emails
BASA and OASBA sent a letter to the General Assembly urging budget bill conference committee members to reinstate teacher merit pay and RIF provisions. They clearly see it as a way to reduce salaries for teachers.
You should continue to send emails and make phone calls to your legislators and urge them to keep these SB5 like provisions out of the budget.
We posted an article a few weeks ago, concerned that the administration was hiding key facts from the public. We were also concerned that the SB5 analysis generated by the Department of Administrative Services was compromised and error ridden. We wrote to the DAS chief legal counsel
We received the following response
Your request for emails, spreadsheets, memos, documents from "said" employees is vague and overbroad. Therefore, it is denied.
However, you are welcome to amend your request so that it is more specific.
Thank you,
Lisa Iannotta
Chief Legal Counsel
Department of Administrative Services
30 E. Broad Street, 40th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
(614) 728-3475 Direct Dial
Well it turns out that was a lie. Not only is the Office of Collective Bargaining part of DAS, but Plunderbund now has in its possession the proof. What they have more than explains the reluctance of the administration to turn over documents relating to their flawed SB5 analysis
I left a message for Jan Campbell for the same information that I asked Toledo for. I am not sure that they will cooperate. I am walking over to SERB to see what kind of data they may have. I know that you want an aggregate number but there may be no way to give you it with any amount of precision.
Maybe what they should do is show what the savings to the State, a city (Toledo) and a school district and a county. If you all provide me with a school district that would work with us and a county we can work on these snapshots. While an aggregate number is big I am worried that it will be challenged and we will not be able to defend. My only solution is to use the savings garnered in Toledo and the state divided by the number of employees to come up with an average savings multiple that by the number of public employees and use a factor of 5% either way. I chose 5% because the elimination of five sick days is approximately 2% savings which Toledo and State workforce would not capture and say 3% for potential pick up coverage. Let me know your ideas or whether you think this formula is defensible.
A number of the people cc'ed in this single email work for DAS and were involved in some manner in the creation of the SB5 analysis that we know some had reservations about. The administration is getting dangerously close to serious lawsuits with their constant disregard for public records law.
The Examiner brings us news of Michele Rhee's invasion into Ohio, to peddle her variety of school reform snake oil.
We have discussed at length the problems with some of the kinds of reforms Rhee peddles. Whether it's value added assessments, teacher observations, and the inevitable playing of favorites in a subjective "performance review". None of these known problems appear to matter to some so called reformers, not least of which, Rhee.
Before ever sitting down with teachers in Ohio to understand some of the reforms already underway or being studied, Rhee instead sat down with the Governor to watch a discredited movie, one she features prominently in.
Now she is beginning, not a reform campaign seeking to bring in stakeholders - but instead launching a political campaign to lobby legislators.
Her website, www.studentsfirst.org, even takes on the appearance of a political campaign website, replete with prominent donation buttons and a big popup splash screen to harvest emails when you first enter the site.
Even the pledge page, again designed to harvest emails first and foremost, is nothing more than meaningless pablum anyone could agree with, rather than spelling out the true goals of her effort to undermine teachers and the teaching profession.
Our emphasis. If Rhee was genuine in her goals she would be keen to sit down with educators and discuss ideas. Instead she is seeking to run what now appears to be a partisan political campaign.
For what seemed like week after week, legislators ignored the voices and will of working Ohioans as they plowed forward with their ill thought out assault on teachers, firefighters, police and public employees.
But Sunday marked a major turning point in this fight. Sunday, people from all around Ohio began to have their voice heard, filing into the Columbus OEA building on broad street, and other locations, to sign the "downpayment" petition to repeal S.B.5.
Picture curtesy of Columbus Education Association
With well over the required 1,000 signatures collected, the effort now moves to the SOS and AG to certify the petition before collection of the 231,000 signatures needed to place the repeal on the November ballot begins.
The Dispatch also reports that the Govenor has been hearing the message loud and clear too
The breakdown: 16 percent in favor, 84percent against, according to a Dispatch analysis of more than 14,000 emails obtained through a public-records request.
[...]
A Quinnipiac Poll released March 23 showed a majority of Ohioans opposed to virtually all provisions of the controversial measure. A handful of Republicans joined a solid bloc of Democrats to vote against the bill in the legislature; GOP Senate leaders had to replace two members of a committee just to advance the proposal.
If the depth of sentiment expressed in the emails is any indication, those organizing a petition drive to hold a referendum on the issue in November shouldn't have trouble gathering the approximately 230,000 signatures needed.
Nope. No trouble at all.
It is being widely reported that the shiny new S.B.5 is not going to have any time to be read by anyone before being voted on. Another clear sign, if we needed another clear sign, of bad dealing by the house Republican majority. They ignored the protests, phone calls, emails and even the petition of 64,000 people to kill the bill
