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Ohio's public schools serve 1.6 million children - 90 percent of students in the state! What happens in the classroom has impacts far beyond the walls of the K-12 school building or higher ed lecture hall. So, on behalf of the 120,000 members of the Ohio Education Association, we're taking a deeper dive into some of the many education issues facing our students, educators, and communities. Originally launched in 2021 as Education Matters, Public Education Matters is your source for insightful conversations with the people who shape the education landscape in Ohio. Have a topic you'd like to hear about on Public Education Matters? Email us at educationmatters@ohea.org
Intro - Various members and students speaking 0:08
Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters because every student matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters because it is the foundation of our democracy. Public Education Matters because we are stronger when we speak in one voice. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters, public Education Matters. This is public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.
Katie Olmsted 0:41
Welcome back to public Education Matters. I'm Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and its nearly 120,000 members. One would hope that most of those members would have either already cast their ballot or are planning to vote in person on March 19. To have a strong democracy, we all have to be engaged in the process. And after all, democracy is a core value of OEA and its members. The foundation of a strong democracy, we believe, is a high quality public education which is essential for an educated citizenry. For another thing, public school educators are deeply invested in the results of this election, since many school districts across the state have levies on the ballot to help fund the great public education every student deserves. Oh, yeah, and it's also the presidential primary, which moves along our state's process of sending delegates to the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention to officially name each party's candidate for the general election this fall. And while that function does make the headlines, that's not all the delegates to each party's national conventions do. In fact, it's the platform setting functions at the national conventions, shaping the priorities and policies for the national political party, that really draw educators interest in becoming delegates. Now in Ohio, the Republicans and the Democrats have very different processes for selecting delegates for their respective national conventions. For the Democrats, though, it starts with an in-person caucus, where delegates are elected in each congressional district months before the state's primary election takes place. For an insider perspective on how the process works, and why having educators at the national conventions is so important, we sat down with two OEA-Retired members who are veteran DNC delegates, heading back to the Democratic National Convention once again this summer. Here's our conversation with Tom Moscovic and Deloris Rome Hudson.
Katie Olmsted 2:47
Deloris, Tom, thank you, thank you, thank you for sitting down to talk about your experience running and what's ahead as the elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention. I want to start with why. Why did you run to become a delegate?
Deloris Rome Hudson 3:07
Well, I'll start. In '96, I was on the OEA board. And the lawyer Carol Pierce Nix called me and oh, probably the beginning of November and said, Dolores, have you ever thought about running a be a delegate to the convention? And I said, Well, I watched the conventions. And I never knew what it takes to actually be a delegate. And she says, Well, I can tell you. And so she explained to me over the phone and told me what to do. And I thought, well, I'll go ahead and do that. So that's what got me interested. And I've always been of the mindset that if you want to make a change, or if you want to make a difference, you need to be involved. And that's why I ran.
Katie Olmsted 3:52
And educators need to be involved at every level. Tom, I know talking to you earlier, it's not just about the presidential election here.
Tom Moscovic 4:01
No, absolutely not. I I was always have always been active in politics since since before the Al Gore ran for president and I've participated with the Lake County Democratic Party, up here in Lake County, and with the OEA with phone banks, literature drops, canvassing, and and always been actively involved not only in with candidates, but also with issues that have been pertinent to education. I was president of Willoughby-Eastlake teachers for eight years. And prior to that I was vice president and on the executive committee. I think it's important and I've always been an activist for for education. I've been a lifelong Democrat. And I have participated in lobby days and I've I've tried to to keep the politics out of the classroom but knowing that it's so pertinent because everything that we do In the classroom was decided by a politician. Everything we teach was decided by a politician. And it's up to us to advocate for our own good and for the students. The motto was students first, but for the students to be first, we have to have policies that are advantageous to students and for growth.
Katie Olmsted 5:19
So I need a civics lesson. Let's let's go back a little bit. How do the national conventions work? Both Republicans and Democrats both have national conventions. What, how are the delegates elected? And what do they do?
