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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 to the new season of the Ohio Education Association podcast, now known as Public Education Matters. This is, as ever, your source for insightful conversations about the issues and people shaping the education landscape in Ohio today. And as ever, I'm Katie Olmsted. As Season Four gets underway, you'll notice some changes around here. We've got that new title and the new sound. We're also moving to a slightly longer bi-weekly episode format to really maximize what we can do with the content in each one of these. But even with the podcast formerly known as Education Matters becoming Public Education Matters, some things remain the same: namely, the Ohio Education Association's vision of creating an Ohio where every student has access to a high quality public education and where all members are supported, valued and respected. That's what the Public Education Matters initiative is all about. It's about standing together to demand the supports and resources our educators, students and public schools need to be successful. And it's about making sure Ohio's public school educators are respected as the experienced, trusted professionals they are. As the new school year gets underway, Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro has been talking to a lot of educators -- those who are new to the profession and those who have been years in our public schools -- and we invited him to sit down with us for the Season 4 opener to share what he has been hearing from them.
Katie Olmsted 2:22
Scott DiMauro, thank you so much for sitting down with us. I know this is one of your favorite times of the year, because you're just traveling everywhere with the back to school welcome parties for everyone. How has that been for you this year?
Scott DiMauro 2:38
It's been amazing. This is, as you said, always an exciting time of year. And this is always a time for renewal. This is a time to kind of get re-centered on what our purpose is as educators, to really make a difference in the lives of kids, to really help shape citizens, to help prepare students for the future. And so I see people at the beginning of the year who I think, have had a chance to rest and rejuvenate over the summer, or a lot of people that we've been talking to are new educators coming into the profession, which is always so inspiring to me. But we know that we are dealing with a climate and a culture that still has lots of challenges for education.
Katie Olmsted 3:24
So which one do we want to talk about first, the good news or the bad news?
Scott DiMauro 3:28
I'm an optimist. I always like leading with the good news. So why don't we start there? We have had a lot of wins over this summer. And these are all wins that didn't happen overnight. There were a result of our 120,000 members all taking action in solidarity together. We have quite a few local school districts that won successful fair contracts, like Southeast Local in Portage County. But looking at it on the state level, we have a big win that we just had on August 8, with the defeat of Issue 1. OEA was very heavily invested in that campaign. We're engaged and engaged our members from across the state to make sure that we protected democracy. We know democracy and public education are intertwined. And say what you will about any other specific issue, standing up for the right of the people to have their voice heard; to protect majority rule; to protect the principle of one person, one vote was so critical. And I think we're gonna parlay this into hopefully some significant reforms on how we draw lines, district lines as a state in Ohio. You know, we saw a new redistricting reform initiative just unveiled and I expect that OEA's is going to be engaged on that. So that was a big one protecting democracy.
Katie Olmsted 4:53
And I do want to for a quick recap about what issue one was about this was going to be, if it passed, a constitutional amendment. They would have needed a supermajority to approve future constitutional amendments. And more than that, it would have required just incredibly difficult things to be accomplished to get a constitutional amendment, a citizen initiated constitutional amendment on the ballot in the first place. And we successfully beat this back because of the work of the OEA members across the state. And because beyond just the democracy issue, this is something that really resonates with educators, because of all of the potential threats to education, that we have to be looking down the road. Maybe the lawmakers aren't going to listen to us. What do we need to have our rights to be able to do?
