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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 115,000 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
Jeff Wensing 0:00
There is genuine excitement. We might be a little stressed over some situations, but I think the overall feeling is: I'm ready to go. This is my job. This is what I do. I'm here to help students learn, grow, and thrive.
Various student voices 0:20
Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters.
Jeff Wensing 0:26
This is Public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.
Katie Olmsted 0:37
Welcome back to Public Education Matters, the first episode of season seven of the podcast, the first of many weekly conversations we're bringing you this new school year as we dive into the big issues facing our public school students and educators every day. I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the 115,000 public school educators OEA represents in hundreds of local associations all across the state. These educators have dedicated their careers to serving the 90% of students who attend public schools in Ohio because they believe in the power and promise of public education in our state. We need leaders who believe in the power of public education too, and who will stand with us to deliver on the promise of the great public schools all students deserve, no exceptions. What happens at the ballot box this November will make a lasting impact, for better or for worse on our public school students, educators, and communities for years to come, and we cannot afford to sit on the sidelines in this election. OEA members can find a link in the show notes for this episode to learn more about the pro-public education, pro-labor candidates, Democrats and Republicans alike, who their fellow OEA members have recommended for support in this upcoming election, but of course, the election is one of many things on a lot of educators' minds right now as we really get into the swing of this new school year. We sat down with OEA President Jeff Wensing to hear what's on his mind and what he wants all OEA members and all Ohioans to know and do right now.
Katie Olmsted 2:33
Jeff Wensing, Ohio Education Association president, thank you so much for sitting down with us as we're starting this new school year. You've been traveling everywhere, talking to a lot of people. What are you hearing? How are people feeling?
Jeff Wensing 2:47
I feel excitement. I've been to a lot of convocations. I've been to a lot of new teacher orientations from Hilliard, where they've had like I think over 100 new teachers to their district, whether they're right out of college, or you know, they're veteran educators coming from somewhere else to Medina, to Fairview, to Parma, to Columbus. I mean, I think there there is genuine excitement. This is what we do. We're educators. We're coming back to school. We might be a little stressed over some situations like class lists, and do I have them yet? But I think the overall feeling is, I'm ready to go. This is my job. This is what I do. I'm here to help students learn, grow, and thrive.
Katie Olmsted 3:29
I think a lot of the stress might be even more than the class list. There's a lot of challenges as we face this new year. But let's start with the positives. What are some of the positive things that we're looking forward to this year?
Jeff Wensing 3:40
Yeah, let's start with the positives.
Katie Olmsted 3:41
I think that's a great idea. Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff Wensing 3:43
So, like one of the positives that I have talked about, especially at the new teacher orientation, is the the fact that Ohio has finally engaged in some legislation sponsored by Representative Sean Brennan that we want to actually pay our student teachers. So all these states around us, like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, yeah, even Kentucky are paying teachers during their student teaching experience. So even though that they are now current educators and their student teaching is behind them, they're encouraged to hear that the people coming behind them might get paid because they just went through it, they lived it, they know the struggle and the burden. So that's that is the the thing that I'm hearing in terms of being excited about some legislation that's going through the General Assembly because a lot of times we're not so excited about some of the legislation like funding, for example.
Katie Olmsted 4:36
Going to the student teaching thing that's not just good for the maybe future student teachers. That's good for our students to have that pipeline. And we know there's been challenges with recruitment in Ohio. As you're going around, are you are you seeing that firsthand? Some of those positions that have been hard to fill.
Jeff Wensing 4:52
Yeah, it continues to be the intervention specialist position every everywhere I go. There's still. In need of intervention specialists, I did a listening tour in the fall, going around to I want to say 14 or 15 school districts, and classroom teachers need that support of intervention specialists. And when they're spread thin, it creates a lot of stress and and a little burnout. So I don't know how we encourage people to go into the field of intervention specialists, but we need to.
Katie Olmsted 5:26
We need to, and unfortunately, even you know we have two sides of this coin where we have positions that are not filled, and we also have districts where they just can't create the positions that are needed because of funding things. Just like you mentioned, what is the funding landscape in Ohio as we're entering this new school year?
Jeff Wensing 5:46
Yeah, unfortunately, in that last budget cycle, the General Assembly went back on their promise to fully fund the fair school funding plan. We had this formula; they were supposed to use the current costs and inputs that go into this formula from 2026-2027. but unfortunately, they're using numbers the cost to run a school district from 2023. So when you plug those numbers into a formula, you're not getting a very good result. So as a result, our schools are underfunded by 2.75 billion dollars. That's right, billion with a B. And you look around. For example, I live in Columbus. I voted for the school levy a couple years ago. We were told that this was going to keep Columbus solvent for a few years. Well, as you can see, because of the most recent budget and Columbus City Schools being underfunded, they had to fill a budget gap of 50 million, 100 million-I can't remember. I think it might have been up to $100 million, and they are suffering the effects of that, which means students are getting fewer opportunities, they have fewer resources, as as well as their educators.
Katie Olmsted 6:54
And that is just such a a frustrating thing to be happening, given that the $2.75 billion that they've underfunded our public schools by is surprise surprise about $2 billion plus that they've been giving to private school vouchers in this biennium. There's also some hopeful legislation around that actually. What can you tell me about the Take the Dough We Got to Know Act?
Jeff Wensing 7:21
Yeah, that's a great name, right?
Katie Olmsted 7:23
It is.
Jeff Wensing 7:23
Take the Dough, We got to Know. It's our attempt, as well as our friends in the legislature, because yes, we do have friends in the Ohio General Assembly that have put this accountability bill together. So it's making its way through the the process through the chambers, but it is basically a bill that says if you're a private school and you're taking public tax dollars, you should be held to the the same accountability standards as your local public school. You should have a five year forecast. You should have audits done because public tax dollars are pretty sacred, right? Our school system they are pretty transparent with what they're doing with the public's money. So we've seen scandal when you don't have report outs like audits. The ECOT electronic classroom of tomorrow they were fudging the numbers. That was a huge scandal. So we with this, it's pretty cute, right? Take the Dough, We Gotta Know Act. I believe it's a Senate bill right now, as it makes its way through. It's, it's. I think it's realistic, right? If you take public money, public dollars, you should be accountable.
Katie Olmsted 8:30
And shameless plug for this podcast. In just a couple of weeks, we're going to have the bipartisan co-sponsors of that bill on this podcast to talk a little bit more about it, but that is a bipartisan issue. Public education is not even just bipartisan; it's nonpartisan. We have 90% of the students in our state attending our public schools. That's for everybody. That said, elections matter. What can you tell me about what we're looking for in November?
Jeff Wensing 8:59
It's make or break election. I think sometimes OEA gets a bad rap that all OEA does is they support Democrats. That's not true at all.
Katie Olmsted 9:09
No, the stats don't bear that out.
Jeff Wensing 9:11
No, not at all. We are looking for politicians. We're looking for members of the General Assembly candidates that support public education, and with the the election in in November, we have supported bipartisan candidates, whether they're current office holders or not. Like we've supported Amy Acton for governor because there is no clear choice for governor because she supports public education. She made it one of the pillars of her tax relief plan, I'm going to fully fund public schools. Now I'm talking like Amy Acton right now. She's going to fully fund public schools, okay, and try to take the tax burden away from voters going to that ballot box all the time to vote for local tax levies to support their schools. But Amy Acton's at the top of the ticket. But we've also. Supported Jay Edwards, a Republican running for the treasurer of this state. All 99 House seats are up for election. We've supported Republicans in these House races, like a Jason Stephens, like a Haraz Gambari, like up where I'm from, Tom Patton out of Northeast Ohio. So we are looking for individuals that are candidates, current office holders that support our kids, our communities, and our profession.
Katie Olmsted 10:27
And that's how these recommendations work. They're made entirely on where candidates stand on education issues, public education, and labor issues, and that's it.
Jeff Wensing 10:38
That's it, Katie. That's that's what our screening committees look like. We have screening committees all over the state. They've been working really hard. They make recommendations. I've been signing letters nonstop for the last several weeks, letting the candidates know whether they've received our endorsement or they haven't received our endorsement, or we've even taken a no position in that race. But yeah, our members are doing their part to make sure they're screening the candidates in their parts of the state.
Katie Olmsted 11:06
Do you think rank and file OEA members who maybe are not as engaged on not just on the political things, but maybe not even engaged so much in their locals, understand that it's their fellow educators making these recommendations?
