Thursday, 02-17-11, 12:55:16am While the AFSCME is stuck acting like all its members are police and firefighters, the Ohio Education Association (OEA) has the ultimate defense: Think of the children! Too often, this line is all it takes to deflect criticism, allowing the OEA to resume talking about the terrible things that would happen to teachers absent unionization.
See, for instance, the OEA press release opposing Senate Bill 5:
“The Ohio Education Association (OEA) is gravely concerned that the Ohio Senate is not making Ohio’s children a priority. In a tough economy and facing a major budget deficit, Ohio must focus on the essentials, and nothing is more essential than giving our children a quality education that prepares them for good jobs.”
It’s tough to track proficiency test scores due to gaps in Ohio Department of Education data, but graduation rates fluctuated from 80-87% during the past decade while spending persistently increased. Federal data hardly support the “more money means more learning” school of thought. But, “giving our children a quality education” is a better pitch than “continuing unreasonable pay to tenured union members.”
Who but a union would insist merit pay is the wrong way to encourage hard work and reward the best educators? That anyone capable of enduring several years as a teacher should have a job for life, with longevity raises on top? That charter schools and vouchers should never be tried? As with AFSCME Council 8 & Local 11, the OEA stands between Ohioans and the services our tax dollars fund.
Exciting OEA Facts, Fiscal 2009
- $22,771,159 paid to union officers and staff — equal to $176.71 per member
- 143 union employees paid more than $70,000
- 117 union employees paid more than $100,000
- 12 union employees paid more than $150,000
- Executive Director Larry Wicks paid $208,469
- Executive Director Dennis Reardon paid $202,997
- $8,151,341 spent on benefits — less than 36% of the amount disbursed to union officers and staff
- $25,000 given to Policy Matters Ohio, a far-left Cleveland think-tank (09/23/2008)
- $10,000 sent to Colorado education union (10/17/2008)
- $10,000 sent to Oregon education union (10/27/2008)
The OEA also found $1,614,690 in the couch cushions to donate to Democrat campaigns in the 2010 cycle, according to records from the Secretary of State.
It comes to this: should we buy the OEA’s sales pitch about outsized union influence being the route to effective education? Or should we resist demands to further increase taxes, disassemble the union machine, and allow teachers, parents, and school districts to make their own decisions? This is what an attorney might call a leading question.
If you need more convincing that public unions are no good for Ohio, see Matt Mayer’s 02/15/2011 testimony before the Insurance, Commerce, and Labor Committee of the Ohio Senate.
Cross-posted at Third Base Politics and Columbus Tea Party.
20 responses so far ↓
great post.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kristina Lynne and Jason A. Hart, Jason A. Hart. Jason A. Hart said: @rightohio Don't forget OEA's Exec Directors: 2 guys paid more than $200k each. Thx for the dues, suckers! http://goo.gl/fb/pNgTN [...]
[...] who voted for a fiscally-responsible Senate. It’s payback to the hypocrites at the AFSCME and OEA who pay themselves millions of dollars every year to fight Ohio’s local governments, school [...]
[...] is a non-starter: the OEA had no trouble with partisan battles during the 2010 election cycle, when they were spending $1.6 million to keep their politicians in office. SB5 will make teaching unattractive and will make it difficult [...]
[...] employee Jason Hart exposes where Ohio teachers’ dues money goes: Who but a union would insist merit pay is the wrong way to encourage hard work and reward the best [...]
[...] employee Jason Hart exposes where Ohio teachers’ dues money goes: Who but a union would insist merit pay is the wrong way to encourage hard work and reward the best [...]
[...] employee Jason Hart exposes where Ohio teachers’ dues money goes: Who but a union would insist merit pay is the wrong way to encourage hard work and reward the best [...]
[...] employee Jason Hart exposes where Ohio teachers’ dues money goes: Who but a union would insist merit pay is the wrong way to encourage hard work and reward the best [...]
[...] employee Jason Hart exposes where Ohio teachers’ dues money goes: Who but a union would insist merit pay is the wrong way to encourage hard work and reward the best [...]
[...] and in case you’re wondering… the Ohio branch of the National Education Association is no better than our AFSCME [...]
Unfortunately if and when this passes all of the "good teachers" in Ohio will leave. What about the teacher who struggle every day, mostly in the urban schools, to get thier students to move up a grade level. What will they get paid. Also, if merit pay is what our educators salaries will come to, good luck finding a special ed teacher and anyone willing to teach in our "failing schools."
The assertion that every good teacher will leave the state if teachers are asked to pay a larger percentage of benefits seems a little silly – as does the assumption that merit pay means teachers in the worst schools will suffer. Do you have no confidence in the ability of districts and educators to design a system that fairly compensates the most skilled and hardest-working teachers?
It's disappointing to me that the OEA has so many members convinced paying dues and getting tenure is the only way for an educator to make a living. That mindset guarantees the only meaningful changes we'll ever see to our education system are constantly increasing labor costs.
[...] and Department of Labor care precisely zero (whatever the unit of measure) that the AFSCME and NEA are flagrant rackets with no good arguments. Small wonder – unions are the Democratic [...]
[...] siphoned nearly $23 million from rank-and-file school workers to fatten up its union staff. The Ohio Education Association donated more than $1.6 million to Democratic campaigns last year and tossed off five-figure checks each to union and progressive allies in Oregon, Colorado and [...]
[...] siphoned nearly $ 23 million from rank-and-file school workers to fatten up its union staff. The Ohio Education Association donated more than $ 1.6 million to Democratic campaigns last year and tossed off five-figure checks each to union and progressive allies in Oregon, Colorado and [...]
@Leana — Where will these teachers that are going to leave actually go?
No one is hiring. Do you really believe they are all going to up and quit their jobs and live off of welfare?
Oh, wait…
[...] ravings about government unionization, willingly concede that aspects of SB 5 may be flawed. Like the average union boss, I’m not a budget expert! But the Democrats offered no amendments, and six is a lot of [...]
[...] In 2009, the OEA – a group that gets agitated about “the children” when you start to talk about limiting their clout – spent less than 36% as much on member benefits as on union pay. [...]
[...] Democrat in the state – Millions in AFSCME and OEA donations have nothing to do with their unanimous [...]
http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/07/wi…