Scott DiMauro 5:42
Exactly. We know that issue one would have made it virtually impossible for a citizen led initiative to go to the ballot, and then, you know, for the voters of Ohio to be able to amend our constitution. We have seen for far too long that politicians get to Columbus, and they get power hungry. And in fact, putting Issue 1 on the ballot was all about a blatant power grab. We know that sometimes when legislators are unable or unwilling to do their jobs, starting with fully and fairly funding our schools, there may be times where we have to go directly to the people of Ohio and ask them to step up and support us. And it's happened in history. And it's, you know, important that we protected this 111 year old tradition, that's been part of our Constitution - we protected our Constitution, in that sense - for a long time to come. So yeah, it was it was so important that we did that for the benefit of public education, but but really, for the benefit of our members and the students we serve to have their voices heard in our democratic system here in Ohio. So other wins. And before I like, leave anyone with the impression that the legislature only does bad stuff, the legislature actually did some really good things, again, as a result of the relentless advocacy of OEA and our members across the state, starting with passing the Fair School Funding Plan, phase two, in this part of the budget. That led to an over billion dollar increase in school funding over the next budget cycle. That's a very significant increase, including a base increase in the per pupil cost of about 17%, I believe, each year the of the budget. So that is important for us to make sure that we're able to keep class sizes at a reasonable level, that all students are able to have a well rounded curriculum, and that we're addressing the need to have quality teachers and education support professionals in every school. With that funding came in increase in the minimum teacher salary from $30,000 to $35,000, a year significant increase in terms of percentage, not quite where we need it to be. There's still a significant educator pay gap. But for I think the third time in the last four budgets, we were able to get a significant increase in the state minimum teacher salary, through our bipartisan efforts working with both Democrats and Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives. We were able to successfully advocate for expansion to access of school meals for our kids who need them most. For all those students who were eligible for reduced price meals, what the state of Ohio is going to do is now pay the difference in costs between what the federal government was providing for reduced price meals, and what is necessary to bring everybody up to the level of free meals. We all know that kids need to come to school ready to learn, including having a nutritious meal in their in their bellies, you know, every day. And so that was a big win. Another thing that we were really proud of is that after years of pushing back against the unfairness, and the ineffectiveness of mandatory retention under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, we were able to successfully advocate for an end to mandatory retention and putting the decision, if you have a student who's a struggling reader in third grade, putting that decision about whether or not to retain them back where it needs to be in the hands of parents and educators who know those kids best. And then one last thing I should mention is that you know, we've been pushing for local control and an end to the unjust state takeover law that has affected Youngstown, East Cleveland, and Lorain. Lorain was taken out once and for all of that state takeover law. We're still advocating for East Cleveland and Youngstown to also get that relief. But those were some important successes that we had, again, because of our collective advocacy as an organization.
Katie Olmsted 10:16
I don't want to discount that in any way, because these are huge. These are enormous steps forward. But it's also important that we recognize that there's still a lot of work to do. When we are talking about the Fair School Funding Plan, we are such an important step forward to getting that fully implemented. So we still have another phase to implement on this one. Some of the other wins, like you mentioned, with with the minimum teacher salary, we're going to continue to advocate for that. And that's why the educator voice in all of these decisions is so important. And also just the educator personality: Educators do not give up, do they?
Scott DiMauro 10:56
Not at all. And, educators also don't sit back and just rest on their laurels. We know that we still have so much more work to do, to ensure that every single student, regardless of their background, without exception, has a high quality public education, and to make sure that every single one of our members, our teachers, our counselors, our school nurses, our school secretaries, and bus drivers, and everybody else who plays such an important role, all of those people are valued and respected, and have the resources that they need in order to be successful in the work they do every day for kids. So, you know, as we've been traveling around and going to back to school events, as I said earlier, the mood I think is optimistic, but there are still a lot of concerns on people's minds.
Katie Olmsted 11:50
Let's talk about them. What are some of these challenges?
Scott DiMauro 11:52
I think one of them is is just this ongoing attack against public education and continued privatization of our education system. And that's no more evident than what we saw the bad side of the state budget, which was a passage of universal vouchers. So now families regardless of how much money they make, regardless of whether they've ever sent their kids to public schools, are entitled to free money from the state of Ohio to subsidize tuition at private schools. And that we believe is unconstitutional. But we also believe that it's really going to be taking resources away from the 90% of kids who are attending our public schools. And it was done in a way that, I think is pretty extreme, in that there's no limit on who can get a voucher. Above about $135,000 a year, it starts to taper off in terms of the amount but but it is clearly a push to move more kids to private schools. We're hearing talk that the senate president wants to reinforce that decision by funding construction of private school facilities.
