98.SENATE BILL 5 SB5 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Official Argument and Explanation for Issue 2. Prepared by Representatives Joe Uecker and Louis Blessing and Senators Kevin Bacon and Shanon Jones. Vote YES on ISSUE 2
Protect Good Teachers and Improve Our Schools
Issue 2 keeps the best teachers in the classroom by ending the unfair practice of seniority-based layoffs, which force forces struggling schools to cut many of our best teachers first. (Note: no more last in – first out layoff decisions.)
Issue 2 returns control of our schools to taxpayers by bringing increased transparency to teacher negotiations. (Note: ?? )
Issue 2 enables schools to retain and reward good teachers by allowing them to base pay raises on job performance. (Note: Merit, instead of automatic 2.5% step raises for all union employees. Salary schedules are eliminated.)
Restore Balance and Ensure Fairness
Issue 2 ensures that government employees receive quality health care, but asks them to pay a mere 15% of their health insurance coverage, which is still less than half of what the average private sector worker pays (31%). (Note: employees do not pay for their health coverage.)
Issue 2 asks government employees to make a fair contribution (10%) to their taxpayer funded retirement plans instead of requiring taxpayers to provide these pension benefits for free. Many private sector workers get no retirement benefits at all. (Note: ?? )
Issue 2 allows good job performance to be considered when awarding pay raises to government employees. Private sector workers earn their paychecks by doing a good job and so should government employees. (Note: Automatic Step Raises and Salary Schedules are eliminated.)
Get Spending Under Control, Retain Jobs, and Protect Taxpayers
Issue 2 will save our communities millions of dollars annually helping them balance their budgets and retain jobs. (Note: Mediation and Arbitration procedures changed.)
Issue 2 will protect taxpayers by giving them the right to reject unaffordable government employment contracts. (Note: ?? )
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Argument and Explanation in opposition to Issue 2. Prepared by Michael S. Weiman, Deirde Ann DeLong, Michael Harrison, and Natalie Y. Wester. VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2, REPEAL SB5
UNSAFE (To do)
UNFAIR (To do)
HURTS US ALL (To do)
Source: STATE BALLOT ISSUES INFORMATION FOR THE NOVEMBER 8, 2011 GENERAL ELECTION
Ohio law (R. C. 3505.062 (G) and Ohio Constitution Article II, Section 1g) requires Secretary of State John Husted to contract for the publication of the ballot language, text, explanations, and arguments for each of the State Issues once a week for 3 consecutive weeks preceding the election in at least one newspaper of general circulation in each county in the state. Note: The 60 page document was included in The Cincinnati Enquirer in an October, 2011 publication.
Issue 2 Referendum
Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 5 is a new law relative to government union contracts and other government employment contracts and policies.
Revised Code to make changes to laws concerning public employees, including collective bargaining, salary schedules and compensation, layoff procedures, and leave.
Background:
In 1983, Ohio General Assembly passes Senate Bill 133 The Ohio Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act (which allowed for negotiations).
Chapters under The Collective Bargaining Act:
ORC 4117.01 (B) who is a public employer
ORC 4117.04 duties of a public employer
ORC 4117.01 (C)
ORC.4117.03 rights of public employees
ORC4117.08(B) prohibited subjects, matters not to be bargained
ORC 4117.08(C) 4117.09 4117.10 The Collective Bargaining Agreement
ORD 4117.09(B) grievence procedure ending in arbitration
ORC 4117.09 (B)(1) Grievence
ORC 4117.14 Negotiating a Successor Agreement
ORC 4114.15 Strike limitations
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. COLUMBUS – Ohio voters will decide in November whether to repeal the state’s new collective bargaining law, which would let public worker unions negotiate wages but not health care, sick time or pension benefits.
. The state’s elections chief said Thursday (July 21, 2011) that opponents had gathered enough valid signatures to put the question before voters. The measure is now suspended from taking effect until voters have their say.
Source: Voters will decide fate of union law. By Ann Sanner Associated Press. Published in The Enquirer 7/22/11 A1
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Budget Committee meeting just concluded 3/3/11
Ohio Govenor Kasich: Signs SB 5 into law
But issue could return, on ballot
The public workers covered under the law can still negotiate wages and certain work conditions–but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. The measure also does away with automatic pay raises and bases future wage increases on merit, ….
Source: Associated Press. The Enquirer 4/1/2011. Page C1
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The Ohio
Education
Gadfly A Special Edition from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Volume 5, Number 13. June 30, 2011.
Special Edition
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Ohio’s Biennial Budget Sets the Conditions for Education Success
By Terry Ryan, Emmy Partin, and Jamie Davies O’Leary
Gov. John Kasich is slated to sign Ohio’s biennial budget today (it’s a 5,000 page document), legislation that not only appropriates funding for the Buckeye State until 2013 but that also includes hundreds of pages of education-policy changes—most of which will move Ohio forward in significant ways.
The ultimate success of the budget’s education reforms will depend greatly on the quality of implementation by the State Board of Education, the new state superintendent, and his team at the Ohio Department of Education. This may sound obvious, but it’s worth hammering home: The budget puts an enormous amount of responsibility and faith into the Department of Education (to sponsor new charter schools, a move we opposed during the debate), the State Board (to approve model frameworks for teacher evaluation), and already thinly-stretched staffers who are still deciphering what the budget provisions actually mean.
Now that the legislative debate has ended, where does Ohio stand on the big education-policy issues of charter schools, teacher policy, and school accountability and improvement? And why will implementation be so crucial? Let’s dig in.
Charters & Choice
Fordham is a long-time supporter of school choice and believes in the expansion of quality options for families. However, we made it clear in recent months that we opposed proposals in the House that would have severely undermined accountability and the quality of authorizers and charter schools. Thankfully, the most egregious House language offered by some for-profit school-management companies was stripped out in the final budget deal, so Ohioans need not worry about charter schools or groups of individuals running schools without oversight. Plus, lawmakers strengthened accountability for charter-school authorizers, stipulating that those ranked in the bottom 20 percent of all sponsors cannot open new schools.
Other positive provisions include: shortening by one year the timeline for automatic closure (“death penalty”) of failing charter schools; putting in language to establish and fund a public boarding school; giving charter schools better access to unused district facilities; and dramatically expanding the number of EdChoice Scholarships available and the students eligible for them. The budget also launched a new special-needs scholarship program.
On the troubling side, the budget reinstates the Ohio Department of Education as an authorizer of charter schools, a duty it fully botched a decade ago, with many risks remaining today. These risks include an understaffed and ill-prepared charter-school office, conflicts of interest (the department now will sponsor schools, oversee the state’s other charter-school sponsors, provide technical assistance of myriad sorts, and fund charters), and enormous pressure to sponsor charter schools quickly and without a proper vetting of applicants. However, a rigorous screening process, combined with strong leadership from the State Board and the interim and new state superintendent, can help mitigate these risks.