Deloris Rome Hudson 5:36
The delegates are elected at the state caucuses, and different states have their caucuses on different nights. So at the caucuses, for whoever is running, they would have a caucus. I guess you gotta have a certain amount of people, or people - like Biden is running, but someone else is running too. But at our caucus meetings, this time, it was just a caucus for Biden. So the other two people that were running didn't have a delegated caucus. So then at the caucus meetings, you elect your delegates, and is usually either two women and two men. But this year was three women and two men. So then at that caucus, you have a chance to make a speech, you make your speeches, and then they have ballots that they give to each person that there, each qualified person that's there, a ballot. And then they go and they vote. Later on, they have a committee that counts the votes. And after that, they announce who the winners are.
Katie Olmsted 6:47
And this is, the delegates are broken down by Ohio House District in Ohio. Is that correct?
Tom Moscovic 6:55
Yes.
Katie Olmsted 6:56
Okay.
Deloris Rome Hudson 6:56
Yes.
Katie Olmsted 6:57
So is the number of men and women elected to go to the convention, reflective of growing population or growing number of delegates for Ohio, then?
Deloris Rome Hudson 7:09
You know, I'm not exactly sure how that works. But I know in the past, we've always had two women, two men. This year, there were three women and two men. And then, if I'm not mistaken, about two years ago, the districts were changed.
Tom Moscovic 7:26
Every 10 years, based on on population switches, they have a reorganization of the districts based on and in 2022, the new districts were redistricted. And this year - and that's done by, at this point, it's done by by a committee that's allocated by the state, by the General Assembly. And right now we have a super majority of Republicans. There was a lot of controversy over the redistricting. And there were petitions and all the other stuff, and it's still going on. But the districts now I believe, are allocated until until 2032. So my district was changed, too, and it was just the boundaries, the boundaries were changed. I'm in district 14,
Deloris Rome Hudson 7:33
For my district, it usually went up to - and I'm the 8th District - went up to Greenville, and then came down to Fairfield in Ohio. And then it wasn't until maybe two weeks before we had our caucus meeting, that I found out that our district had changed and included these other cities. So I started calling my friends in the Cincinnati area to tell them, you can come. You can come that she said, But you always told us we couldn't come and I said what changed. So sometimes the districts change, but you have the districts who meet at the caucus meetings. They always meet either the first or second Tuesday of January. And no matter what the weather or the circumstances, they meet all over the state at the same time.
Katie Olmsted 9:04
So help me understand the importance of getting elected as a delegate to the national convention. In my mind, the primary decides the whole thing, and that's that, but is it always that way?
Tom Moscovic 9:17
Well, yeah, not only is it the presidential election, but it's also we have our State Senator Sherrod Brown is up for re election. And also it trickles all the way down to local. By being a delegate, we see it's a - the convention last for four days. And the first couple of days, they're they're doing policy and the DNC and doing policy. And as delegates from Ohio, we have a caucus every day, from our delegates to help set our priorities and as educators in those caucuses, we have the opportunity to express our views as to what we'd like to see because, as you education policy is is is not only allocate are determined by the state, but also the federal and federal funding and all kinds of stuff coming into play with that. And if you notice that we've noticed now how some of across the country with some of the stuff just gone on in Florida, and in other states, when it comes to what we can and cannot teach, we have to advocate for us so that we can be - we call it academic freedom - at least to be able to teach what is appropriate to the students and not be told what to teach by legislators who have no idea what's going on in the classrooms. I've always said I'd love to have a politician from Columbus come stay in the classroom, not come in and say Hi, Kids way to go Good to see you. But to come in and spend a week with us and see what happens in these buildings between classes. See what happened in the classes that aren't the high ability classes and see what goes on in these buildings, before they start pushing us into what we have to do. And that's what I fought my whole career.
Katie Olmsted 11:05
Really, it's that perspective of the educator that is so important, both when it comes to what's happening at our state house. But also, as you mentioned, when we're setting the the priorities of the national political party, which is what this convention is all about. Is that why as educators, I mean, this is - OEA has been very much in support of educators running as delegates for the convention. And I know just looking on social media around the caucus time, educators are really active about getting other educators to go out to the caucus events.
Deloris Rome Hudson 11:44
(inaudible) ... they work really hard to get more members to come out for the caucus meetings, but you contact a lot of people and you just wait to see who shows up. But it's still a matter of you gotta have people there to vote for you in order to get elected. So we even had an in my caucus, we had a student from Miami University who got elected. And she was so excited because she said, she just heard she could run. So she came, and she didn't expect to win at all. And she did. Whereas we also had a house person from the House of Representative in our caucus, where as you thought she knew everybody, and she'd have a lot of people there and have a lot of votes, but she did not win. So it kind of all depends on who shows up that night, and who they vote for. And along with other things, I still feel that your speech and what you say, when everybody hears you makes a difference, too. And I mentioned that I was a president of my local, and that I was an advocate for educators and the students that they served. And that was mainly why I wanted to run so that I could have a voice for educators because it's so important. You know, people don't necessarily talk to educators to find out what's the best of what should be done. And if it shows, whereas our elected officials don't talk to the educators. To me, they don't care what you think. They think they know more about education than we do. And as Tom said, if they came to a classroom and stayed in a building for a day or two to see what actually happens, Elementary Secondary, to see what's going on, they could see the needs a little bit more than just what they read, or what they talked to each other about, which does not gel together as to what should be done to make a better education system. And to help get educators into the schools to teach. It's a dilemma.
Katie Olmsted 13:49
And a lot of what it takes to create the conditions where educators, where education can be an attractive, sustainable career and get all sorts of people in and keep them there and make sure they have, you know, dignity in their work, some of that is set by federal policy and federal policy about things like labor. So to have that voice when it comes to shaping the priorities of the national level of the political party, that's got to be huge. Now, I know both of you are veterans of these conventions. Tom, let's start with you. This is going to be your third DNC. Is that correct?
Tom Moscovic 14:29
Yes. Yes to one person and one in the backyard.
Katie Olmsted 14:33
All right. So talk to me a little bit about what it's been like for you.
Tom Moscovic 14:36
I love it because I get to meet a lot of a lot of people from around the state. And, and we are like minded, even, even outside of education when it comes to the policies of the Democratic Party, when it comes to equity and fairness and when it comes to to, to the way we've set policy for transgender students and for gay marriage and for all the other stuff that that we advocate for as a Democratic Party, but the opportunity to meet with other educators. I believe that of the 15 districts in Ohio, I think we elected what was it, I think 12 or 13? 13 educators to go to the caucus -
Deloris Rome Hudson 15:17
And that's a first!
Tom Moscovic 15:18
..and convention and so in with the caucus every day, there's that there's opportunity to, to, to have fellowship and, and to talk and to get to know each other. And then on the convention floor, it's just, it's just really, it's just wild. It's, you know, a lot of screaming and whooping and hollering and, and, and it's a joint effort, and it's time for unity. And hopefully, when the convention is over, we all go and go back to our various districts and communities and start to advocate and get get out the vote. That's the key to get out the vote.
Katie Olmsted 15:52
And Deloris, you've been saying you've been going since '96. Is that right?
Deloris Rome Hudson 15:56
I went to Chicago in '96. And I always equate that to be my best, but I think it was because it was a first and you know, when you go to something for the first time, and it's so exciting, you remember it more than anything else. But I will compare the convention similar to our NEA convention. You're broken up into your states, you sit with - kind of depends on who's from your area that you sit with, and - but you can walk around and see other people and, and from being an NEA director, the first time that I went to it, that I go to different states to see other NEA directors and talk to them and see what they were doing in their state. But the numbers, I was really surprised. At that Democratic and probably at the Republican Convention, too, you have a lot of the other politicians that are not delegates, but they can come. And then you have celebrities and movie stars and all other kinds of people. And then you have the media. The first year I went in '96, I had four reporters that would call me and ask me questions. And I was actually hooked up with our Hamilton Journal, where the person there would take the information that it will give them and they do a report every day that was in the newspaper. But I know that at the Democratic conventions, there's so many more people there because they have a combination of different types of people that are there. And at our conventions for NEA, it's basically our delegates, and just general guests. But it's a big group. You start your day, as, as Tom mentioned, with caucus meetings, and that's what we do for NEA, too. And that's where the majority of, you learn what's gonna happen at the convention that day, so you're prepared. So make sure you're there because I was so excited my first year and other years of whenever it started, I was there and I stayed untill the end. But other veteran delegates, they will go to activities outside of the convention, and make sure they're there when speakers and certain issues are being discussed. So you can balance your time, accordingly.
