S.B. 5 TARGETS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR ELIMINATION
- Children need their teachers to focus on them and their classrooms. Allowing the union to represent teachers frees teachers to do what they do best: teach.
- Taking away the union’s role in support of teachers will mean teacher salaries would be dictated by state politicians and education bureaucrats.
- Senate Bill 5 will hurt our local schools and kids because taking the unions out of the picture will make it easier for politicians to lay off teachers and cut funding for schools across Ohio.
- Collective bargaining allows educators a voice in improving opportunities for Ohio’s students, better classroom resources and improved teaching and learning conditions.
- Teachers know best what’s needed to improve student learning, and collective bargaining gives allows them to focus on teaching rather than time-‐consuming employment issues.
- Educators, like all public employees, are an integral part of the fabric of Ohio’s communities.
- Senate Bill 5 weakens Ohio. Rather than creating jobs, this legislation will hurt local communities, reversing Ohio’s positive economic outlook.
- Ohio’s collective bargaining law has created a framework for problem-‐solving that has made strikes rare. Local teachers associations negotiate effectively to avoid disruption for student learning.
- In a tough economy, with Ohio facing a major budget deficit, we must focus on the essentials. Nothing is more essential than giving our children a quality education that prepares them for good jobs.
Studies and facts about collective bargaining
The public does not support attacks on working families:
A January 2011 Quinnipiac poll showed that Ohio voters oppose limits on collective bargaining by public employees by 51% to 34%, a 17 % margin.
Ohio’s public employees make less than the private sector:
A Rutgers University study for the Economic Policy Institute released in February 2011 finds that similarly educated public employees make less than their private sector peers.
Looking at total compensation (wages and nonwage benefits), Ohio public employees annually earn 6% less than comparable private sector employees and 3.5% less on an hourly basis than comparable private sector employees.
Collective bargaining did not cause Ohio’s budget deficit:
Policy Matters Ohio recently released a study showing that states without public employee collective bargaining are facing the same large budget deficits as state with collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining supports high quality education:
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, 2008) suggests that students in states with CB perform better than those in states without CB: reading and math (4th & 8th grades; average freshman graduation rate).