Jen Subbotin and Debbie Rudy-Lack: Write your legislators NOW
From Debbie Rudy-Lack, February 19, 2011
Subject: Fwd: PLEASE HELP/SB 5 The following is an open letter from Jen Subbotin, a teacher and former colleague of mine at Kenston. She has asked that this letter be forwarded to family and friends so that the general public will understand the impact the passage of SB 5 will have on the state of Ohio and ALL of its residents.
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."
Unions will be eliminated, and teachers, police, and firemen will have no ability to receive a fair negotiated agreement (“contract”). Any negotiation that would take place will be extremely limited and teachers will have little to no say in how to improve working and learning conditions for the children/teachers of the district. I have seen numerous administrators come and go over the last 2 decades. Many were outstanding and had the best interest of my district’s students, teachers, staff and community in mind. Others were relentless, unorganized, had "favorites” and were outright unfair. Without a union, we are at the mercy of potentially unfair administrators. Without a union, we will be asked to do more and more with less compensation and less job security. Being protected by the union means I get to concentrate on the children in my classroom, come up with interesting and relevant lesson plans, work on learning new technology, and strive to be a better educator for the children in my classes.
• Removes a provision granting specific authority to public school employees to collectively bargain for health care benefits.
• Makes the following inappropriate subjects for collective bargaining: (1) employer-paid contributions to any of the five public employee retirement systems and (2) health care benefits for which the employer is required to pay more than 80% of the cost.
This means that school districts will be able to decide, without teacher input or consideration, what healthcare system and provisions we will have access to. This could mean people would to have to change doctors to stay “within network” every time the district switches carriers to save money. There would be no consistency in healthcare for families of educators.
In case you want to know, my school health care carrier is currently Medical Mutual of Ohio: Super Med. My vision is through VSP and my dental is Dentemax. None of these are guaranteed past the current contract. I would be happy to discuss my benefit and contribution numbers if you’d like.
I think that if state employees are expected to contribute a certain percent to their healthcare, that the administrators, bosses, and other “higher ups” should also contribute the same. And why not government officials? Aren’t they public employees in the greatest sense of the word?
• Permits public employers to not bargain on any subject reserved to the management and direction of the governmental unit, even if the subject affects wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment.
• Prohibits a public employer from agreeing to a provision in a collective bargaining agreement that requires the public employer, when a reduction in force is necessary, to use employee length of service as the only factor when making layoffs.
• Removes consideration of seniority and of length of service, by itself, from decisions regarding a reduction in work force of certain public employees.
Currently in the case of a reduction in force (RIF), my school district would eliminate first, those who have the least seniority (lowest number of years with the district). This provision in SB 5, means that in order to cut costs, schools can simply lay-off the most expensive (experienced) teachers without regard for loyalty to the district, ability in the classroom, and so on. So the fact that I have dedicated 20 years of my career to a certain district (and its community members) will be overlooked in favor of the fact that they could hire 2 first-year teachers right out of college to replace me. It will become simply a matter of dollars for school districts. They will have no choice. This, combined with the newly proposed retirement plan, will force districts to choose between keeping good, experienced teachers and facing bankruptcy, or letting them go and hiring cheaper teachers to remain financially stable.
Currently some school districts do have maximums for the number of students per class. Some also have minimums. In my district, we try to schedule 28 or less, but require at least 12 students to offer a course. (This does not include special education classes, which are governed by IDEA laws.) Based on my experience, 18-22 is optimal. Currently only one of my 7 classes is within that range. On a daily basis I see 163 students!
Already there are issues of not enough materials. For example I have more students than there are computers in the lab. So I have to hope a couple of them are absent or send them somewhere else to use the computer, but then I am not there to help them if needed.
• Requires merit-based pay for most public employees, including teachers and nonteaching school employees and board and commission members, and makes other, related changes.
I have personally heard discussions on merit pay for over 2 decades. I taught for 2 years in North Carolina during 1989-1991. Teachers there had just endured a pay freeze for 7 years! At the time I left, the state government there was playing with the idea. This is a very scary idea because most implementation plans try to link merit pay to standardized test scores. If your kids score well, you earn more. Well what about the teacher who works just as hard, if not harder, but has low ability kids or kids for whom our current system of education does not work? Should that person make less? I don’t think so.