Teachers
While not as strong as language approved in the House, the final budget deal is still two steps forward for the Buckeye State when it comes to improving teacher effectiveness. Most critically, Ohio districts will now have to dramatically improve their teacher-evaluation systems, and must no longer make layoff decisions based on seniority alone.
Moreover, the legislature wants to see action quickly—maybe even too quickly. By December 31, 2011, the State Board must develop a model evaluation framework to guide the development of local evaluation systems. Those systems must be in place by July 2013, and must base 50 percent of a teacher’s rating on the academic growth of his or her students. The systems also must rate teachers according to four tiers (accomplished, proficient, developing, and ineffective). School districts—rather than the state—will then decide how to tie policies on dismissal, tenure, retention, and pay to the evaluations. The primary state mandate governing all of this is that districts can no longer make seniority the predominant determiner of layoff decisions, except in cases of a tie (when teachers have the same rating).
Merit pay, one of the more controversial provisions debated during the budget process, will now only be mandated in districts, STEM schools, and charter schools participating in Race to the Top. Others will be encouraged, but not required, to create a performance-based salary schedule, and hopefully an abundance of teacher-effectiveness data accumulating over time will prompt local officials to reward highly effective teachers accordingly. Other provisions worth lauding include: Teach For America applicants won’t face any new barriers to entry, and alternative licensure will extend across all grades (K-12, instead of only grades 4-12). Teachers at the state’s persistently lowest-performing schools will be required to be tested on their subject-matter knowledge, but will not incur the costs of exams or be required to take the test more than once every three years provided they pass it. Finally, the Board of Regents’ Chancellor will report aggregate student growth data and trace these data to teacher graduates from various teacher-prep programs.
Accountability and School Improvement
Fordham has long advocated holding all schools accountable for performance (not just charter schools) and the budget does that well. District schools performing in the bottom 5 percent of schools statewide for three or more consecutive years will undergo major restructuring (“turnaround”). The controversial “parent trigger”—whereby parents and families can precipitate school reconstitution—will be piloted within Columbus City Schools. Schools wishing to operate outside of traditional regulations and rules (imposed by the state, teachers unions, etc.) can now apply for status as innovation schools or zones in an effort to spur rapid change and achievement improvements that might not otherwise be possible in traditional and more regulated settings.
Finally, individual school performance as well as classroom expenditures (an attempt to measure return on investment) will be published by the state and schools will be ranked and recognized accordingly. This transparency—especially in spending as it relates to achievement—is a leap forward in terms of changing the dialogue in public education. Instead of measuring inputs and dollars in a vacuum (i.e., regardless of achievement), Ohio will begin asking, “What bang are we getting for our buck?”
Conclusion
Considering the fiscal climate in which this budget was written, it is an impressive piece of work that sets the conditions for moving Ohio’s education system forward. There is still plenty that could be derailed through poor implementation by the Ohio Department of Education, the State Board, and individual school districts. But there is no doubt that the budget language moves Ohio towards a performance-based system of education that rewards success, highlights problems, and punishes abject failure. Let the hard work begin.
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Teacher merit pay will move districts forward by TERRY RYAN.
For as long as anyone can remember, a public school teacher’s effectiveness and performance in the classroom have had little to no impact on decisions about whether she is retained by her district or laid off, how she is compensated or assigned to a district’s schools, or how her professional development is crafted.
. Instead of all these critical decisions are made on the basis of quality-blind state policies, like the notorious “last-in, first-out” mandate governing lay-offs, and tenure rules that allow teachers to have job protection for life and “bump” less senior teachers when jockeying for positions.
. To their credit, Gov John Kasich and the Ohio House have been trying to transform the system by which the state handles these crucial decisions. The biennial budget bill passed a teacher evaluation system that incorporates student academic growth and several other key job-related performance factors and would rate teachers according to four tiers. Basic personnel decisions around tenure, placement, dismissal and professional development would be tied directly to the evaluation RESULTS.
. The evaluation model in this bill resembles those developed in bipartisan fashion in other states that prohibit teacher layoffs based solely on seniority and require teacher performance ratings and/or evaluations to be considered in making such decisions.
. What’s more, rigorous performance evaluations in these states also help identify and reward highly effective teachers and tailor professional development in ways that help all teachers improve instruction. Ohio should do the same, and the teacher evaluation language presented to the Senate achieved just that.
. UNFORTUNATELY, however, the Senate has dropped all of these provisions from its version of the budget.
. Some claim that the budget doesn’t need to address teacher quality issues because Senate Bill 5 — the much-debased collective bargaining measure signed by Gov. Kasich in March – deals with these matters, too. (It is, of course, expected to be on the November ballot for voter consideration.) BUT THEY’RE WRONG. The House budget bill’s provisions are very different—and much better.
. SB 5 largely defines teacher effectiveness through antiquated input-based measures such as degrees and other paper credentials. Indeed, the teacher HR provisions of SB 5 are essentially UNWORKABLE, even if that law survives Election Day.
. The House version of the budget connects measures of pupil academic growth to teachers, and further connects teacher effectiveness to key personnel decisions.
. The House version will also help Ohio to fulfill the promises it made in its successful $400,000 million Race to the Top application. The state’s Education Department and participating districts are already at work creating teacher-evaluation systems that incorporate student data.
. Moving toward a fairer and more modern system of gauging teacher effectiveness and using that information to inform personnel decisions will give districts the flexibility their leaders crave.
. It will help them retain their very best instructors while providing all teachers with the support and professional development they need to get better.
Teacher merit pay will move districts forward Guest Column: TERRY RYAN. The Enquirer 6/6/11 OPINIONS A11
Terry Ryan is vice president for Ohio Programs and Policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute of Dayton.
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Senate budget restores funds for education. 6/1/11 The Enquirer
Ohio may reward top schools. Senate budget would pay for ratings. 6/1/11 The Enquirer
Friends of SB5 muster forces. Mission: Overcome opposition in Ohio. 5/31/11 The Enquirer
School Funding in Review (Kasich, House at odds over spreading wealth) School budget cuts lead to a look at how money’s doled out. 5/30/11 The Enquirer
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A group called We Are Ohio, circulating a petition to repeal the measure (Senate Bill 5), has until the end of June (2011) to gather approximately 230,000 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters to qualify for the November ballot.
Source: Poll finds SB 5 unpopular. Opponents trying to get repeal on November ballot.
By Darrel Rowland. The Columbus Dispatch.
