The relationship between Ohio's public school teachers and state lawmakers these days can only be described as adversarial. Many school districts statewide are cutting jobs to avoid massive budget deficits, while also actively suing the state for spending more than $2 billion on vouchers for students to attend private schools.
In the midst of this funding battle, local unions representing public school teachers and staff have been among the loudest advocates for their districts, encouraging communities to put consistent pressure on lawmakers to direct more funds toward public education.
That effort hasn't appeared to sway Ohio's Republican supermajority in the Statehouse, which has instead responded by introducing legislation such as House Bill 671 to withhold funding from schools that are suing the state, and Senate Bill 113, which seeks to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public K-12 schools.
In addition, Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy has described Ohio's teacher unions as bureaucratic organizations that can be more obstructive to the educational system than helpful.
Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper says this rift between teachers and lawmakers, particularly over private school vouchers and Ohio's Fair School Funding Formula, has made it difficult for educators to have their input seriously considered at the state level.
"When one side is trying to promote a private education system, and one side is trying to promote a public education system, and you're fighting over the same dollars, it creates that adversity and shuts some of the doors to other conversations," she told WVXU.
A recent study released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think-tank, claims that overall, teacher unions nationwide don't wield as much political influence as they used to. The study ranks Ohio's unions as 17th strongest overall, based on factors like membership, bargaining power and policy wins and losses.
When it comes to affecting education policies, the study ranks Ohio's unions among the weakest in the country. Cropper says that's because in the past decade, new political voices in education have emerged, like the Center for Christian Virtue and Ohio Excels, which have been more effective in influencing legislation.
"It's a shame that the policymakers aren't listening to us more because the solutions, and the ideas, and the issues that we bring to the table represent what's best for education," Cropper said.
Still, Cropper believes teacher unions have one thing other lobbyists don't: the support of their local communities.
She says certain politicians have painted teachers and the unions that represent them in a bad light, creating a general sense of distrust in public education. Yet when it comes to their local school districts and the teachers in them, people don't view them negatively.
"When you're trying to privatize a system, you have to make the public look bad," Cropper said. "But at a local level, people get it. At a local level, people see what's happening to funding in their schools."
She says as the midterm election approaches, teachers need to leverage that trust to get their communities to rally around candidates who want to see the state direct more money to its public schools.
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