Katie Olmsted 13:12
That's insane
Scott DiMauro 13:13
which is absolutely nuts. And and and so that's antithetical to everything we believe.
Katie Olmsted 13:21
You know, one of big things we hear when it comes to the "school choice" - in big air quotes - debates here is, if I don't like the public pool, the state's not about to build me a pool in my own backyard. But that's literally what they're talking about here. It's not just funding your membership to the country club. It's building you a new country club.
Scott DiMauro 13:41
It is. It is. And and in case, there's any notion that someone has that somehow this is about helping students in need, Students who have been, you know, the the narrative, and what I believe is clearly a false narrative that's been constructed over decades now by anti-public education forces in our country, is that somehow you have students who are failing in our public schools who need to be rescued. And that couldn't be further from the truth. The reality is, is that students who attend private schools on vouchers, when looking at their performance compared to their peers who are still attending their neighborhood, public schools, do far worse. The kids in public schools perform better. And they the other part of this is just look at the law that was just passed. Not only does anyone qualify for free money from the state, but they took away a provision that had been in the law for quite some time that said that if you were below a certain income level as a family, and that level was 200% of poverty, so lower income families who used vouchers until now, the private school who accepted that voucher had to accept the voucher as payment in full for tuition. Under the law that's gone. So the message I think, is pretty clear from voucher proponents, that they're not interested in helping all students. They're not interested in helping, particularly low income or students from from, you know, impoverished backgrounds. They are looking for ways to make it easier for families who are already advantaged, already better off, to pull their kids out of the public schools, so that they don't have to send their kids to school with other kids. And that's just wrong. That's that goes against everything that we believe in as educators, why we went into this profession, because we care about the success of every single student.
Katie Olmsted 15:56
Every single student, no exceptions. And private schools, they don't have to take kids who are - that have higher learning needs. They get to pick and choose who they're pulling out of the system, who can afford it, because even with these vouchers, as you mentioned, most families still can't do this. We're hearing some private schools have raised tuition this year, because hey, more free money. It is certainly I mean, it gets my blood boiling. But it is also a rallying cry about all of the things that educators must continue to do, must continue to advocate for the great public schools that every student deserves across Ohio. We cannot give up. We cannot let off the gas.
Scott DiMauro 16:38
Yeah, and and part of our strategy in dealing with this issue is to level the playing field and say, you know, we don't agree with this at all, but we recognize the political reality that we're in right now. But I think across the spectrum, there are people that understand basic principles of fairness. And one of those basic principles of fairness is everyone needs to play by the same rules, which means that if you have state report cards tied to test scores for public schools, then you should have state report cards tied to test scores for private and charter schools as well. In a similar manner, going back to what you just said, if public schools are required, as they should be, and as they are, to accept all students, regardless of ability level, regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of religion, then private schools accepting vouchers need to do the same thing. So we're, we're working on that. But yeah, that's one of the big concerns that we have. And it's in, it's related to another big concern that we hear from educators all the time, who feel like they're being pushed out of this profession, generally, because of a lack of respect, lack of support. But a lot of times, you know, that comes in the form of really misguided legislation attacking our ability to teach our students an honest and complete education. Book bans, and attacks on marginalized student groups all have, again, this terrible impact of really causing harm to kids, and making teachers' lives more difficult. We need to be there for everybody. We need to make sure that we're standing up for all students. But we also need to stand up for the truth. And we need to stand against censorship attacks. We need to we need to call out cynical attempts to drive wedges of distrust between parents and schools out for what they are, which are just simply political maneuvers, having all everything to do with political power, nothing at all to do with the well being of kids.
Katie Olmsted 18:54
And not just in the statehouse, that's on the school board. And we're heading into school board election season. These are races to watch because we're seeing it right there at the local level as well.
