NBR: Anti-Union Bill in Ohio

I just needed to share this with someone...it makes my blood boil.  I am a teacher, so of course this affects me more than others, but really it just makes me mad I live in a start with such corrupt officials.  I am just including the actual letter, there was more that explains that it was double, triple and quadrupled checked for accuracy. Sorry for formatting since its copy/pasted from an email I got at school.  

Dr. Mike is the Southeast Supt., I know that the points he makes in his staff letter are accurate since the area coordinator also attended the meeting and shared the same points.  I thought you may want to read what the Governor is saying about us so that you know what we are facing.

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Dear Staff,

I wanted to send this email to you for a week now. It has taken me the

better part of this week to make sure I form my words correctly and

present to you absolute facts. I am trying to do this below. I feel very

passionate that it is my duty as the superintendent of a legitimate

public school district to fill you in on an occurrence I had last

Thursday.

I was invited to hear Governor Kasich speak at a private ?invitation?

only event. At first, I declined, but after more consideration, I

accepted and attended the event. Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder spoke

for about 5 minutes and then the Governor spoke for about 20. The

majority of people in the room were affiliated with the Republican Party.

When Batchelder spoke, he told this group point blank that Ohio is in the

financial shape it is in because public employees have been bilking the

state out of money for years. I promised myself that I would not become

outraged to the point where I had to leave, so I stayed.

The Governor spoke for about 5 of the 20 minutes on Senate Bill 5. I

thought you might be interested in some of the things he said. He told

the audience that public employees do not pay a dime into their pension

fund and that they do not pay a dime for their healthcare insurance. As

you know, this is a bold face lie. The public pension systems of Ohio

have noted that 98% of public employees DO pay 10% of their salary to the

retirement system. I hope you know that you do as well. Ten percent of

your salary goes to STRS and the school district does pay an additional

14% for you. This is no different from an employee who has a pension from

his or her company or a matched 401 (k). Nearly every professional

employee of any company that is worth its salt has one or both of these

benefits. Additionally, many public employees pay a percentage of their

health care cost. You pay 20%.

The Governor said that ?we are at war with these people.?  He also

said that he wishes they would just accept Senate Bill 5 because he is

going to spend millions in tax payer money to defend it in the campaign.

He said if it goes down, he and the legislature are going to ?ram it

through? in other legislation. He commented that his polls are showing

that as many as 70% of Republicans are going to vote the bill down and he

doesn?t understand why.

He also tried to tell the people that he tried to sit down with union

leadership and they declined. I guess he forgot that the union leadership

approached him before Senate Bill 5 passed and he had the doors of the

State House LOCKED for the first time ever in history. He locked us out

of our building and said he was not discussing anything. His actions made

that clear.

Although many people in the room clapped when he said other things, no

one clapped during this Senate Bill 5 piece. He entertained about 10

questions. No one asked anything about Senate Bill 5. They all asked

about why he is selling the turnpike to a foreign nation and why he is

?selling jails? to private companies which may be foreign nations

when the major religions have deemed this immoral, unethical and unjust.

They also asked about tax abatements, Obama Care and Medicare in Ohio.

After every single question, he turned the tables around and made a

comment that public employees have caused Ohio to be in financial ruin

and that is why he was doing all of these things.

I could tell you more.

I understand that Ohio is in bad financial shape. I really do. I

understand that we need reform. You cannot ?ram through? reform and

you cannot blame the state of the economy on the hard working people of

Ohio. The absolute thing that bothered me the most about the whole ordeal

was that he lied to the people in that room. He spread a bold face lie as

propaganda in order to make his bill look valid. It made me sick.

This Governor is a bully and the legislature is his posse. We have to

stand up to this bully AND to his posse. We need to make sure that our

family members, our friends, our neighbors?anyone who will

listen?know the truth and know that these lies are coming from

Columbus. If you don?t stand up for yourself now, this will only be the

beginning of a downward turn from which we will never recover.

Additional information:

As we speak, HB 136 is moving rapidly through the Ohio house. If passed

into law, this bill allows ANY student in ANY public school to take their

daily funding, which is now nearly $6,000 per student, and go to the

private school of their choice if the family income is less than $95,000

per year. This money is deducted from the public school of residence.

There is no regard for separation of church and state. I believe federal

funds would follow the student as well. The private school is free to

take or turn away any student they choose for any reason. They are free

to kick them out whenever they wish. They do are not accountable in any

way shape or form as you are as a public school. If this bill passes,

MANY of you will loose your job. First of all, we will deal with two

different consequences of this bill. #1. Most private schools cost more

than $6,000. So who will benefit? Upper middle class students and or the

cream of the crop that are given scholarships by the private schools. #2.

If the private school costs less than $6,000 per year, the parent gets to

bank the extra money. So that means if the parochial schools in our area

choose to accept this, they could charge $4,000 per student and the

parent would get a check for $2,000 for each kid. The lawmakers in

Columbus keep trying to crush public education and we are hanging on by a

thread. This and senate bill 5 will be the final nails in the coffin.

If there ever was a time to speak up and be active in government, it is

now.

Hang in there,

Dr. Mike

Thank you,

Joseph R Edinger

Superintendent of East Holmes Local Schools