People Not Politicians

Why Don’t Politicians Listen To Us?
Our politicians are going into backrooms to draw districts that benefit themselves—to ensure their own re-elections without being accountable to the voters. In order to gain political advantage, they have created bizarre districts that zigzag across Ohio and split apart numerous cities and counties. And then within three months of adopting new congressional districts, the politicians exchanged new maps in secret, changed the districts again, and even changed the date of the election! Leaving politicians in charge of drawing their own districts is like letting the fox guard the henhouse. For decades, politicians have protected their jobs and their friends through backroom deals on redistricting. This amendment puts a non-partisan citizen commission of Ohioans in charge.

Ohio is an evenly divided state politically, which should prevent either political party from dominating unfairly. But redistricting by politicians means that we have few competitive districts and whichever party is in control draws districts that favor their party. We need an independent citizen commission, not redistricting controlled by any one party.

Incumbent politicians have been drawing these lines to serve their own self-interests at the expense of the people’s collective interest. We the people have to take back this power by seizing the pen away and drawing the districts ourselves. The (redistricting) plan was secretly drawn, the public hearings were a sham and it’s very clear that the sole goal was to maximize partisan advantage. It was the exact opposite of a fair process— you’d be hard-pressed to find a place where the process or end product was uglier than ohio. ~Daniel Tokaji , Professor Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and a Leader of Voters First

What Can We Do?
Voters first is led by a coalition of nonpartisan groups and people from across Ohio. It was created to take the power over drawing our congressional and legislative districts out of the hands of the politicians and put it in the hands of the people. The Voters First Initiative will put more power in the hands of the people, not the politicians. It will give regular Ohioans a stronger voice in our democracy and provide them more control over their representation in Washington and Columbus.

What Would The New Process Look Like?
Voters first’s proposal will create an Independent Citizens Commission. Politicians, lobbyists and political insiders are prohibited from serving on the Commission. The Commission’s work will be open and it will be accountable to the public. The Commission will empower voters to choose their politicians instead of politicians picking their voters.

• Citizens, not politicians

Instead of the current procedures (in which politicians draw district boundaries that unfairly favor their own party and/or protect incumbents), a 12-member Citizens Commission will create the districts. Any member of the public can submit a plan for consideration.

• Openness and transparency

All meetings, records, communications and draft plans of the Commission must be open to the public. No more backroom deals.

• Balance and impartiality

The Citizens Commission will include equal numbers of Republicans, Democrats and independents, and the approval of at least seven of the twelve members of the Commission will be required for the adoption of any plan. This will ensure that the final plan fairly represents all Ohioans, not just those currently in power.

• Community representation

Districts will be created that are geographically compact, and which minimize the division of counties, townships, municipalities and wards between different districts.

• Accountability & competitive districts

Politically balanced districts will be created, rather than “safe districts” which make it difficult or impossible for voters to hold elected officials accountable.

• Fairness

To the greatest extent possible, the share of districts leaning toward a party will reflect the political preferences of the voters of Ohio.

Join The Voters First Effort
To move forward, we need to identify sufficient resources to gather 386,000 signatures by july 4, 2012, and mobilize a statewide educational campaign for the November 2012 election.

for additional information, and to get involved, visit the Voters first website, www.Votersfirst.com

The Missing Link in School Reform

In trying to improve American public schools, educators, policymakers, and philanthropists are overselling the role of the highly skilled individual teacher and undervaluing the benefits that come from teacher collaborations that strengthen skills, competence, and a school’s overall social capital.

How to Reform Public Schools

THE PREDOMINANT IDEOLOGY

• Power of the Individual: Reform efforts are focused on improving the capabilities of the individual teacher.
• Wisdom of the Outsider: Bring in outside experts—or even novices—to solve problems.
• Principal as Instructional Leader: The principal is the leader of school instructional reform.

THE REALITY

• The Power of the Collective: The teaching staff is engaged in school reform collectively.
• Reform from Within: Trust and meaningful communication among teachers are the bases of true reform efforts.
• Principal as Protector: The principal supports teacher reform efforts through building external relations.

Here's the full article

The Missing Link in School Reform

SB5 would set us back

Submitted by Bexley Superintendent, Mike Johnson

Public negotiations take two parties to carve out outcomes based on mutual interests to add value and ultimately benefit the community. These mutual interests provide opportunities to serve the common good. The common good principle is a concept that assures everyone will share in the benefit of a service, independent of the wealth and status of any individual community member.

These benefits, whether they are in the form of public education, safety, health, welfare or transportation, are always provided by loyal and dedicated community servants. Community servants allow each of us to have access to a world-class education; provide peace of mind in knowing that our properties are safe and secure; and ensure that the basic needs of the poor, the disabled, the unemployment and the underemployed are met.

Public servants have one negotiation chip, their service. They do not have capital, land or money to bring to the table. They only have their willingness to labor and to serve the public and thereby benefit everyone. The only power that a public servant or public employee can exercise in negotiations is the ability to ultimately withhold services.

In the case of the services provided by fire and police, withdrawal of services would threaten our property interest and personal safety. Therefore, third party arbitration provides for a balance of power during negotiations. Fire and police personnel are secure in knowing that if negotiations are at impasse that a neutral third party will hear the facts and render a decision, while public and private safety are maintained.

If the United States and the state of Ohio are to become leaders in a knowledge economy, then educators must be invited and remain at the table as equals. Educators are knowledge workers and if we are to overcome some very serious national and international challenges, then we will need our teachers to assist all of us in making decisions, designing the best possible research driven solutions and implementing those decisions over time. The full value of our knowledgeable and professional teaching staff will not be realized in an environment where they are on the receiving end of a power shift.

It strikes me as a case of very poor timing to suddenly develop laws to truncate the advantages, negotiations provides for those responsible for growing our economy. In Ohio, we will need to rely more on our intellectual capacities and assets and less on physical inputs or natural resources. I cannot think of a greater source intellectual capacity, than can be found within our K-16 public education community. As Powell and Snellman (2004) state, that an upsurge in knowledge production is associated with the emergence of new industries.

We need to make sure before making any final decision on SB5, that we will achieve the intended ends. Personally, I believe that we are going to experience some adverse unintended consequences as a result of passing such legislation. It is going to take some creative, collaborative, and systemic decision making to keep Ohio at the forefront nationally and internationally.