Scott DiMauro 19:05
The issue, these are national issues. This is these are national trends that we're watching. In fact, a lot of this strategy, this anti-public education strategy is being orchestrated at a national level. But it plays out in the legislation that we see in Columbus at the Statehouse, and as you said, it plays out in every local school district across the state, which is why we are putting a lot of time and, and resources and energy into supporting our local affiliates, as they engage in school board races between now and November to make sure that we're electing pro public education, pro educator, pro student members to local boards.
Katie Olmsted 19:42
And one of those real harms when we're talking about the real harms of these culture war issues, is that we are driving great educators from the profession in some cases, against a background where it's already very hard to get new, new educators into this profession. We are dealing with some serious pipeline crises in Ohio right now. What is the landscape that we're working with?
Scott DiMauro 20:07
Yeah, we're continuing to see challenges in districts across the state filling positions. They are particularly acute in certain types of positions. Lots of districts still have intervention specialist openings, even as school is starting. Districts are still struggling to fill bus driver positions. Districts are still struggling to fill substitute teacher positions. But as part of a larger trend, which we've seen materialize over the last decade or more, as fewer and fewer young people are choosing careers in education, and more and more people who are experienced educators are feeling pushed out because of lack of support, lack of respect, difficult working conditions, concerns about safety and security, and again, these culture war attacks in the form of book bands and censorship bills and things like that. So. So we are continuing with a comprehensive strategy, starting with making sure that everyone is getting fair pay for the important work that they do. Again, both teachers, we're going to continue to push through legislation and through the bargaining process to try to make that teacher pay gap go away. Because we know people get paid less for education than they do for similar professions requiring similar educational background. But we also know it's really important for our paraprofessionals, and our cafeteria workers and our other education support professionals in our schools. And we have a team of people that are working on a comprehensive strategy, doing a lot of listening this year, going out into our school buildings, listening to our ESPs - education support professionals - to get their input. We've also signed off on another ballot issue, which is to raise the state minimum wage, which we think is going to help ensure everyone including the parents of our students, have a living wage, so that all kids can can be successful. So it's a comprehensive strategy. But we also need to address these working condition issues which make collective bargaining so important, and continue to look at ways to improve the pipeline. So grow your own programs - There's some some new money in the state budget that we advocated for, to allow districts especially in high needs areas, to give financial incentives to students, talented students from their own schools, to go to college, come back and teach in those districts. Ohio just unveiled a new teacher apprenticeship program, which we're excited about. And this is a great partnership between the federal government in the state that we've been actively involved in. And then of course, paying attention to really critical issues like continued access to quality health care benefits, and retirement security. All is part of a comprehensive strategy to ensure we're attracting and retaining, caring, qualified, committed people in every school across the state.
Katie Olmsted 23:11
The advocacy work is so important. And as you mentioned, the collective bargaining element of this is really where a lot of that work is done. And I hate to keep being the downer, but in the last couple of minutes we have here, we're once again seeing attacks on collective bargaining in Ohio. It's like Groundhog Day.
Scott DiMauro 23:29
Yeah, we're seeing it, especially at the moment in a higher education bill that has been, was introduced back in the spring, Senate Bill 83. We were successful in keeping it out of the state budget. But it's it hasn't gone away yet. And one of the things that that bill would do would take away the right to strike for higher education faculty. We represent a number of higher education faculty and staff across the state. So that's a concern of ours. And just as a matter of principle, we know that without collective bargaining rights, you take voice away from working people in the state of Ohio. So we're going to continue to fight that battle. And then we also know that there are attacks against collective bargaining rights, you know, even at the local level, you know, that we have local affiliates, in fact, as we speak, our colleagues in Youngstown -
Katie Olmsted 24:22
August 22, as we're speaking -
Scott DiMauro 24:24
- they just voted to go on strike. I hope that by the time listeners hear this, we will have seen a favorable settlement and a fair contract in Youngstown but, but we always have to remember that 'power concedes nothing without a demand,' right. That was a famous I think Frederick Douglass quote.
