Voices of Change

Representative Matt Huffman (R-Lima) held a press conference on Monday, December 12, 2011 to outline changes to a proposed statewide voucher program. The “PACT” scholarship program was proposed in House Bill 136 which had narrowly passed the House Education Committee and has yet to reach the House Floor. OEA strongly opposes HB 136, a bill which has also drawn loud criticism from school boards and superintendents around Ohio.

Huffman outlined the following changes to the bill: limit the scholarship amount to the state per-pupil spending by district; local districts retain excess funds; limit participants to one percent of district enrollment; [...] Continue Reading…

“Why is Congress Redlining Our Schools?” is Linda Darling-Hammond’s incisive piece on No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top and the marginalization of our poorest children in the Nation (www.thenation.com) magazine’s most recent issue. There are many things in the Darling-Hammond piece that surprised me, such as why the U.S. ranks so low in international education rankings – poverty! – and how the Reagan revolution dismantled reforms that really worked in the 1970s. [...] Continue Reading…

House Bill 153, signed into law on June 30, 2011, significantly changes the way teachers in Ohio will be evaluated. HB 153 creates mandates at both the state and local level that will shape teacher evaluation policy development and teacher evaluation practices and procedures over the next several years. If we commit to take the lead as the architects of this process in each of our districts, we can build high quality local teacher evaluation systems that work for our teachers and their students and strengthen the teaching profession. [...] Continue Reading…

A newly released report highlights incentives that can be much more effective in attracting and retaining quality teachers than simple merit pay programs. The report shows how merit pay programs that reward teachers based on their students’ standardized test scores do little to improve student achievement and offers information on other incentives that could be more successful. Learn more at www.greatlakescenter.org. [...] Continue Reading…

Eleven years ago I started teaching special education so that I could make a difference in the lives of the students who need it most—children with severe and multiple disabilities. I live and work in one of the state’s highest poverty per capita areas, and I wouldn’t change what I do for the world. I didn’t become a teacher to get rich; I became a teacher to serve. [...] Continue Reading…

Collective bargaining becomes collective begging if one of the parties involved has the legal power to decide the final outcome with no legal recourse for the other party. Senate Bill 5, which is now Issue 2 on the ballot, does not revisit collective bargaining—it destroys it. It is similar to going to a dentist and he pulls all the teeth because in his professional opinion a few were bad. [...] Continue Reading…

After 32 years in the teaching profession, I recently retired but work hard to stay current on educational issues and practices. I loved my career teaching middle schoolers. To me, it was more than a job—it was a calling.

That’s why I am so concerned about what is happening today to the teaching profession at the hands of Columbus politicians. They seem to think that they know more about what works to educate Ohio’s children than the experts who are actually doing the work—the teachers and education support professionals in schools and classrooms.

At the beginning of my career, we didn’t [...] Continue Reading…

OEA volunteer reflects on her night of going door-to-door on Halloween

For those of us who routinely spend Halloween on the road campaigning for one issue or another, the canvass can seem monotonous. You knock on door after door, delivering the same message over and over again. If you’re lucky, you’re a part of a well-organized campaign, such as the one we’re working on—We Are Ohio’s “NO on Issue 2” campaign—which means that the IDs are solid, and you’re almost exclusively speaking to people who support your position. This makes the canvass quick, but sometimes less rewarding—it’s generally much less [...] Continue Reading…

In tough economic times, fine arts education courses are among the first on the chopping block. For some of my at-risk students, the arts sometimes are the sole reason they come to school. My students like music and they love art.

The arts are integral to learning; you can infuse the arts into the curriculum in so many different ways. The arts are just a wonderful way to get children excited about learning—as well as reaching those students that conventional education hasn’t been able to reach.

Unfortunately, we’re facing more tough times, and we’re bracing for some difficult choices. We are [...] Continue Reading…

I have never wanted to be anything but a teacher. My childhood stuffed animals were regularly lined up, waiting to hear a story or learn about words or numbers. Teaching dance and music lessons in high school helped to pay for college where my dream would come true and I would become a music teacher.

The urge to help and serve is deeply ingrained within my family. During our family history, we have proudly claimed police officers, firefighters, nurses (including my mother and grandmother) and other public employees. I am married to a teacher (who is the grandson of a [...] Continue Reading…