The Enquirer 5/19/2011 C3
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The law signed by Gov. John Kasich in late March (2011) affects more than 350,000 public workers, including police officers, firefighters, teachers and state employees. It allows unions to negotiate wages but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. It bans strikes and gets rid of automatic pay increases (step raises), replacing them with merit rates or performance pay.
Source: Police group retracts support By Ann Sanner Associated Press. The Enquirer May 13,2011 C5
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Senate OKs SB5 – barely
Bill now goes to House, where passage is likely
By Jon Craig, The Enquirer March 3, 2011
COLUMBUS – By one vote, a bitterly divided Ohio Senate approved a sweeping overhaul of the state’s 27-year-old collective-bargaining law Wednesday.
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It now heads to the House, where GOP control of 59 of 99 seats makes passage of the bill likely, later this month. Gov. Kasich, a Republican, said he’d sign the bill into law if the House approves it.
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To learn what Ohio Superintendents say in a recent (early 2011) survey,
Go to: http://www.edexcellence.net/publications-issues/publications/yearning-to-break-free-ohio.html
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We Are Ohio raised almost $30 million to defeat the law; The coalition of business groups and others brought in about $11 million.
Final results : 62% to 38%. To repeal the law.
Source: Union law ballte cost $41M. By Ann Sanner Associated Press published in The ENQUIRER 12/17/11 c1
State Issue 2
A yes vote will restore control of government budgets to taxpayers
Monday October 17, 2011 5:32 AM The Columbus Dispatch
As outlined in an August editorial, The Dispatch would have preferred a compromise on collective-bargaining issues that would have taken State Issue 2 off the ballot and revised Senate Bill 5. That didn’t happen, but because several of the provisions of Senate Bill 5 are essential to the fiscal health of state and local governments in Ohio, The Dispatch recommends a yes vote on State Issue 2.
Elected officials should be in control of public expenditures. For the nearly three decades since the advent of Ohio’s extremely lopsided collective-bargaining law, elected officials have had too little control over the overwhelming majority of their budgets: salaries and benefits for public employees. That was always poor public policy, but in better economic times, it was sustainable. It isn’t anymore.
As budgets are mercilessly squeezed by the protracted economic downturn, state agencies and local governments need relief from the union-friendly conditions, inherent in Ohio law before Senate Bill 5, that have driven up labor costs and left many public employees with salaries and, especially, benefits that far outstrip those of the taxpayers who pay for them.
The most important provisions of SB 5 would:
• Require public employees to pay a bigger share than many currently do toward their health-insurance premiums and pension contributions. This is the area in which public-sector benefits diverge most greatly from those of the private sector. Most private-sector employees no longer even have guaranteed pensions, also called “defined-benefit plans.” In 1975, 62 percent of private-sector workers’ pensions consisted only of defined-benefit plans; by 2007 that number had shrunk to 7 percent. In the same period, the number of private-sector workers who relied only on defined-contribution plans, such as 401(k) plans, for their retirement went from 16 percent to 67 percent.
If government employees are to continue enjoying generous, guaranteed pensions, they should pay a fair share toward funding them, currently set at 10 percent of their pay.
The bill would forbid the common current practice in which some government employers pay some or all of that 10 percent share. It also would require all public employees to pay at least 15 percent of their health-insurance premium. State employees already pay that much, but some in local government pay 9 percent or less. Considering that the average employee share in the private sector is about 30 percent, public employees under Senate Bill 5 still would get a better deal than most on health insurance.
For examples of actual public-employee pay and estimates of their pensions, visit the searchable databases posted by the Buckeye Institute at http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org.
• Eliminate binding arbitration, the current provision under which a bargaining impasse can be settled by having a third party, with no accountability to the public, impose the agreement he or she prefers, without regard to the tax increases, employee layoffs or service cuts that might be needed to pay for that decision. Elected officials have a fiduciary duty to spend the public’s money wisely; their authority to do so never should have been usurped and should be restored.
• Require public employers to use job performance as one of the factors in determining compensation and promotions of teachers and other public employees, rather than basing these decisions solely on seniority and credentials.
Despite the insistence of opponents, the effort to reform Ohio’s out-of-balance collective-bargaining law is not an expression of disrespect for or dissatisfaction with Ohio teachers, police officers, firefighters and other government employees. It is a much-needed attempt to restore control over public spending to the public officials elected to exercise that control.
It does not assert that public employees are worth less than the compensation they’re receiving, only that the compensation has grown faster than the public’s ability to pay for it.
The claims of the anti-Issue 2 campaign have been intellectually dishonest. Chief among them is the suggestion that, with some bargaining-table leverage restored to them, state agencies and local governments instantly will begin slashing positions for firefighters and police and stop buying the equipment needed to keep the public safe. What possible motivation would a politician have for decimating safety services?
In fact, the opposite is more likely. With more ability to control the escalation of salary and benefit costs, governments won’t be forced as often to impose layoffs, and might be able to afford to keep even more police and firefighters on the streets.
An anti-Issue 2 ad featuring a nurse claiming that Senate Bill 5 will cause bosses to thin their ranks and endanger patients is even less credible, because only a small percentage of nurses in Ohio work for government-worker unions.
The key provisions of Senate Bill 5 are common-sense improvements that most fair-minded people embrace.
There could have been room for compromise on other aspects of the bill, but The Dispatch, like voters, is required to make a call based on the bill as it is. The fiscal difficulties facing the state and local governments demand relief now. Voters should provide it by approving State Issue 2.
About our Editorials
Dispatch editorials express the view of the (Columbus) Dispatch editorial board, which is made up of the publisher, the president of The Dispatch, the editor and the editorial-writing staff. As is the traditional newspaper practice, the editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the newspaper. Comments and questions should be directed to the editorial page editor
http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/getthefacts/
Collective Bargaining insights 8/31/10
. “Out of Whack: Egregious Examples of Government Compensation Packages” listed by The Buckeye Institute For Public Policy Solutions
Source: http://buckeyeinstitute.org/uploads/files/Egregious%20Examples.pdf 7/25/11 Post
. COLUMBUS – Ohio voters will decide in November whether to repeal the state’s new collective bargaining law, which would let public worker unions negotiate wages but not health care, sick time or pension benefits.
. The state’s elections chief said Thursday that opponents had gathered enough valid signatures to put the question before voters. The measure is now suspended from taking effect until voters have their say.
. Kasich and his GOP colleagues say the legislation will help city officials, school superintendents and others control their costs at a time when they too, are feeling budget woes.
. Kasich has said he plans to play a visible role in defending the law. So far, he has directed his supporters to a website for Building a Better Ohio, a group that wants to keep the new law in place.
. Jason Mauk, a spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, said Thursday that certification of the signatures puts the focus back on the law’s merit.
