career, not a job. I know that not everyone can do what I do. That’s why we need to attract the best candidates to the profession and encourage good teachers to stay in the classroom. I could have had a much more lucrative career had I chosen to work in the for-profit sector, but I choose to spend my life serving children.
Somehow in the last year, this has become a-less-than-noble profession. Educators are being asked to do more with less while being blamed for a budget crisis we didn’t create.
The politics of blaming hardworking teachers for Ohio’s financial woes already has had a detrimental effect on those in the profession. Wonderful young teachers are talking about leaving. To add insult to injury, while public employees like me made considerable financial sacrifices to help Ohio balance its budget, politicians in Columbus doled out millions of dollars in tax breaks to their corporate campaign contributors.
Issue 2 unfairly creates two sets of rules—those for hard-working Ohioans like me and those for politicians and their friends with Columbus connections. That’s wrong and that’s why I’m voting NO on Issue 2 this November.
— Karen Andermills, special education kindergarten teacher, Columbus
Issue 2 only continues budget cuts to our school district
People always ask me why I chose to be a teacher. I decided on this profession because I wanted to inspire students and prove to them that they can learn, despite their difficulties—just like I did. I became a teacher to show my students that quality education is the one thing that no one will ever be able to take away from them.
Now my students and I are getting a painful lesson in life. Some people in positions of power can take away your rights, no matter how unfair, unsafe, or how badly it hurts.
Because of Senate Bill 5, which is now Issue 2 on the November ballot, some people are telling me that I’m the enemy and it’s my turn to help balance the budget. They claim this economic situation is my fault. They say I’m greedy for caring—and fighting—for my students. They don’t understand the facts.
Through the collective bargaining process, Pickerington teachers recently have made many sacrifices. Teachers, staff and administrators have made concessions in salary and insurance. Class sizes have increased, while our professional development budgets have decreased. Due to the failure of a levy last August, 130 teachers and staff were laid off. Our programs have been drastically altered for this school year—resulting in reduced wrap-around services, electives and other course offerings for students.
Issue 2 only continues budget cuts to our school district, leaving us in even more dire financial straights. It baffles me how it’s fair to blame teachers, school employees and other public workers for the budget mess we didn’t cause, while politicians create loopholes to exempt themselves. That’s not fair. And that’s why I am voting NO on Issue 2.
—Erin Salzer, high school special education teacher, Pickerington