Bill, congratulations.......

John Curry to Bill Leibensperger, May 14, 2012

By the OEA's move to represent educators in Ohio's charter schools the OEA has now "legitimized" the concept of a charter school in the eyes and minds of the public. For 30 years I paid dues into the OEA to, among other things, help ensure that the privatization of education in the State of Ohio would not flourish.

Your organization has now furnished the water and fertilizer for those who wish to nourish the spread of charter schools in this state. Of course, you can always try to, in your own words, "morph the charters into the kinds of schools the union can get behind." Good luck morphing....with charter schools receiving the OEA's acquiescence and the legislators and newspapers (see below) observing the same....... you'll need it. I look at these new dues your organization will now receive from these charter educators as "dirty money" and that the OEA has "sold its soul" in the process. I am sure you won't.

John

http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/the-eteam/2012/05/unionizing-charters.html
Are unions coming to Ohio charter schools?

By: Jennifer Smith Richards
The Columbus Dispatch - May 14, 2012

ShareThisThe state's largest teachers' union has decided it's willing to organize in charter schools. The decision came after at least a year-long debate.

In its announcement of the policy change, Ohio Education Association President Patricia Frost-Brooks said she believes charter-school teachers could benefit from collective bargaining.

"The new policy is consistent with OEA’s principles, including the belief that all employees have the right to representation and bargaining”, she said in a news release.

A national group that advocates for charter schools and publishes charter data says Ohio has 42 charters with unions. The OEA has yet to organize in one, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the state's other large educator union, doesn't have any units in charters, either.

The Ohio Department of Education doesn't track unions in charters. But it might be that the unions that exist in charters actually are in conversion charter schools. In other words, they're holdovers from when the charter school was a traditional, district-run school.