. “Ohio’s voters now have a choice to make,” Mauk said in a statement. “We can keep the unsustainable policies that are bankrupting our communities, or we can change direction and give them the tools they need to create jobs and give them the tools they need to create jobs and get spending under control.”
. The state’s labor groups have turned to their members to help pay for the repeal campaign. Ohio’s largest teacher union in May agreed to a one-time, $54 dues increase. The move by the members of the Ohio Education Association was expected to yield $5.5 million.
. The Fraternal Oder of Police also anticipated raising $1 million from roughly 200 local lodges around the state.
Source: Voters will decide fate of union law. Bargaining: Bid to repeal union law makes fall ballot. By Ann Sanner Associated Press Published in The Enquirer 7/22/11 A1 , A12
“State funding for K-12 education goes up slightly. although that doesn’t come close to covering schools’ loss one-time federal stimulus funds.”
Source: Enquirer Editorial 7/3/11
ADM. says: The end of Federal stimulus funds is no justification for more state taxpayer dollars for schools. The Federal government should keep its hands off local schools. Stop bribing the schools with taxpayer money – Stop trying to control schools. Schools are complicit in the Federal power grab.
K-12 schools should bone up on the US Constitution. No wonder their students are US history illterate. So are the school teachers administrators and board members.
. They’re calling it the race to the door. Admid a push by Gov. Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly to reduce public workers “take home pay, benefits and collective bargaining rights, state and local governments are seeing the biggest exodus of experienced workers in recent history, perhaps ever.
. We do not record why people decide to retire, but it seems to be a perfect storm of (aging) baby boomers and anxiety around pension reform and other state budget related changes,” said Tim Barbour of the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio.
. “They are affraid not to retire,” said Spillman, corrections officer. “Not that are ready to retire – they are able – but they are afraid of what they may lose.
. Jack Reall, president of the Columbus fire fighters union, has no trouble pinpoionting the answer: “They are looking at the statehouse that absolutely hates public employees, and they do not foresee anything getting better for public employees in the next couple years. It’s likely to get worse.
. But with the changies at hand, he dosen’t think he can afford to wait. “That’s several thousnad dollars off my pay, “Spillman said. “That’s someyhing I’ve earned. That was a reward for staying and being a senior employee.
. Despite the record setting departures, few local government officials in central Ohio express major concern about the loses or potential large payouts for accumulated sick and vacation time.
. One time payouts shouldn’t be a problem, because Franklin County keeps a $2.3 million annual fund expressly for those sorts of expenses.
. Olentangy budgeted $370,000 for sick time payout (like many Districts, Olentangy [schools] pays a third of accumulated sick leave as severence), but don’t expect to hit that amount.
. Source: In Ohio, workers rush to retire . By Darrel Rowl and Catherine Candisky. The Columbus Dispatch. Published by The Enquirer 6/27/11 C1
The Buckeye Institute has released Five More Myths About Collective Bargaining and Senate Bill 5. These are in addition to the Top Ten Myths About Collective Bargaining and Senate Bill 5 released several weeks ago.
http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uploads/files/Five%20More%20Myths%20About%20Collective%20Bargaining%20Reform%20and%20Senate%20Bill%205.pdf
http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uploads/files/Top%20Ten%20Myths%20About%20Collective%20Bargaining%20Reform%20and%20Senate%20Bill%205%20with%20map%281%29.pdf
Group gathers 714K names against SB 5.
Collective-bargaining law on track for referendum
We Are Ohio, the coalition of union supporters that wants to overturn Ohio’s new collective-bargaining law, has collected 714,137 signatures, more than triple the number needed to get a referendum on the November ballot. The petition must be turned in by June 30. Fazekas said 300 paid circulators helped with the effort, but about 75 percent of the signatures were by 10,000 volunteers.
Republicans formed Building Better Ohio, led by veteran lobbyist and GOP campaign director Vaughn Flasher, to defend the law.
Source: By Jim Siegel The Columbus Dispatch. The Enquirer 6/18/11 C3
Globalization, Unemployment and Ohio
Posted on June 13, 2011 by Greg R. Lawson
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This is a great piece from Foreign Affairs on how globalization has impacted employment, especially in the U.S. While one need not wade though the entire piece, it is worthwhile to consider that we may be on the verge of a dramatic structural shift in how our economy operates.
One key issue is the increasing importance of education. As the below quote makes clear: the lower the amount of education one has, the less likely one is to find a job.
“The overall picture is clear: employment opportunities and incomes are high, and rising, for the highly educated people at the upper end of the tradable sector of the U.S. economy, but they are diminishing at the lower end. And there is every reason to believe that these trends will continue. As emerging economies continue to move up the value-added chain — and they must in order to keep growing — the tradable sectors of advanced economies will require less labor and the more labor-intensive tasks will shift to emerging economies.”
Remember this each time you hear the teachers’ unions scream and yell about the supposed assault on them that is SB 5. Education is no longer about tenure and protection, if results aren’t produced; it’s the children that will be left further and further behind. So in this sense SB 5, merit pay and all the rest is a moral issue that gets right at the core of Ohio’s competitiveness.
Let’s be clear about Sycamore’s “salary freeze” for FY12 – The Sycamore Board of Education had no say in eliminating the ‘step increase,’ because it no longer exists. The new Ohio Public Employees Collective Bargaining law is reported to have eliminated automatic teacher salary increases based on senority and level of training (
longevity), also known as ‘step increases.’Newsletter
May 11, 2011
Analysis of Senate Bill 5
“The Buckeye Institute just released its analysis of Senate Bill 5. This analysis looks at the details of the bill from the Ohio taxpayer’s perspective and shows the savings to taxpayers by looking at three separate government entities: the State of Ohio, City of Eastlake, and Dublin City Schools. The analysis also moves to discredit several claims reported by the unions on the effects Senate Bill 5 will have on our government employees.”
The full analysis* can be found at:
http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uploads/files/An%20Analysis%20of%20Senate%20Bill%205.pdf
The Buckeye Institute estimated the potential fiscal savings from the amended SB5 by using the actual 2010 payroll data of the government entity – Dublin City School. The primary contract rules that impact personnel costs include health care costs, longevity pay, elimination of step increases, and pension pick-up costs.
The estimated Dublin City School saving totals 1.4 percent of its total personnel costs. “Using the Dublin City Schools figures, the estimated statewide savings for Ohio’s K-12 public schools would total $235,800,000.”
Using the same Dublin figures, the estimated Sycamore Community School saving would total $899,500. “Due to the compounding nature of step increases, the biennial savings would exceed” $1,799,000.
Whether Sycamore Community School savings reach these amounts is dependent on “how effectively government managers and there leaders use the tools they are given in SB5. For taxpayers, failure is not an option, as it will result in higher taxes.”
*An Analysis of Senate Bill 5: Restoring Taxpayer Rights in the Public Workplace as Local Governments Seek Higher Taxes. May 5, 2011. Matt A. Mayer
Glenn Welch
A resident of the City of Montgomery
Published in the Northeast Suburban Life May 25,2011, A10
“This is reality-based budgeting,” said state Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, chair of the House Finance Committee.
Others were not so pleased.
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For hard core fiscal conservatives, it is a budget of same-old – same-old -the government finding a way to spend every dime it takes in, instead of giving some of it back to the weary taxpayer..
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“When do Ohioans get to see a noticeable reduction in the spending curve?” asked Matt Mayer, director of the Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank which has advocated deep cuts in state spending. “It looks like a budget based on revenue, not true government need.”
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‘This budget is an abomination. The budget busts public schools, local government, and care from the elderly and infirm.’ State Rep. Connie Pillich, D-Montgomery.
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‘We’re doing what folds didn’t think anyone could do – fill a massive $8 billion budget gap without raising taxes and while preserving the $800 million income tax cut. Gov. John Kasich’
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Source: Budget: Republicans, fully in charge, get spending cuts without raising taxes. The Enquirer 5/8/2011 B1, B4
Ohio House passed a budget proposal Thursday that would cut state tax dollars to schools and local services…
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…85 changes (amendments) were slipped into House Bill 153 late Tuesday.
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Restores $109 million of the $600 million cut that Kasich proposed for Ohio’s $15 billion K-12 education budget>
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Expands the number of state school vouchers, which allow students in low-performing schools to transfer to private schools, from 14,000 to 60,000 by fiscal year 2013.
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Budget assumes SB5 will remain in effect.
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The House budget would spend $80 million more than Kasich’s on state aid to schools, including targeted help to suburban districts that took hits under the first-term Republican governor’s plan
Source: House passes budget. By Jon Craig Cincinnati Enquirer 5/6/11 A1
Teacher merit pay system in Ohio’s new collective bargaining law could be first of its kind in the country
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Published: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 7:00 PM Updated: Sunday, April 24, 2011, 8:59 AM
By Reginald Fields, The Plain Dealer
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s new collective bargaining law would wipe out automatic public school teacher pay raises in favor of a statewide pay-for-performance system that would be the first of its kind in the country.
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No state now has a mandatory statewide merit pay system for teachers. And while districts or schools across the country have experimented with plans tying bonus money to student achievement, teachers are still guaranteed their annual pay raises as called for by their contracts.
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That won’t be the case in Ohio under the new law, commonly known as Senate Bill 5, which eliminates salary schedules and step increases for Ohio’s 110,000 full-time public school teachers in favor of a straight pay-for-performance system paid for at the local levels.
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“That’s the most fascinating component of this,” said Kathy Christie, chief of staff for the Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based nonpartisan group that studies education issues and policies across the country.
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While it is done with success at a single school district in Colorado, Christie said Ohio would be the only state in the country where merit pay would replace automatic raises statewide.
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“That is the type of component that really, really resonates with the public. If you are not pulling your weight, if you are not getting performance, if you are not tenacious and really trying to learn and all those sorts of things you want to see teachers doing, then you don’t move up at all,” she said. “And I tell you, you run that by public opinion and you get a thumbs-up every time.”
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Teachers in Ohio certainly hope that is not the case. They oppose the far-ranging new law and, more specifically, oppose merit pay as it is proposed because they say too many factors beyond a teacher’s control affect student learning.
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Under Senate Bill 5, teacher performance would be weighed partly by a new set of standards being created by the state board of education that involve observing teachers in the classroom and evaluating their knowledge of the subject they teach and their teaching skills.
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But the biggest piece, which is far from complete, is developing a test that will gauge student academic growth over a school year or from year to year, said Ohio Department of Education spokesman Patrick Gallaway.
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Student achievement will be the biggest single metric in a teacher’s evaluation, making up 50 percent of the final performance mark for each educator and determining whether he or she gets a raise, nothing, or potentially gets fired.
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The new system would not affect current teacher contracts, which would remain in effect until they expire.
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Because of improved teacher evaluation systems and data collection on students, more states are looking for ways to link the two items — teaching skills and pupil achievement – though pay-for-performance is not necessarily on the radar everywhere, Christie said.
“We are seeing a sea change in the last 12 to 18 months on the teacher evaluation piece,” she said. “It is an unbelievable amount of movement on this issue.”
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In recent years, school districts in Iowa, Texas, Minnesota, New York and elsewhere have experimented with pay-for-performance programs and many have not lasted beyond a few years. Most struggle to find an equitable way of providing raises to all while also handing out merit pay to some, Christie said.
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Harvard economist Roland Fryer in March concluded that a $75 million pay-for-performance pilot program in New York City that started in 2007 did not increase student achievement.
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A study from Vanderbilt University released last September that followed Nashville teachers eligible for merit pay from 2007 through 2009 also concluded that student academic achievement did not improve..
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But that study concluded that teachers are likely to agree to work under a merit pay plan if they are convinced their employer has a sound policy reason for doing it as opposed to feeling as though it is being forced on them.
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Unlike those other programs, Ohio’s would not allocate any special funds for merit pay. The bonus pay would be money the districts already had intended to pay all teachers as part of automatic annual pay raises.
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Matt Mayer, president of the conservative Buckeye Institute, supports Senate Bill 5 and merit pay.
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If he could further design the pay-for-performance program in Ohio, Mayer said only one in four teachers would be rewarded with pay increases and the bottom teachers would have to immediately boost their teaching skills or be fired.
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“The real focus on K-12 pay for performance should be on rewarding the top 25 percent of teachers that when compared to their peers excel in terms of the academic achievement of their pupils,” he said.
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“And then there is the bottom 25 percent who are below their peers,” Mayer continued. “Get those who underperform help or help them move on to a new career.”
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And the middle 50 percent would get raises only as resources within the individual districts allow, he said. “Kind of how the private sector works,” Mayer said.
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He added that teachers should be compared only to other teachers within the same district and grade level so that an educator with at-risk students isn’t compared to one with affluent pupils.
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Needless to say, teachers and their unions are not thrilled with any of this.
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They wonder how anyone can be certain that the way student achievement is measured will be appropriate, given that it could be the basis for teachers losing their careers.
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“We are concerned about it because currently there aren’t any student growth measures that exist that are designed to be valid and reliable for high stakes decisions like teacher compensation,” said Matt Dotson, of the Ohio Education Association.
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“At this point there are just indicators of where students might need more intervention or diagnostics,” Dotson said. “These tools have always been designed to help teachers, not punish teachers.”
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And Dotson said their could be a huge backlash for the state in terms of being able to hire and retain well-qualified educators.
