In Ohio: The Times They Are a Changin'!

I have received numerous comments relating to my essay two weeks ago on the public employee unions and specifically Ohio Senate Bill 5. It is certainly one of the more emotional issues facing the citizens of Ohio, and indeed the nation, today. I don’t know about police and firemen unions. So I will confine my comments to teachers.

Let me start by saying I have had two very bad experiences with teacher unions. A friend of mine reminded of the 1981 Boardman teachers strike in which teachers actually went to jail. It was mean and nasty, and like my friend, changed my view of teachers. For those of you sports minded readers, it was Bernie Kosar’s senior year as Boardman’s quarterback, and most of the season was cancelled. The union knew how to hit when it hurt.

The second experience occurred when my wife was illegally rif’d from her job (Reduction in Force). The OEA for reasons I won’t go into now, refused to pursue the RIF. More importantly, it refused my wife the right to pursue the RIF individually, stating that the grievance belonged to the union collectively and not to her personally. There was a lot of nasty stuff going on between the union and the school board, and it was unclear if the OEA was representing the school board or its union members. When the local teachers finally wised up as to what was going on, they switched from the Ohio Education Association to the Ohio Federation of Teachers, and the OFT sued the OEA for the right to pursue the grievance on my wife’s behalf; won and filed the grievance. Unfortunately, five years had passed, and the arbiter ruled that although my wife would have won on the merits, too much time had passed between the incident and the filing of the grievance.

I have watched school boards sell teachers down the river for coaches. I have watched unions sell its members down the river for early retirement buyouts for union officers. It is a dirty business on both sides.

But I know one thing. If the tenure requirements are nixed by Ohio, school hiring and firing will become totally political, merits and performance standards be damned. Employment of teachers will be determined by three things: can they eliminate a higher paid teacher for a lesser paid teacher; what does the teacher coach; and who does the teacher know. Here is a hypothetical:

Linda has been a math teacher in the Blossom School System for 20 years. She has never called in sick. She gets good reviews from students and parents. Her class proficiency scores are above average. Her salary is $50,000.00/year. Briana is also a math teacher in the system, and has been there for two years. Her salary is $35,000.00/year. She is the cheerleading coach, and has decided to be “friends” with all of her students. Her class proficiency test scores are also above average, but not near as high as Linda’s. Briana has also been named teacher of the year because she is such a sweet little thing, flirts with all of the men, and does all that gosh darn cheerleading stuff. Blossom School System faces a money crisis. Under the existing system, Linda keeps her job and Briana is laid off because of tenure. Under the system as will exist is House Bill 5 passes, which teacher do you think the school system will let go? Do you think that’s fair?

Education is the bulwark of the American economic system. One thing I think we all can agree upon is that there have been, and there continues to be, abuses of the system on both sides. While Senate Bill 5 may address who gets to do what to whom…it doesn’t address the problems that are facing the schools and are the root of our education failures. All it does is swap one set of problems for another, and I guarantee you that you will not like this new set of problems.

At the end of the day, the problems with our schools are socio-economic and systemic. The state should address the union abuses on their own merits, addressing them one by one and imposing solutions. The teacher unions should get off of their high horses and understand that the days of shutting down education for raises and accumulated sick days are over.

As the song says: They times, they are a changin’.