In places that have previously tried variations of Merit Pay, the results have often led to unpleasant and counter-productive competition between teachers. Where teachers once worked as a team and shared solutions cooperatively, Merit Pay can make teachers adopt a more “I’m out for myself only” attitude. This would be disastrous for our students, no doubt.
• Generally eliminates statutory salary schedules and steps.
Currently, when a board of education negotiates a collective bargaining agreement with a teacher’s union, it has a duration of 2-3 years…depending on what the district can financially certify. Part of the agreement is a salary schedule which states what each teacher will make depending on his level of education and number of years of service (steps). This bill would eliminate that so that school districts would not pay teachers increases for years served (longevity).
I wonder if this will be true for administrators, too. In my district, the administrators (superintendent and principals) and board of education secretaries, and treasurer’s department just received their annual lump-sum longevity payment on January 20. The total was approximately $180,000! Just for them - every January. This is in addition to their salary, raises, and so on.
• Requires boards of education to adopt policies to provide leave with pay for school employees and abolishes statutorily provided leave for those employees.
Currently the law requires that teachers be permitted to accumulate at least sick leave at the rate of 15 days per year credited at the rate of one and one-fourth days per month. Teachers are entitled to an advance of five days of sick leave at the beginning of the school year. The law permits the use of sick leave for personal illness, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, injury, exposure to a contagious disease, and absence due to illness, injury, or death in the employee’s immediate family.
Many boards permit unlimited accumulation, based upon negotiated contracts. In my district a new mother may take up to 10 weeks of sick leave (provided she has accumulated that many days). Any parenting leave beyond that is without pay. When I had my daughter, I took a semester (18 weeks) leave. At that time the negotiated agreement was 8 weeks paid sick leave for childbirth. The remaining 10 weeks were without pay. In fact, the school billed me because I had to pay all of my own healthcare premiums during those weeks.
So if SB 5 eliminates the 15 day rule, what do teachers do when their children get sick? Should we send them to daycare or school to infect the other kids? What if you have multiple kids? They don’t always get sick at the same time. What about those with older, ailing parents? Are we to just drop them off at the hospital for a treatment and head off to school?
Granted the wording says boards must adopt a policy, but what if that policy is only 5 days or 10? It’s not as if we can “work from home” like those in the business world. We can’t go in early or stay late to make up time. If you think about it, 2 doctor’s appointments, 2 sick children 2 days each, 2 parent health issues for you and your spouse, and 2 deaths in the family. It can accumulate quickly. Are we supposed to say, “Gee, honey, I am sorry, I have no more sick days left. You will have to go to your dad’s funeral alone.”?
• Abolishes continuing contracts for teachers, except for those continuing contracts in existence prior to the effective date of the bill.
Many people have misconceptions about continuing contracts (“tenure”). Tenure does not mean that you cannot ever be fired. Tenure does not guarantee inept teachers a job. Ohio teachers work under one of two basic types of contracts–limited or continuing. Limited contracts must be renewed periodically (2 years or 5 years). State statute or a collective bargaining agreement determine the procedure the employer must use to non-renew a limited contract. A continuing contract remains in effect until a teacher dies, resigns, voluntarily retires, is suspended or terminated for cause. Each board sets the criteria for its teachers to be issued a continuing contract. In my case, I had to have my master’s degree, 2 years with the district, and 5 years teaching on a professional license to even apply.
It’s become all the rage, to bash teachers. You hear it all the time, read it on blogs, comments posted in forums, in discussions pool-side in the summer and so on. But most of those beliefs are not based on fact. Oh, sure, there are some teachers who don’t necessarily do a good job. But there are doctors, lawyers, people in business and banking, and just about every other profession who also leave something to be desired. Then add unions to the discussion, and it’s all over. But it seems it’s easy to blame teachers. And for the most part, they don’t fight back. Why? Not because they believe it’s true, but because there is a silent, standing gag order. Now, yes, technically we do have freedom of speech (on paper and for the time being), but I have personal experience and knowledge of other teachers wanting to respond to letters to the editor or articles in local news and being told not to. Could they still do it? Yes. And in some cases face very difficult consequences in their place of employment. For example, being moved from one position to another (example 2nd grade teacher to 7th grade teacher), from one building to another (from middle school to kindergarten and back), from having a classroom to traveling between rooms (taking all your things needed for classes along with you to 6 or 7 different locations in the building), from teaching certain curricula to others (being a math teacher for 8 years and then get moved to language arts), from having typical job assignments to being assigned the most difficult of schedules (like having a variety of levels of students to having all the low ability or poorly behaved students). Think it doesn’t happen? YOU ARE WRONG!
But those same people, who bash teachers, when talking about their own personal children’s education, want good, kind, dedicated, teachers. Well, the availability of such people is about to change drastically!
If you’ve read this far, thank you! I said above that I think the supporters are short-sighted. Although these changes may help reduce the budget deficit on paper, we need to look also at the long-term impact. It will have a massive and negative domino effect. Read on and give it some thought. You see, they want to pass this quickly and quietly. Most people are not even aware of the potential consequences.
• I agree that Ohio’s method of financing public schools (property taxes and levies) is flawed. I AM A TAX PAYER, TOO! I have voted consistently to support school levies in my community, mental health issues, and library funding issues and so on, even though I know it means more out of my pocket because I know that these are all things that will improve the community for me and my family. And when I choose to leave, it will be a great place for another family to enjoy, so my property will sell. This all benefits the entire community/economy.
• Stop paying public employees competitive salaries and you will cut what they have available to spend back into the Ohio economy. On a cut salary as proposed by the governor I would be forced to make cuts, many of which will in turn negatively impact local small businesses. No more karate lessons for my daughter. No more summer theater camp. No more clothes to the tailor or dry cleaner. No more supporting local small businesses, diners, shops, music schools. No more grocery shopping in our local supermarket – instead at a bargain store or warehouse club in a different town. Now certainly, that’s bad for the economy right in our own communities.
• STRS (separate entity) now has plans to require teachers to work to 35 years of service (instead of 30) and age 60 to receive retirement benefits. So I have will have to work longer. But realistically, it’s impossible. The schools won’t keep experienced teachers that long into their career because of the pay. So the experienced teachers will be let go from one district and never hired by any other for the same reason.
• With regard to the State Teachers’ Retirement System (STRS), it has now proposed a new retirement structure to help bring it back to financial stability. Though it is completely separate from SB 5, they ARE, in fact, connected by this: lower teacher pay means less contributed to STRS which means it does not come back to stability as planned, because what’s being put in won’t exceed what’s being taken out by those already retired. I don’t see how Governor Kasich and Senator Jones think that will help. Or maybe they don’t see the connection or just don’t care.
• In my district, cost cutting has already begun over the last 2 years. Teachers who retire are not being replaced. Instead, class sizes go up, courses are no longer offered, and quality of education goes down. It’s the students who pay.
Fact or Myth: common statements I hear and want to clarify.
Teachers get paid for summer vacation.
Teachers don’t put in a full day’s work.
I invite any and all of you to come to my classroom for an extended period of time to see exactly what I do for kids.
She is also hoping that once people understand what this bill is about, they will contact their state legislators and encourage them to vote NO on SB 5. There is a rally scheduled for 1:00 PM on Tuesday, February 22 at the Statehouse. At the present time, there are NOT enough votes to pass this bill as there are still 9 Senators who have not committed their votes. I will be attending the rally on Tuesday. If there is anyone who would like to drive to Columbus with me, let me know.
Debbie Rudy-Lack
Time is of the essence....FORWARD
From Jen Subbotin, Feb 19, 2011
Subject: PLEASE HELP
Subject: PLEASE HELP
Dear Friends,
It is with a heavy heart and great deal of concern that I write this letter to you asking for your help. As you may or may not know, I am NOT a political person. I do vote regularly, but I don’t talk politics, take sides based on party, and get involved in fundraising, and so on. However, this is a time when I will become vocal on a current political issue because it affects all our children, their teachers, and their teachers’ families along with those of police, fire fighters, and other state employees.
In case you don’t know, Senator Jones of Springboro, Ohio (Dayton area) has proposed a bill that proponents say would help balance Ohio’s budget on the backs of public employees. It is called Ohio Senate Bill 5. This week the Ohio Senate heard testimony from both sides (for and against the bill). The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill late next week and then, if passed, it will go to the House of Representatives to be discussed and voted upon. In general, they are hoping to wrap things up by mid-March. Governor Kasich is in favor of this bill, so if it makes it through the house, it will be approved. I am sure you have caught a glimpse of what's happening in Wisconsin.
Personally, I believe the supporters of this bill have a VERY SHORT-SIGHTED view. I believe this bill, if enacted into law, will destroy schools, and education in general, in Ohio. I am concerned for the education of my child over the next 5 years of school and potentially an additional 4 at college. Why my concern? Well, whether people are willing to admit it or not, good education comes from good teachers. And I believe Ohio is going to lose MANY good teachers.
This bill will make teachers choose between staying in education in Ohio with significantly less pay or leaving Ohio for a state that pays its teachers proper salaries or leaving education altogether in search of a job in a different field. This is especially distasteful as Governor Kasich recently approved increases in pay for his cabinet members and many staff members yet proposes to cut teacher salaries in half.
So what can you do? Read the information attached: the bulleted points below are from the Ohio Legislature’s website, and I will keep them in black. I will add my personal commentary/experience in blue. Then make phone calls, send emails, and notify your family and friends to call as soon as possible. Details are as follows: Here are Ohio's Republican Senators who are reportedly on the fence about SB 5. Call them and urge them to oppose the measure. No one answers. All you're doing is leaving messages like the sample below.
Dear Senator______________________,
I am an Ohio citizen who pays taxes and believes everyone has to share in the economic cuts that many Ohioans are going to be feeling, but the drastic measures proposed in Senate Bill 5 will simply force good teachers out of Ohio. Ohio’s children and families need good teachers. Don’t send them packing. PLEASE VOTE NO ON SB5. 
PLEASE PASS THIS ON to anyone in Ohio who supports education. Use your email contacts, phone contacts, groups you belong to, etc. This affects all our children.
Use this link to email them and others, too.
http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/ choose find my legislators (by zip code)
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."
~U.S. Declaration of Independence~
Thank you for your time.
js
js
Senate Bill 5:
• Abolishes the collective bargaining rights of employees of the state, of any agency, authority, commission, or board of the state, and of any state institution of higher education.
• Prohibits the state, agencies, authorities, commissions, and boards of the state, and a state institution of higher education from collectively bargaining with its employees.
• Abolishes the collective bargaining rights of employees of the state, of any agency, authority, commission, or board of the state, and of any state institution of higher education.
• Prohibits the state, agencies, authorities, commissions, and boards of the state, and a state institution of higher education from collectively bargaining with its employees.
Unions will be eliminated, and teachers, police, and firemen will have no ability to receive a fair negotiated agreement (“contract”). Any negotiation that would take place will be extremely limited and teachers will have little to no say in how to improve working and learning conditions for the children/teachers of the district. I have seen numerous administrators come and go over the last 2 decades. Many were outstanding and had the best interest of my district’s students, teachers, staff and community in mind. Others were relentless, unorganized, had "favorites” and were outright unfair. Without a union, we are at the mercy of potentially unfair administrators. Without a union, we will be asked to do more and more with less compensation and less job security. Being protected by the union means I get to concentrate on the children in my classroom, come up with interesting and relevant lesson plans, work on learning new technology, and strive to be a better educator for the children in my classes.
• Removes a provision granting specific authority to public school employees to collectively bargain for health care benefits.
• Makes the following inappropriate subjects for collective bargaining: (1) employer-paid contributions to any of the five public employee retirement systems and (2) health care benefits for which the employer is required to pay more than 80% of the cost.
This means that school districts will be able to decide, without teacher input or consideration, what healthcare system and provisions we will have access to. This could mean people would to have to change doctors to stay “within network” every time the district switches carriers to save money. There would be no consistency in healthcare for families of educators.
In case you want to know, my school health care carrier is currently Medical Mutual of Ohio: Super Med. My vision is through VSP and my dental is Dentemax. None of these are guaranteed past the current contract. I would be happy to discuss my benefit and contribution numbers if you’d like.
I think that if state employees are expected to contribute a certain percent to their healthcare, that the administrators, bosses, and other “higher ups” should also contribute the same. And why not government officials? Aren’t they public employees in the greatest sense of the word?
• Permits public employers to not bargain on any subject reserved to the management and direction of the governmental unit, even if the subject affects wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment.
This part of the proposal says that we can no longer negotiate (discuss and agree on) things like length of a workday or salary. If the board decides to extend the school day or school year, there would be no adjustment for pay. There would also be no limit to how many classes or how many different subjects (each requiring its own preparation of plans & materials). This is bad for teachers and kids! I have 7 classes (3 different preps).
• Prohibits a public employer from agreeing to a provision in a collective bargaining agreement that requires the public employer, when a reduction in force is necessary, to use employee length of service as the only factor when making layoffs.
• Removes consideration of seniority and of length of service, by itself, from decisions regarding a reduction in work force of certain public employees.
Currently in the case of a reduction in force (RIF), my school district would eliminate first, those who have the least seniority (lowest number of years with the district). This provision in SB 5, means that in order to cut costs, schools can simply lay-off the most expensive (experienced) teachers without regard for loyalty to the district, ability in the classroom, and so on. So the fact that I have dedicated 20 years of my career to a certain district (and its community members) will be overlooked in favor of the fact that they could hire 2 first-year teachers right out of college to replace me. It will become simply a matter of dollars for school districts. They will have no choice. This, combined with the newly proposed retirement plan, will force districts to choose between keeping good, experienced teachers and facing bankruptcy, or letting them go and hiring cheaper teachers to remain financially stable.
• Prohibits a public employer that is a school district, educational service center, community school, or STEM school from entering into a collective bargaining agreement that does specified things, such as establishing a maximum number of students who may be assigned to a classroom or teacher.
Currently some school districts do have maximums for the number of students per class. Some also have minimums. In my district, we try to schedule 28 or less, but require at least 12 students to offer a course. (This does not include special education classes, which are governed by IDEA laws.) Based on my experience, 18-22 is optimal. Currently only one of my 7 classes is within that range. On a daily basis I see 163 students!
Already there are issues of not enough materials. For example I have more students than there are computers in the lab. So I have to hope a couple of them are absent or send them somewhere else to use the computer, but then I am not there to help them if needed.
• Requires merit-based pay for most public employees, including teachers and nonteaching school employees and board and commission members, and makes other, related changes.
I have personally heard discussions on merit pay for over 2 decades. I taught for 2 years in North Carolina during 1989-1991. Teachers there had just endured a pay freeze for 7 years! At the time I left, the state government there was playing with the idea. This is a very scary idea because most implementation plans try to link merit pay to standardized test scores. If your kids score well, you earn more. Well what about the teacher who works just as hard, if not harder, but has low ability kids or kids for whom our current system of education does not work? Should that person make less? I don’t think so.
In places that have previously tried variations of Merit Pay, the results have often led to unpleasant and counter-productive competition between teachers. Where teachers once worked as a team and shared solutions cooperatively, Merit Pay can make teachers adopt a more “I’m out for myself only” attitude. This would be disastrous for our students, no doubt.
• Generally eliminates statutory salary schedules and steps.
Currently, when a board of education negotiates a collective bargaining agreement with a teacher’s union, it has a duration of 2-3 years…depending on what the district can financially certify. Part of the agreement is a salary schedule which states what each teacher will make depending on his level of education and number of years of service (steps). This bill would eliminate that so that school districts would not pay teachers increases for years served (longevity).
I wonder if this will be true for administrators, too. In my district, the administrators (superintendent and principals) and board of education secretaries, and treasurer’s department just received their annual lump-sum longevity payment on January 20. The total was approximately $180,000! Just for them - every January. This is in addition to their salary, raises, and so on.
• Requires boards of education to adopt policies to provide leave with pay for school employees and abolishes statutorily provided leave for those employees.
Currently the law requires that teachers be permitted to accumulate at least sick leave at the rate of 15 days per year credited at the rate of one and one-fourth days per month. Teachers are entitled to an advance of five days of sick leave at the beginning of the school year. The law permits the use of sick leave for personal illness, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, injury, exposure to a contagious disease, and absence due to illness, injury, or death in the employee’s immediate family.
Many boards permit unlimited accumulation, based upon negotiated contracts. In my district a new mother may take up to 10 weeks of sick leave (provided she has accumulated that many days). Any parenting leave beyond that is without pay. When I had my daughter, I took a semester (18 weeks) leave. At that time the negotiated agreement was 8 weeks paid sick leave for childbirth. The remaining 10 weeks were without pay. In fact, the school billed me because I had to pay all of my own healthcare premiums during those weeks.
So if SB 5 eliminates the 15 day rule, what do teachers do when their children get sick? Should we send them to daycare or school to infect the other kids? What if you have multiple kids? They don’t always get sick at the same time. What about those with older, ailing parents? Are we to just drop them off at the hospital for a treatment and head off to school?
Granted the wording says boards must adopt a policy, but what if that policy is only 5 days or 10? It’s not as if we can “work from home” like those in the business world. We can’t go in early or stay late to make up time. If you think about it, 2 doctor’s appointments, 2 sick children 2 days each, 2 parent health issues for you and your spouse, and 2 deaths in the family. It can accumulate quickly. Are we supposed to say, “Gee, honey, I am sorry, I have no more sick days left. You will have to go to your dad’s funeral alone.”?
• Abolishes continuing contracts for teachers, except for those continuing contracts in existence prior to the effective date of the bill.
Many people have misconceptions about continuing contracts (“tenure”). Tenure does not mean that you cannot ever be fired. Tenure does not guarantee inept teachers a job. Ohio teachers work under one of two basic types of contracts–limited or continuing. Limited contracts must be renewed periodically (2 years or 5 years). State statute or a collective bargaining agreement determine the procedure the employer must use to non-renew a limited contract. A continuing contract remains in effect until a teacher dies, resigns, voluntarily retires, is suspended or terminated for cause. Each board sets the criteria for its teachers to be issued a continuing contract. In my case, I had to have my master’s degree, 2 years with the district, and 5 years teaching on a professional license to even apply.
~ ~ ~
I have seen numerous administrators come and go over the last 2 decades. Many were outstanding and had the best interest of my district’s students, teachers, staff and community in mind. Others were relentless, unorganized, had "favorites” and were outright unfair. Without a union, we are at the mercy of potentially unfair administrators. Without a union, we will be asked to do more and more with less compensation and less job security. Being protected by the union means I get to concentrate on the children in my classroom, come up with interesting and relevant lesson plans, work on learning new technology, and strive to be a better educator.
It’s become all the rage, to bash teachers. You hear it all the time, read it on blogs, comments posted in forums, in discussions pool-side in the summer and so on. But most of those beliefs are not based on fact. Oh, sure, there are some teachers who don’t necessarily do a good job. But there are doctors, lawyers, people in business and banking, and just about every other profession who also leave something to be desired. Then add unions to the discussion, and it’s all over. But it seems it’s easy to blame teachers. And for the most part, they don’t fight back. Why? Not because they believe it’s true, but because there is a silent, standing gag order. Now, yes, technically we do have freedom of speech (on paper and for the time being), but I have personal experience and knowledge of other teachers wanting to respond to letters to the editor or articles in local news and being told not to. Could they still do it? Yes. And in some cases face very difficult consequences in their place of employment. For example, being moved from one position to another (example 2nd grade teacher to 7th grade teacher), from one building to another (from middle school to kindergarten and back), from having a classroom to traveling between rooms (taking all your things needed for classes along with you to 6 or 7 different locations in the building), from teaching certain curricula to others (being a math teacher for 8 years and then get moved to language arts), from having typical job assignments to being assigned the most difficult of schedules (like having a variety of levels of students to having all the low ability or poorly behaved students). Think it doesn’t happen? YOU ARE WRONG!
But those same people, who bash teachers, when talking about their own personal children’s education, want good, kind, dedicated, teachers. Well, the availability of such people is about to change drastically!
If you’ve read this far, thank you! I said above that I think the supporters are short-sighted. Although these changes may help reduce the budget deficit on paper, we need to look also at the long-term impact. It will have a massive and negative domino effect. Read on and give it some thought. You see, they want to pass this quickly and quietly. Most people are not even aware of the potential consequences.
• I am concerned about my own career, but I want to look at the impact to my family and community as well. I believe many good teachers will leave the profession (or at least the state). Either way, it’s bad. I want good teachers for my child. I want teachers who are dedicated, experienced, caring, and who like their job. If they leave teaching, what will happen in the schools? And if they leave the state to go elsewhere to teach, how, exactly, does that help Ohio’s economy?
• I agree that Ohio’s method of financing public schools (property taxes and levies) is flawed. I AM A TAX PAYER, TOO! I have voted consistently to support school levies in my community, mental health issues, and library funding issues and so on, even though I know it means more out of my pocket because I know that these are all things that will improve the community for me and my family. And when I choose to leave, it will be a great place for another family to enjoy, so my property will sell. This all benefits the entire community/economy.
• Stop paying public employees competitive salaries and you will cut what they have available to spend back into the Ohio economy. On a cut salary as proposed by the governor I would be forced to make cuts, many of which will in turn negatively impact local small businesses. No more karate lessons for my daughter. No more summer theater camp. No more clothes to the tailor or dry cleaner. No more supporting local small businesses, diners, shops, music schools. No more grocery shopping in our local supermarket – instead at a bargain store or warehouse club in a different town. Now certainly, that’s bad for the economy right in our own communities.
• STRS (separate entity) now has plans to require teachers to work to 35 years of service (instead of 30) and age 60 to receive retirement benefits. So I have will have to work longer. But realistically, it’s impossible. The schools won’t keep experienced teachers that long into their career because of the pay. So the experienced teachers will be let go from one district and never hired by any other for the same reason.
• With regard to the State Teachers’ Retirement System (STRS), it has now proposed a new retirement structure to help bring it back to financial stability. Though it is completely separate from SB 5, they ARE, in fact, connected by this: lower teacher pay means less contributed to STRS which means it does not come back to stability as planned, because what’s being put in won’t exceed what’s being taken out by those already retired. I don’t see how Governor Kasich and Senator Jones think that will help. Or maybe they don’t see the connection or just don’t care.
• In my district, cost cutting has already begun over the last 2 years. Teachers who retire are not being replaced. Instead, class sizes go up, courses are no longer offered, and quality of education goes down. It’s the students who pay.
Fact or Myth: common statements I hear and want to clarify.
Teachers get paid for summer vacation.
FALSE! My contract is for 186 days. I am paid for those 186 days of work. I am not paid for Thanksgiving vacation, Christmas vacation, Spring Break or other holidays. We can choose to have our pay divided into 10 months (20 pay periods) or 12 months (24 pay periods). I choose 12 months to have the consistent monthly income. Most teachers do it this way. It does not mean we get paid for summer, but during summer. Rather than complain, it’d be nice for people to understand that I am letting the board of education hold MY money longer than necessary and EARN INTEREST on it while they have it!
Teachers don’t put in a full day’s work.
FALSE! I have a 7.5 hour work day. I have 30 minutes for lunch. In order to get all my work done in a timely fashion, I have to stay late or take it home daily. I DO NOT get paid overtime for this.
Teachers make more money than they should.
FALSE! A recent news article showed teachers make on average 65% of what their private sector peers make.
FALSE! A recent news article showed teachers make on average 65% of what their private sector peers make.
I invite any and all of you to come to my classroom for an extended period of time to see exactly what I do for kids.
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."
...~U.S. Declaration of Independence~
...~U.S. Declaration of Independence~
posted by Kathie Bracy at 6:45 PM
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