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“It certainly may undermine the ability to recruit and retain high quality teachers if they feel they are being compensated and evaluated in an unfair manner,” Dotson said.
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The Ohio Federation of Teachers did not return a call for comment.
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Furthermore, Senate Bill 5 does not provide any extra incentive or pay for teachers who go back to school to earn advanced degrees such as a master’s or doctorate. Currently, such degrees could mean higher salaries and bigger annual step increases.
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That is a factor that could still be worked out by the state board of education as it works on designing the program.
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Ohio’s superintendent of education must develop and submit to the board that framework for how to evaluate teachers by April 30, 2012. By that same date, district superintendents must tell the state board how they plan to measure student achievement. It is possible districts will use different ways of assessing academic growth.
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The state board then must adopt a state framework for evaluating teachers by July 1, 2012. The district superintendents will then have to formally adopt a policy for their districts by July 1, 2013, to be implemented that fall — about two years away.
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Still, the wildcard in all this is the possible referendum vote that could void Senate Bill 5. The law is enormously divisive politically and triggered large Statehouse protests by well-organized labor unions as the legislation moved through the legislature.
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Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, supported the intent of Senate Bill 5 from its inception, and the GOP-controlled Ohio Senate and House ushered it through the General Assembly. Kasich signed it on March 31.
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But since then, unions, with support from Democrats, have launched a drive to place a referendum on the November ballot that will ask voters to overturn Senate Bill 5, which has not yet become effective. Ohio teachers unions are among the most active supporters of the referendum.
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The unions are likely to get enough signatures for a referendum, which would hold up Senate Bill 5 at least until voters have a chance to decide on it.
Mason teachers joined the ranks of area teacher unions giving up pay hikes in hopes of keeping their jobs and bringing more stability to troubled school district finances.
The Mason Board of Education voted unanimously to accept a rare initiative by Mason’s teacher union, whose members asked for a contract extension of two years, freezing their base pay but also placing a hold on automatic “step increases” in pay for some of its members until 2013.
The unusual move by teachers means Mason voters will not see a new operating school tax on the ballot in November, as school officials had planned.
Tom Ash, director of government relations for the buckeye Association of School Administrators, said the trend of scaled-back teacher contracts is spreading.
“We are receiving reports from the field that districts and their unions are reaching agreements earlier and are extending current agreements that may not expire until next year. I believe that this results from a variety of issues. Probably some of the agreements results from Senate Bill 5 and uncertainty over negotiating under the new legislation,” Ashbury said.
Karrie Nelson, president of Mason Schools’ 700-member teacher union, countered that local community priorities played more of a role than Senate Bill 5.
“Our main motivation is what the community desires and they spoke very loudly last fall when they voted our (operating) tax levy down,” Nelson said.
It was the first school operating tax in Mason to lose since 1970.
“We want to make sure the kids did not and we all want to do our part to help the district and ultimately the students,” Nelson said.
Note: Loveland, North College Hill and Lakota schools joined the trend.
In most districts, payroll costs make up about 85 percent of the total budget.
…. What has changed is that now unions are pushing harder to negotiate such pay freezes and putting on hold step increases, which kick in automatically and independently of labor contracts to teachers who qualify.
“We are certainly in the short term entering a new phase of move away from step increases,” Damon Ashbury, spokesman for the Ohio School Boards Association, said Tuesday.
Ashbury and other said the trend is more prevalent among Southwest Ohio districts, where nearly half of school systems are considering or planning to place school tax issues on the ballot sometime this year.
“And Senate Bill 5 is driving some of these discussions,” Ashbury said.
Cincinnati attorney C. Bronston McCord lll has more than 15 years’ experience helping school boards negotiate labor contracts. He said the early impact of Senate Bill is undeniable. “The landscape for school labor negotiations is going to change immensely, … Unions are alarmed at the provisions of this law, and , in my estimation, their offers to rollover contracts are an attempt to retain the benefits contained in the union contracts to the extent they can while the legal machinations over Senate Bill play out,” he said.
Source: Mason teachers sacrifice pay hike to hang on to jobs. By Michael D. Clark. The Enquirer 4/13/11 A1, A8
Kasich: Signs SB 5 into law
But issue could return, on ballot
The public workers covered under the law can still negotiate wages and certain work conditions–but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. The measure also does away with automatic pay raises and bases future wage increases on merit, ….
Source: Associated Press. The Enquirer 4/1/11 C1
Governor John Kasich signed Senate Bill 5 yesterday. Big Labor now has 90 days to gather enough signatures to place a referendum on the November 2011 ballot to repeal SB5.
Implementation of SB5′s cost saving measures is put on hold during this 90-day signature gathering period. If Big Labor fails to get the requisite level of signatures, SB5 implementation will begin in 91 days. Big Labor won’t fail. That means, Ohio voters will face a choice in November: repeal reform and return to the status quo OR reject the status quo and Big Labor’s attempt to regain power.
Source: The Buckeye Institute
COLUMBUS – The fight over Senate Bill 5 now will likely shift from the General Assembly to the courts and the polls, as public union leaders push a statewide referendum on the collective bargaining law.
Union officials are gearing up for a Nov. 8 ballot issue that would seek to repeal the bill, which affects 360,000 unionized public workers. Because Senate Bill 5 will affect labor contracts as they expire, union leaders favor a statewide vote this fall instead of waiting until the 2012 presidential election.
The bill passed 53-44 in the Ohio House Wednesday evening. Then, by one vote just before 9:30 p.m., a divided Senate agreed 17-16 to 25 House amendments.
Source: Unions pin hopes on voters. SB5 could be on state ballot in November. By Jon Craig, The Enquirer, 3/31/11 C1.
Stop Collective Bargaining for Ohio State Employees
Sign the Petition : 2,465 Letters and Emails Sent So Far
It is time to pass SB5 that would end automatic pay increases, introduce merit-based pay and revoke the collective bargaining power for state and local employees in Ohio.
The government of Ohio has allowed compensation for state employees to grow out of control, far outpacing the private sector. The state can no longer afford to insulate public servants from the economic reality of lower tax revenues.
At a time when people in Ohio are struggling to find a job and the state’s deficit is over $10 billion, free-market reform is needed to ensure businesses have the freedom and flexibility to give hard working people the jobs they deserve.
Please vote yes on SB5 to end collective bargaining rights for state employees and to reduce Ohio’s skyrocketing debt.
Source: darmey@freedomworks.org
The governing board for Lebanon Schools has approved a new teachers’ contract. Members of the Lebanon Tea Party spoke out against the new labor contract, contending the board and teachers rushed through the new labor agreement to avoid the impact of Ohio Senate Bill 5. The previous contract was to expire on June 30.