Katie Olmsted 24:45
It's like I'm sitting here with the history teacher.
Scott DiMauro 24:48
You know, and so if we don't stand up for ourselves if we don't really lean into the power that we have, by joining forces together and in our case, 120,000 Strong across the state of Ohio, then we're never going to move forward. You know. And so whether we're dealing with these legislative issues at the state level, or what's happening in our local communities, it's a reminder of why we do what we do. And so as we're wrapping up, I guess one of the things that I'll just share with you is the same message that I've been sharing with our new educators across the state. And that is, as I look back at my 32 years in education, you know, what is it that's that's kept me engaged? And why do I say with confidence that my choice to be an active member of our union is the best professional decision I've ever made? Number one, it's because of the support and relationships that we have, that are really unique to being part of our union family. The professional development - In fact, we got a great new professional development resource, a graduate programs through Ursuline College, where our members can get nine graduate credits for $200. It's pretty amazing. But all kinds of supports on that, in that sense. It's the protection and advocacy that comes from being part of the Union. We're reminded constantly, why legal protection is so important, why liability protection is so important, why enforcement of our contracts at the local level is so important. We need to have each other's backs. And then fundamentally, it's also about that collective power and influence that we can exercise only when we're working together. And that's what led to these wins that we had in the legislature. That's what led to our win with Issue 1. That's what's going to lead us to wins on these other critical issues as we move forward into this next school year and beyond.
Katie Olmsted 26:54
Speaking in that united voice, because public Education Matters,
Scott DiMauro 26:57
It absolutely does. We're reminded of that every day. Public Education Matters, because this is what shapes our future as a state. This is what provides opportunities for kids no matter who they are, and no matter what direction that they're going to go in. Public Education Matters, because it's the backbone and the heart of who we are as a state. I'm so proud of the work that our members do every day.
Katie Olmsted 27:23
Scott DiMauro, OEA President, thank you.
Scott DiMauro 27:26
Thanks, Katie.
Katie Olmsted 27:26
Now, as part of the revamp for Season 4 of the podcast, we're working to squeeze in a little extra valuable content without making each episode much longer than the average commute. In this episode, we're talking about valuable content that could be right at your fingertips now, if you've downloaded OEA's app. OEA's Manager of Communications and Marketing Valancia Turner takes us for a spin around this useful tech.
Val Turner 27:57
The Ohio Education Association app really makes it easier than ever to stay connected with OEA. Think of it as a direct portal to OEA information right there on your phone or tablet. Want to check out the latest issue of Ohio schools magazine. It's right there. And also what I love about it is everything's on one screen, that calendar, which lists the events that are going on at OEA, the holidays, the meetings, political actions, My Deals, which is very important, which lists discounts that are available to OEA members. So making sure that you have the app along with the My Deals app is very vital to keeping on top of everything that's going on and the opportunities that are available to our OEA members. If you've been to the OEA website lately, you will know it can be a little tough to find the content you're looking for, if you don't know exactly where to look for it. The navigation is just a little chunky. But the good news is that it will be much better when we launch the new revamped OEA website, which work is getting started on that project now. The better news is that the app will integrate seamlessly with the new and improved website when that comes out. So downloading it now will have you ready to go in the future. We have a lot of new exciting plans for the future of this app, and making sure that we're adding items that are relevant and important to our OEA members. So I would suggest you download the app. It is available for download for free on all platforms. Just search for Ohio Education Association, or OEA in your app store.
Katie Olmsted 29:46
Well, that does it for this episode of Public Education Matters. New episodes will drop every other Thursday throughout the school year. If you have some thoughts on what you'd like to hear on the podcast in the future, please send me an email at the same address as always, EducationMatters@ohea.org. Until next time, stay well, and remember, in Ohio, public education matters.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai