Ohio Federation of Teachers
Redistricting: Education funding hangs in balance with unbalanced districts
The redrawing of legislative maps has an impact on where you go to vote and who to call at the Ohio Statehouse, but it also determines the support students get when they go to school, and what teachers can and can’t do in their classrooms. So say members of teachers unions and education advocates across […]
Police, teachers org urge more training for armed teachers
The Fraternal Order of Police and the Ohio Federation of Teachers both stood in opposition to a bill that would allow for personnel to be armed in schools. As they did for a previous bill that didn’t make it through the legislature, the state’s FOP chapter said school resource officers are the smarter option, rather […]
Advocates, legislators want more from governor’s education budget
With no changes planned for the state education funding formula included in Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed budget, education advocates and some state legislators are left wanting more. “The devil is always in the details,” said Scott DiMauro, head of the Ohio Education Association, in a statement after the release of the budget. “Education spending must […]
Teachers unions push DeWine to support schools without ‘coerced preconditions’
Eight teachers’ unions throughout the state are pushing Gov. Mike DeWine to rethink his timeline for school reopening and vaccine distribution. In a joint statement distributed by the Ohio Federation of Teachers and signed by the presidents of the unions in Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown, the leaders expressed disappointment with […]
Teachers unions urge veto on school funding bill
Two of Ohio’s top teachers unions are asking the governor to veto a new education bill just passed by the legislature. The Ohio Senate and House passed Senate Bill 89 last week after it spent months in a conference committee being revised and developed into a bill that, among other things, focuses on the private […]
Special education top of mind as pandemic learning continues
Special education teachers face their own challenges in the time of remote learning, even as hybrid models are beginning at K-12 schools throughout Ohio. Like other teachers, the immediacy of the school shutdowns in March left Laura Haines and other special education intervention specialists scrambling to come up with a plan. “We had to go […]
An SOS (Save Our Schools) to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman from education groups
Editor’s Note: This is a joint commentary from Lois Carson, president of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, and Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers. On Thursday, March 12, Gov. Mike DeWine announced that Ohio schools would be shutting down physically and four […]
Community learning centers will help school districts cope with COVID-19 disruption
Earlier this month, Gov. Mike DeWine announced $355 million in budget cuts for K-12 education for the last two months of this fiscal year. While these cuts are mitigated by federal funds under the CARES Act, the majority of Ohio school districts will lose funding overall. The public education community is bracing ourselves for even […]
Ohio Senate committee discusses future of Ohio’s K-12 education
An Ohio Senate committee brought representatives from several education groups together to discuss what school districts will need to start the new school year in the fall. The Senate Finance Committee held a panel discussion Tuesday, in which they heard from the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, the Ohio Education Association, the Ohio Federation of […]
Teachers celebrated ‘Appreciation Week’ at home. Then DeWine cut their funding.
John Wells has a purpose for showing his language arts students the movie “Mean Girls” in class. He does so to teach the storytelling device of irony, sharing familiar examples in pop culture: from Batman and Shakespeare. As such, when the Mt. Healthy High School teacher learned of Gov. Mike DeWine’s plan to cut hundreds […]
EdChoice frozen in Ohio omnibus coronavirus bill
The fight over private school vouchers is yet again on hold, this time to clear the way for the state’s coronavirus response. As part of the omnibus bill approved by the Senate on Wednesday morning and the House that afternoon, the expansion of the EdChoice scholarship program will be frozen while the coronavirus causes the […]
Bipartisan bill coming to make charter schools nonprofit, public
Two House members have come together with a bill looking to make charter schools more accountable to taxpayers. The “Community (Charter) School Operator Accountability Act” aims to take for-profit charter schools and require them to become nonprofits, and make records of their spending subject to public scrutiny and audit. “By removing that profit incentive, it’s […]