The new one-year contract calls for base wage freezes for teachers but some teachers will still receive step pay increases based on seniority, teaching specialty, professional certification and education level.
Tom Ash, director of government relations for the Ohio Buckeye Association of School Administrators, said Lebanon may have joined a growing list statewide where teachers decided to quicken the pace of contract negotiations in light of Senate Bill 5.
“We have had several reports from the field that individual school district collective bargaining units have requested either contract extensions or early negotiations for expiring labor agreements,” Ash said.
“Many groups want the early agreements or contract extensions to ‘lock in’ current contract language on issues that might not be bargained under the new law,” he said.
Source: Tea Party: Why so fast on teacher pact? Lebanon OKs new deal; says SB5 not a factor. By Michael D. Clark The Enquirer 3/24/11.
The city (City Manager Milton Dohoney) and Fraternal Order of Police union worked out a deal to extend the current contract (no raise) through next year and keep all benefits the same.
…making a deal now also seals the officers’ current benefits before any changes could be made by Senate Bill 5, the controversial collective reform bill being debated in Columbus.
Source: Jane Prendergast, Police OK no raise but keep benefits. The Enquirer, 3/18/11.
A recent estimate from the Ohio Department of Administrative Services indicates local governments will save $1,989 per worker from two aspects of the bill – the elimination of automatic step pay increases and longevity pay.
Applied to local teachers, that’s $30.7 million in savings, or 3.5 percent of total salary.
Source: From the DataCenter: Ohio teacher salaries
Business Courier – by Dan Monk
Date: Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 9:50am EDT – Last Modified: Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 11:11am EDT
http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/Senate%20Bill%205%20analysis.pdf
Ohio Department of Administrative Services
OFFICE of COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Senate Bill 5 Fiscal Analysis
FY2010 Estimated Local Government Savings Under Senate Bill 5
Health Insurance Cost Decrease …. $132,200,000
Step Pay Elimination…………………………$392,700,000
Longevity Pay Elimination………………..$596,400,000
…Estimated Total Savings……………..$1,121,000,000
DISSECTING THE STATE BUDGET
TAXES
Early phase-out would affect schools
.. Proposal: Accelerate the phase-out of tangible personal property taxes -the tax on commercial inventory and machinery. Many school districts rely heavily on this tax. Originally it was supposed to start being phased out in 2013 over five years, but Kasich’s budget starts phasing it out next year.
. Local impact: The local impact depends on which of Ohio’s 614 school districts you live in. Districts that are home to a lot of big industries (Princeton, Sycamore, Mason, Cincinnati) get bigger percentages of their revenue from the tax and therefore will take a bigger hit from the phase-out than the less industrialized districts.
. Pro: The phase-out was initiated to spur more capital investment by businesses and thereby create more jobs.
. Con: The early phase-out means school districts must either find other ways to make up this revenue or cut expenses.
. Who’s affected: About 20 school districts rely heavily on TPP taxes. The accelerated phase-out means Cincinnati Public will lose $13.6 million next year (3 percent of its budget) and $17.4 million in 2013 (3.7 percent).
-Jessica Brown, The Enquirer Wednesday March 16, 2011 A6
Board’s hands tied
Some talk about a power imbalance between the unions and the politicians with whom they collectively bargain.
Our state legislators negotiate (bargain) directly with the teacher unions. They collectively bargain with each other. Our locally elected board of education officials do not bargain with teacher unions on many matters, notably benefits such as health care and pension.
The only thing the board of education has control over are those aspects that they directly negotiate with the unions, i.e., wages for example, and even that is only partial control. Board of education control relates to their decisions about the actual dollar amounts shown on the salary schedule and whether or not to grant cola increases with a specific percentage amount. They do not have control over the costly automatic step raises that are built into the teacher’s salary schedule structure, which is part of the collective bargaining law.
Source: Glenn Welch, Northeast Suburban Life March 9, 2011 A8
Much attention has misleadingly focused on benefit contributions and collective bargaining restrictions, which are not the main reasons labor and its allies are up in arms. If they were all that was at stake, labor would be overacting. But they aren’t. The real issues are union dues and certification elections, both of which would reach into union’s wallets and take away money they would otherwise use, in most cases, to fund the Democratic party.
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So we come to where the rubber meets the road: the money unions spend on politicking. This money originates with taxpayers, who pay public employees’ salaries, a portion of which is deducted in the form of union dues and then used by the unions to support, almost exclusively, the Democratic party. The public, in effect, subsidizes a powerful demand for bigger government and higher taxes.
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The Wisconsin bill also includes a provision that requires teachers to vote each year on union representation, and another that would end the automatic deduction of union dues–as much as $1,000 per year—from teachers’ paychecks. Union representatives see this as a naked attempt to break them. Republicans think it’s simply bringing democracy to the unions.
Source: Why the Unions Fight. The stakes in Wisconsin are higher than they look. By Daniel DiSalvo. The Weekly Standard March 7, 2011
In a February 25, 2011, Charles Krauthammer column entitled US rescue coming at state level, he writes, “They ($3.6 billion budget shortfall …) came largely from a half-century power imbalance between the unions and the politicians with whom they collectively bargain.”.
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Our state legislators negotiate (bargain) directly with the teacher unions. They Collectively Bargain with each other. Our locally elected board of education (BOE) officials do not bargain with teacher unions on many matters, notably benefits such as health care and pension.
Our local board official’s hands are tied in many cases. Even if they wanted to be more fiscally conservative, some compensation costs are out of their control.
The only thing that the BOE has control over are those aspects that they directly negotiate with the unions, i.e., wages. And, even that is only partial control. BOE control relates to their decisions about the actual dollar amounts shown on the salary schedule and whether or not to grant cola increases with a specific percentage amount. They do not have control over the costly automatic step raises that are built into the teacher’s salary schedule structure, which is part of the Collective Bargaining law.
SB5 is win for Ohio taxpayer
Bless our elected officials for finally representing the taxpayers and pursuing one of the key contributions to the increasing debt issue with Senate Bill 5. Ohio cannot sustain the drain imposed by the outdated collective bargaining laws. Additionally, the archaic laws hinder Ohio from hiring, promoting and paying based on merit versus length of service. Taxpayers can no longer afford the golden benefit packages.
Kudos to SB5!
—Margaret Del Favero, Blue Ash
The Enquirer, Opinion 3/2/11
The PUBLIC employee unions in Ohio and Wisconsin have created a ‘Straw Man’ argument with their specious “right to collective bargin” mantra. It doesn’t hold water. Rights, such as the “right to free speech,” or the “right to assemple” do not confer obligations upon other individuals. The collective bargaining process by public unions has placed enormous obligations and financial burdens on states (taxpayers) throughout the nation.
—John Rush Blue Ash
Source: Opinions The Enquirer March 1, 2011 A7
I remember being astonished years ago when I first heard of “unions” for public employees. It seemed adversarial and hostile to the employers, i.e., the taxpaying public. Here we are today facing the logical outcome of those actions – out of money and public employees commanding 1.5 times as much pay as their private counterparts.
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Even more astonishing is that there are still people who, when faced with hard evidence to the contrary, think it’s going to work out fine for tax money (union dues) to be used to hold taxpayers hostage! Passing SB5 won’t solve all our spending problems but it would be a very good beginning.
—-Carol Williams Blue Ash
Source: Opinions The Enquirer March 1, 2011 A7
State and local governments would have saved an estimated $1.3 billion in 2010 on health insurance and automatic pay increases if the limits imposed by Senate Bill 5 were in effect, according to a new analysis by the Office of Collective Bargaining.
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The analysis estimates the savings for schools and local governments would have topped $1.1 billion.
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… the bill would remove from state law step increases and longevity pay – automatic pay bumps. on top of any negotiated raises.
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Local contracts often include a variety of step increases, particularly in the first decade of employment.
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The savings estimate did not include the bill’s proposed ban on employers paying any part of an employee’s share of his pension costs.
Source: “SB 5 would’ve saved $1.3B in 2010″ By Jim Siegel The Columbus Dispatch. The Enquirer Feb. 26, 2011 Section C
SB 5 battle highlights disconnect between teachers’ perceptions and fiscal reality
By Terry Ryan 2/23/11
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The Midwest is in turmoil over proposed changes to state laws that deal with collective bargaining rights and pensions for public sector employees, including teachers and other school personnel (as well as police officers, state employees, and more). Madison looks like Cairo, Indianapolis like Tunis, and Columbus like Bahrain, with thousands demonstrating, chanting slogans, and pressing their issues. (Fortunately, nobody has opened fire or dropped “small bombs” as in Tripoli.) Economics are driving this angst: how should these states deal with their wretched fiscal conditions and how should the pain be distributed?
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To address these problems, Republican lawmakers and governors have proposed major changes to collective bargaining laws and pension systems. In Ohio, Senate Bill 5 would continue to afford teachers the right to bargain collectively over wages, hours, and other conditions of employment. But the bill would also make profound alterations to the status quo, including: requiring all public-school employees to contribute at least 20 percent of the premiums for their health-insurance plan; removing from collective bargaining – and entrusting to management – such issues as class size and personnel placement; prohibiting continuing contracts and effectively abolishing tenure; removing seniority as the sole determinant for layoffs and requiring that teacher performance be the primary factor; and abolishing automatic step increases in salary..
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Not surprisingly, these changes are being fiercely resisted by the Buckeye State’s teachers, their unions, and their political allies. Battle lines are forming, and we at Fordham—as veteran advocates for “smart cuts” and “stretching the school dollar”—have been drawn into the fray. In the past week, I testified at a legislative hearing on key education components of SB5, and joined a conversation in Dayton with Senator Peggy Lehner and a group of teachers and union leaders. On both occasions, large crowds of disgruntled protestors stood outside the meeting rooms, though most were respectful.
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In those sessions and beyond, my colleagues and I have argued that changing state law to offer school districts more flexibility over personnel during times of funding cuts is critical for helping them maintain their academic performance. Further, this flexibility to make smart cuts is critical if our schools and students are to emerge out of this financial crisis stronger than ever.
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And a crisis it is. The federal “bail-out” dollars will that have cushioned Ohio and its school districts for the past two years will dry up by late 2011 and the state is required to balance its budget. Adding to the challenge, dollars for schools must compete with other valuable public programs. Though Ohio’s K-12 enrollment has been all but flat for a decade, during that same period the number of Ohioans enrolled in Medicaid has leaped from 1.3 million to 2.1 million.
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Changing state law to offer school districts more flexibility over personnel during times of funding cuts is critical for helping them maintain their academic performance.
Something has to give. The state can either raise taxes or cut programs (or both) but Governor Kasich and the legislative majorities in both chambers were elected in November on the promise not to raise taxes. So cuts will be made and, as K-12 education eats up about 40 percent of the state’s revenue, schools and school employees will bear a share of the pain.
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Can this be done while protecting children and their learning? We know, for example, that relying on seniority-based layoffs to close fiscal gaps hurts pupil achievement. Last-hired/first-fired also hurts high-poverty schools, which typically have more junior teachers. Seniority-based RIFs will also trash some of the state’s most innovative schools – like STEM schools – because they’re new and staffed largely by younger teachers.
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I made this case to the group of teachers in Dayton the other morning and they unanimously rejected it. They defended seniority on two fronts. First, they insist that district officials will RIF their most expensive teachers first simply to save money. Second, they said, Ohio doesn’t have a decent system for measuring teacher performance and test scores—they insisted—don’t prove much and certainly not the caliber of a teacher’s effectiveness.
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Further, they kept asking, why the rush? Why all of the sudden is the state needing to make these changes? The teachers felt that GOP lawmakers are attacking them in retaliation for their unions not supporting Kasich in the last election. They seemed completely unaware of how thoroughly they (and other Ohioans) had been left in the dark these past few years about Ohio’s impending budget cliff, thanks to the federal stimulus dollars, some tricky accounting at the state level, and former Governor Strickland’s celebration of his hocus-pocus school-funding scheme, which promised billions of non-existent new dollars for schools over the next decade.
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Earlier this week, the self-same former governor emailed his supporters that “thousands and thousands of Ohioans just like you have crowded the Statehouse because the livelihoods of Ohio’s families are on the line. I was so inspired by these crowds that I decided to join them this past Thursday. There’s just too much at stake to let Governor Kasich and the legislature roll back the clock on progress for Ohio’s middle class.” It’s important to recall that not once during the three gubernatorial debates last autumn did Ted Strickland state that to balance Ohio’s budget would call for increased taxes. If that wasn’t his intent, however, how did he expect to balance the budget other than by cutting—which is precisely what Republicans are proposing?
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Teachers may be forgiven for feeling like all of this change has come out of nowhere because Ohio had zero leadership around the looming fiscal crisis before last month. The real debate in Ohio is just starting and there is no doubt that the current bills under consideration will be significantly amended or even put aside for alternatives. An air of suspense blankets the state until Kasich himself presents his budget by March 15.
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Hinting at what’s coming, the other evening he said, “We are searching for a balance. Give our managers, our cities, our schools, and even our state the tools to control their costs.” He added, “Workers have been overpromised. This is not about attacking anybody. It is about fixing the state and making us competitive again.”
He’s right. And it isn’t just Ohio that he’s right about.