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Politics & Government

LTA President Working to Block Senate Bill 5

Unions and teaching organizations, locally and statewide, are inching closer to the 241,000 signatures needed to put Senate Bill 5 on the November Ballot.

We recently spoke to Colleen Corrigan, the Lakewood Teacher’s Association president and educator, who spoke at length about the ramifications of Senate Bill 5 and what she and several other unions and organizations are doing around the state in an attempt to repeal the newly passed law. 

As it stands, they need to produce a petition comprised of 241,000 signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot. Corrigan is confident they’ll get the required number of signatures and is eager to let the fate of SB5 rest on the vote of the general public later this year. 

Q: What are your reactions to Senate Bill 5 and what role will the LTA play in getting a referendum on the November ballot? 

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A: Senate Bill 5 has already passed; it’s already been signed as a law. Right now, we’re gathering signatures. We Are Ohio is the name of the umbrella association, OEA (Ohio Educators Association) is a part of it, as well as police and fire and others that are trying to gather signatures to get a citizen’s veto or a referendum on the ballot in November to allow the public to decide whether Senate Bill 5 should go into effect or not. If that does not pass, then SB5 will kick in. SB5 has a lot of things in it that causes great concern – one of which is merit pay. Only because it’s such a nebulous thing when you’re talking about students and you’re talking about people. I mean, we’re not a factory. They talk about using test scores, which, okay, except not every teacher teaches a subject that has a tested area. What do you do with an art teacher, what do you do with a music teacher, what do you do with a first grade teacher? What do you do with pretty much anyone in high school because they have tests that are all-inclusive, but each individual teacher does not have a particular subject area that’s tested just for them. So it’s very out there without a lot of assigned things, and it makes us very nervous. ODE (the Ohio Department of Education), they have a way of saying, ‘okay, we’re going to do this’, and they don’t always have everything specified, and they kind of make it up as they go along so obviously we’re very concerned about that. 

Q: How would Senate Bill 5 affect teacher contracts? 

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A: Senate Bill 5 would do away with the continuing contracts and would allow districts to then evaluate teachers and decide, year by year, if those teachers would still be employed. I have to tell you here in Lakewood we have a wonderful working relationship with the administration, we have a wonderful working relationship with our board. So, the immediate concern isn’t we’re going to lose our tenure, but in light of the continuing contract issue, they could say, ‘well, you kind of cost too much and we’re not renewing.’ That is a possibility. I would like to say that would never happen in Lakewood because of that great relationship we have, but it could. It could happen elsewhere. Obviously, that’s a concern. Districts are trying to save as much money as they can through no fault of their own, I mean, they’re put in a very difficult position and if you can give them the opportunity to be able to do that, we’re concerned that could be the norm. Again, not that it necessarily would happen in Lakewood, but if that becomes the norm, you worry that even our own people could fall under that pressure. 

Q: And what about bargaining rights? 

A: We would not be able to bargain our health care. We would not be able to bargain a lot of our working conditions that we have now. We would not have the say in our job that we presently have, and that’s a big concern because we believe we are the experts. We are in there every single day. We believe we are working very hard to do what is best for our students, and to no longer have the voice is a big concern. Obviously, also, we’re concerned that some of this is a political thing by Kasich to destroy unions, to really come after those people that did not necessarily support him and supported others instead. We’re concerned that this is going to have a huge economic impact. We consider ourselves middle class and we are going to lose that status.  

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