Schools key in Issue 2 fight

Ohio’s SB 5 affects work conditions for more than 180,000 teachers.

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By Christopher Magan and Rutledge Kissell
Staff Writers 11:33 PM Sunday, September 18, 2011

Voters have a chance this November to remake how Ohioans pay teachers and educate students with a referendum on some of the most sweeping changes in recent history, but some parts of the legislation are here to stay even if Senate Bill 5 is overturned.

The legislation, which will appear as Issue 2 on the ballot, limits the collective bargaining of more than 180,000 teachers to pay and benefits, eliminating negotiation on topics such as working conditions. It bans strikes and the sole use of seniority when determining layoffs instead relying on new performance-related criteria.

Supporters of the bill say these changes are necessary if Ohio’s 612 school districts and public colleges and universities are going to continue to serve students in some of the state’s leanest budget years. Nearly $1 billion in previous education spending was trimmed from the biennium budget, largely because of the end of federal stimulus funds.

Those cuts forced districts to cut young teachers from their ranks, typically because of seniority rules.

“That’s no way to run good schools,” says Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, the group supporting Senate Bill 5. “This gives us the opportunity to reclaim our schools and keep good teachers on the job.”

But opponents say the bill is meant to dismantle teachers unions and, in the end, kids will suffer. Class sizes will be larger, experienced teachers will be let go to save money and administrators would have an excuse to play favorites when it comes to compensation.

“We need to make sure all teachers have what they need to educate our children in the classroom,” said Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, the group wanting to defeat Issue 2.

Jim Schoenlein, Kettering City Schools superintendent, said the scope of Senate Bill 5 and the controversy surrounding it make it essential for voters to weigh in.

“Senate Bill 5 has pretty big implications on how education will operate in the future,” Schoenlein said. “I think it is appropriate Senate Bill 5 goes to the general population for a vote.”

The bill has already had an impact. Teachers in school districts across the Dayton region have agreed to pay freezes, higher health care costs and revision of the performance evaluation system.

“At this point, the fact that it made it on the radar will have accomplished a lot. It started a lot of conversations,” said Christy Donnelly, superintendent of Vandalia-Butler City Schools, who has been working with her local teachers’ union to develop better “performance based” evaluations and merit pay since 2008.

Springboro Community City Schools board member Kelly Kohls also favors a merit pay system based on performance.

“If there are teachers who are not teaching effectively, we have no way to identify those and that’s a problem for education itself,” said Kohls, who testified in support of Senate Bill 5 in Columbus earlier this year.

Kohls said the collective bargaining agreement in her district has prevented Springboro from instituting any kind of an merit pay evaluation system for teachers.

For the past three years Kohls’ district stopped giving base raises to teachers, but continued step increases. This year all teachers also will get a 1 percent raise because the district received an “Excellent with Distinction” rating on the latest state report card, she noted.

“I’m not saying they shouldn’t. I’m saying it should be on some evaluative criteria that performance is graded not as a whole, not as a district,” she said.

Merit pay is one of the more popular pieces of Senate Bill 5, according to recent polling, and also was included in Ohio’s winning Race to the Top application that brought $400 million to the state for education reform.

David Romick, president of the Dayton Public Schools teachers union, fears Senate Bill 5 could hinder progress he’s made working with school officials on issues such as evaluations and improving student performance.

“One of my biggest concerns is that this imposes a one-size fits all merit pay system on everyone in the state,” Romick said. “As education experts, we feel our voice is a valuable one.”

Impact on higher education

At the higher education level, professors often play a role in making decisions about curriculum, hiring professors and granting tenure. Unionized professors worry Senate Bill 5 will eliminate their ability to play that role.

“This takes away any right we have to collectively bargain,” said Rudy Fitchenbaum, chief negotiator for the American Association of University Professors chapter at Wright State University.

WSU President David Hopkins said some of the flexibility Senate Bill 5 offers would allow his staff to better manage fiscal limitations, but he is not a supporter of eliminating union members from administrative decision making.

“We have always worked well with our union,” Hopkins said.

Still, Mauk says professors can’t have it both ways. “They can’t sit on both sides of the bargaining table,” he said.

Supporters of the bill argue that it will save school districts, colleges and universities money by allowing them more freedom to make decisions about pay and eliminating automatic raises and perks like “picking up” pension costs.

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