RH Jones: A moral obligation: Passage of HB 315

From RH Jones, September 29, 2007
Subject: A moral obligation: Passage of HB 315

To all:

On a beautiful autumn day, Concerned Ohio Retired Educators (CORE) volunteers work hard to gain public support and to convince Ohio’s state politicians to pass the HB 315 to finally establish a steady stream of Health Care (HC) for retired professional educators. In light of the increase of past and present mental and physical stresses placed on their educators, Ohio School Boards have not provided funding for proper and secure HC that is their moral responsibility to provide. The following are even more reasons that this bill should be made Ohio law through public and school board support:

1) The public has wanted “local control”; therefore, the 600 Local Ohio School Boards have the necessary task of raising public funds to provide the necessary HC.

2) Insuring fiscal efficiency, so that the funding is always available for the STRS HC is a board duty.

3) The school boards need to guarantee that companies that do business furnish better quality of their goods used by educators - shoddy supplies, construction and private services lead to a quicker turnaround of tax dollars.

4) As the two major political parties are now in cooperation in sponsoring HB315, school boards must follow their lead in getting the STRS HC implemented.

5) Although HB 315 is state legislation, local boards provide the largest percent of support of public education - it has not been the active educator or retired educators task to raise local, state or federal revenue.

In conclusion, the need is immediate and critical; waiting for state or federal changes to provide STRS funding for HC is not an option. Without a reliable steady stream of funding the STRS HC will soon expire! As a profession, teaching has never been one that has been properly compensated for the expensive job requirements of college training mandated by local and state school boards. Job security, and a satisfactory retirement, has been a major draw to attract and keep good people in this essential occupation: that of teaching our most precious possession: our children. As retired educators become ill, are school boards to become ill natured or mean spirited when it comes to supporting retiree HC for the teaching professionals of their children? This is one retired professional who thinks that board members have better intentions than that. This is my sentiment.

Robert Hudson Jones, a retired 6th grade teacher member of Ohio’s STRS