Katie Olmsted 18:08
I appreciate you comparing this to the NEA convention, because I think that's more of something that a lot of our members understand if they've never really paid attention to what the national conventions for the political parties are like. I also appreciate that comparison, because it helps me understand that, as you've pointed out, and I have to admit that I didn't realize this, it's not just about the presidential election. And that's a really important thing heading into Primary Day here in Ohio. Yes, the primary is on the ballot. But it's not just going to be the presidential primary on the march 19 ballot, we have so many levies across the state, right? And I know this is something that that you're both very passionate about, what is your one message to educators and their families and anybody who cares about public education, as we're heading into the March Primary here in Ohio,
Deloris Rome Hudson 19:02
My biggest issue is make sure you vote, make sure you vote and you get your family members and anyone you know, out there to vote. There's so many people that are discouraged as they talk about the war as they talk about the border as they talk about all these negative things that they say, I don't know if I want to vote at all. And I said, You gotta voice your opinion. If just because you're not sure about what's going on, doesn't mean that you take yourself out of the process of making that choice. So that's one of my bigger issues of making sure people vote.
Katie Olmsted 19:38
Are you worried that because the presidential primary is the big ticket item that gets a headline, that when it does come to things like our school levies that are also going to be on this ballot, that Democrats who who think it is a foregone conclusion aren't going to turn out to support the levees?
Tom Moscovic 19:55
Well, I think people - it's a foregone conclusion on both sides. This is every four years that we have this, this comes around, but every every year there's an election and every year it's local issues. And, and you know, they say, Oh, I always taught my kids, I taught social studies, that the closer to your front door the politician lives, the more immediate impact those policies have on you. So, city council, mayor, school board don't affect you all the time, that affect you all the time, the further away down in Columbus that's further away and Washington, it's even further away. But they all have some impact.
Katie Olmsted 20:30
Thank you both so much for sharing your time and your perspective. Have fun at the convention.
Deloris Rome Hudson 20:36
Okay!
Tom Moscovic 20:36
Thank you. Thanks for having us, Katie.
Katie Olmsted 20:49
It's important to remember we're talking about the Democratic National Convention with these delegates, but public education is not a Democratic or a Republican issue. Public education matters, period. And we want pro-public education candidates making decisions about our public schools and our communities, period. And that's why the OEA Fund for Children and Public Education - better known as the OEA Fund - is so important. I'd advise you to check out Season 3, Episode 4 of this podcast for a much deeper dive into what the Fund is, but suffice it to say it's OEA's political action committee, or PAC, and it allows OEA to provide meaningful support to pro-public education candidates who have been recommended for endorsement by the OEA members who serve on the Fund screening committees. It also lets us build relationships with elected officials from both political parties who stand with us on our issues. Really notably, OEA continues to build relationships within the Republican caucus to build support from pro-public education, pro-labor Republicans right now. Many of them are in House Speaker Jason Stephens' coalition. But the OEA Fund is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from OEA members and their families - never dues dollars - and the Fund needs more donations from more members to be the most effective. So OEA and each of the district associations across the state are hosting events over the next several weeks to support the OEA Fund. OEA Vice President Jeff Wensing joins us now for a look at how these events are bringing the fun to fundraising.
Katie Olmsted 22:34
Jeff, thank you so much for sitting down with us to help us get ready for all of these really exciting events. Let's start with a bigger picture of all of this, though. What is the OEA Fund and how are decisions made about how that money is used?
Jeff Wensing 22:51
Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Katie. I appreciate coming back to the show. The OEA Fund, let's get right to it. Basically the OEA Fund is an account of non-dues money, so we rely on our members to voluntarily contribute to the OEA Fund, and that helps OEA directly support candidates, whether they're incumbents or whether they're seeking to become legislators. And we can directly support them in their campaigns and their efforts to get to come here and be members of the General Assembly in Columbus. And the important thing to remember is we support legislators that support public education. And we get to that point by committee, so it's based on a committee of our members. We have district screening committees, and they screen our candidates, and they make recommendations. They bring those recommendations to the OEA Fund State Convention, and we take positions on those endorsements. And if you are lucky enough to be a candidate that gets endorsed by OEA, this will qualify you for getting some money out of the OEA Fund to help you get elected so you can support public education, our students, and our educators.
Katie Olmsted 24:08
And that's really the bottom line here, in Ohio and everywhere, it takes money to run these campaigns. It's just a reality of our entire system. So without the OEA Fund support, we don't have the power to really affect public education in our state. That's why things like these upcoming events are so important. What is going on? How can people get involved? Why this fun?
Jeff Wensing 24:34
Well, we've come up with a couple of unique ways this year where people can get involved. Last year we tried one inaugural bowling event and it was so successful that we are expanding it throughout the state. So we're kicking it off March 15. It is OEA Board weekend we're having a bowling event in Columbus with, it's centered around and OEA Board meeting. Yes that is St. Patrick's Day weekend. So people will be coming to Gahanna Lanes and we'll be bowling in the Columbus area with the money going to the OEA Fund, as I've mentioned, to support legislators who will support public education. So expanding out, you know, now across Ohio, we have 10 districts in Ohio. Each of these districts were enamored with our bowling event last year that they themselves want to host a bowling event in each of our districts. That was a priority for them. They were like, Hey, we don't have to come to Columbus and have fun and bowl. We want to have them in our area of the state and we are more than willing to work with them to put on a bowling event in their part of Ohio.
Katie Olmsted 25:44
And then, not just bowling this year. We're moving into golf as well. And I know you're an avid golfer.
Jeff Wensing 25:51
I do like to golf, yes. So we are going to have a golf event. It's going to be again, like I said earlier was an inaugural bowling event. This is like our inaugural golfing event. We'll see how this goes, to support the OEA Fund. The event is going to be held at Champions Golf course here in Columbus. It is being piggybacked on to the Summer Leadership Academy. So Summer Leadership Academy starts on June 20. This event, the golf event is occurring the morning of June 20, as I said, at Champions Golf Club here. It's $125 a golfer. If you do the math, which I am a math teacher by trade, that will be $500 a foursome. Registration is at 8:30am. Tee off, a shotgun start is at 9am. There are door prizes. We have golf balls we're giving away. We'll have basket auctions. Just the all around fun of a golf outing. Have you ever been to one? They are fun. Then come to ours. It's what you would think it would be.
Katie Olmsted 26:54
So it's really putting the fun in supporting the Fund.
Jeff Wensing 26:59
Wow
Katie Olmsted 27:03
Ah, yes.
Jeff Wensing 27:05
But for the bowling events, equally is going to be equally as fun. Each of these bowling events, we're planning on having door prizes; plan on having prizes for the team. First, second, third place prizes, a high score, a low score prize, a prize for the individual that bowls the most number of spares and strikes. This is a family friendly event. We're encouraging you to bring your kids. There'll be places for them to hang out. Of course, there'll be food. It wouldn't be a party if we didn't supply some food as well.
Katie Olmsted 27:35
The Ohio Eating Association is also what OEA stands for.
Jeff Wensing 27:39
yeah.
Katie Olmsted 27:42
Well, I do love that we're talking about prizes, because the biggest prize that we definitely are all going for is the ability to affect change in our state, and to have the power to really support the pro-public education candidates that make our schools better places, make our work better places for us to be, make education a attractive, sustainable career. In the last couple of seconds that we have, Jeff, what are your expectations for these events?
Jeff Wensing 28:10
Well, my expectation is that we can fill these up with our members and friends of our members and we can have a good time. If you don't want a golf or you don't want to bowl, you can actually participate and be a spectator. There's a nominal cost for that as well. The more the merrier, they always say. But as you've mentioned, the greatest prize will be when we elect more legislators who are pro-public education, who will be better for our students, better for educators, better for Ohio, because public education is the cornerstone of democracy.
Katie Olmsted 28:43
Jeff Wensing, thank you so much.
Jeff Wensing 28:45
Thank you, Katie. See you next time.
Katie Olmsted 28:50
You can find the full schedule and details of each of the bowling events and the golf outing, plus more on the OEA Fund itself, in the show notes for this episode. Until next time, stay well. And remember in Ohio, Public Education Matters.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai