SB 264 (teachers' right to strike) and educating an educator re: STRS and CORE

Kathie Bracy to Phil Hayes, February 5, 2008
Subj: Good session in the Hearing Room today

Hi Phil --

It was really good to meet you and Greg [Goodlander] today. Between the echoing acoustics and my bad hearing, I couldn't hear everything you said in your testimony, but what I did hear sounded like you were presenting a strong case for retaining teachers' right to strike. What clout do teachers have, ultimately, if they can't hold that over the heads of administration at the bargaining table? It's hard for me to fathom that legislators think they can legislate away what I consider a basic right. The legislature is definitely NOT teacher-friendly these days, particularly in regard to the public schools. They would love to break up the unions, destroy the public schools and get their hands on our pension fund. We are constantly fighting them.

HB 315 is our big issue right now, as it would preserve healthcare mainly for those of you who haven't retired yet by providing a dedicated revenue stream to keep our HC from disappearing altogether. Unless this bill is passed or some other solution comes along, our healthcare fund will start eating at the principle in 2009, and in a few years it won't be there at all for any of us. Not much for you active teachers to look forward to. Difficult for school boards to do their share of the funding, but disastrous if something isn't done.

Mary Ellen Angeletti, who was with me today, is vice president of CORE (Concerned Ohio Retired Educators), our grassroots organization of retired and active educators that is working for reform at STRS. She does want to be on your mailing list.

I am pasting below several posts from my blog in the last few days, where some of us wrote responses to a person from STRS (an anonymous writer, possibly a spouse of someone who works at STRS) which sum up our history in a nutshell, and which will also help you understand the need for reform at STRS and the rift between our organization and OEA. There is a search engine on my blog; if you use keywords such as "Frost-Brooks," "Leibensperger" and [xxx] or pull up posts added after the 12/13/07 STRS Board meeting, you will get some recent insights. We would like very much to work with OEA (most of us are life members of OEA, ORTA, etc.), but so far such attempts have not been fruitful.

Sorry this is so long -- I know you don't have a lot of time to read it, but there are things that the active teachers need to know. We are well aware they are overwhelmed with NCLB and don't have the time to become informed on what's really going on at STRS, or how seriously their lives will be impacted by what is happening there. We also don't have the resources to really get the word out to them. If you do nothing else but put this aside to read another time, I think you will find it worth your while.

Thank you for all the tireless work you do for students and teachers. Keep it up, especially your legislative involvement. Good luck with this bill; I'll be eager to hear how it comes out. Again, if we can do anything to help with this or any other cause that will help teachers, kids or the public schools, please feel free to ask.

Kathie Bracy
http://kathiebracy.blogspot.com/

Phil Hayes is a high school social studies teacher in the Columbus City Schools, an active member of the Columbus Education Association and editor/publisher of The CEA Blog. On February 5, 2008, he presented testimony before the Ohio Senate Education Committee in opposition to SB 264, which would strip teachers of their right to strike. He made reference to the last strike the CEA was involved in, the strike of 1975. Mary Ellen Angeletti and I both walked the line that year. KBB