Jeff Wensing 11:21
Well, I mean, I know from my own personal experience. When I was first starting out, I didn't know the power of the union. I didn't know the power of my local association or the OEA or NEA and what they did. I was trying to learn my craft right? I'm gonna I'm gonna go to my class over there at Parma Senior High School, and I'm going to try to create a great lesson teaching algebra two. But then, this is why I'm sitting in this seat. I realized that so many people who hold office make decisions about public education, and really, these people making them don't know, or they've never spent a day in their lives as an educator, but they're making decisions that affect my students, and it affects our communities and my job. You know, as an educator, so I think that's part of like when you do this podcast. If people are tuning in, which I know because you're an award winner, Katie, they're tuning in left and right about what their association does to promote their job, to promote their profession, and support them, and this is one of the things we do. We are screening these candidates, and when I say we, I mean members. Like members are on screening committees. The OEA president is on a screening committee. If you go to a screening committee, you're going to see the screening committee that has been assigned to screen, as well as every single local president in that House district, is invited to attend that screening.
Katie Olmsted 12:50
And both major party candidates are also invited. We want to hear from everybody because
Jeff Wensing 12:56
We sure do.
Katie Olmsted 12:57
Again, it's not a partisan thing to support our public schools. On the federal level, who makes those recommendations? Also members, right?
Jeff Wensing 13:06
Also members. You know those recommendations because I I don't know if you heard Sherrod Brown as our recommended candidate.
Katie Olmsted 13:13
I have heard that.
Jeff Wensing 13:14
Have you heard that?
Katie Olmsted 13:15
And you know what? I'm really excited about him as a candidate.
Jeff Wensing 13:17
Yeah, great. So congressional candidates as well. Congressional candidates. So, if you're a congressional candidate, right, we're going to send you to the United States Congress as a Congress Congress person. You get screened by a screening committee, similarly to the process I just outlined. Right, it's going to be members. They are then going to make that recommendation to the National Education Association. So, those recommendations for federal office, they go to NEA, and NEA makes that endorsement. They take action. We screened Sherrod Brown. I was on that committee with several members that participate in that screening, and we screened Sherrod Brown. His opponent didn't show up, so it's really hard, right?
Katie Olmsted 13:59
The man behind the ECOT scandal.
Jeff Wensing 14:01
Oh, exactly. I'm glad you brought that up. You must been watching some of those commercials, yeah. But you know, the current Senator Husted did not participate in the screening process.
Katie Olmsted 14:11
I want to talk about what you learned in the screening process with Sherrod Brown, though. I did ask you to tell him hi from you, and you said you wouldn't. But other than that, what was the conversation about?
Jeff Wensing 14:21
Well, we just had a really good screening, a good interview. As you as you go through that process, you find out how Sherrod has supported public education in Washington D.C. You look how he supported educators. A lot of our educators have worked in other jobs, they worked during the summer to make ends meet, especially our ESP members. So when Sherrod was able to get the Social Security Fairness Act across the line, where we're not going to be affected by the government pension offset GPO WEP, that you're going to get your full Social Security. Check now. Even if you're if you're in STRS or OPERS or SERS or whatever pension you're in, I mean that shows that Sherrod Brown supports the working men and working women of Ohio, you know, without without fail.
Katie Olmsted 15:15
And he has a long track record of supporting our public school students too. I mean, off the top of my head, there was access to broadband in in communities for our students. There's a whole bunch of other ways, and especially now that we have an administration that is trying to dismantle the Department of Education and either you know send all that money to the states where we know what our legislature does, or just stop providing some of those necessary services? How important is it that we have people like Sherrod Brown in Washington D.C. fighting for us
Jeff Wensing 15:52
It's it's huge. You know, it's really important. I I know that our educators, as I've traveled the state, as you mentioned, they're worried about, especially our students with disabilities, and IDEA, and are we going to continue to get those dollars? You mentioned that there's a current movement to try to dismantle the Department of Education in Washington D.C. and break it up and send it to different departments, but somebody like Sherrod Brown will make sure that our most vulnerable students and work really hard to make sure they get the funding that they were promised.
Katie Olmsted 16:15
The funding and the federal protections and the services-so that every student can succeed. That's the whole point of public education.
Jeff Wensing 16:37
That's what we do, Katie.
Katie Olmsted 16:38
Is that you know? I've heard again, public Education Matters.
Jeff Wensing 16:41
It does, you know, regardless of zip code, regardless of whether you're urban, rural, suburban, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity. Like we are really trying to educate every single student so that they can meet their full potential and thrive and grow and be great adults.
Katie Olmsted 17:00
So while we're talking a lot about the challenges, I before we started recording, you admonished me. Let's talk about some of the positives. While we're talking about these challenges, it's that promise of a great public education for all that presents a lot of opportunities. What do you need Ohioans to understand as we move forward this school year?
Jeff Wensing 17:24
I want the people of Ohio, Ohioans, I want them to understand that public education is truly the great equalizer. And when you fully fund public schools, you are banking on it. Might be cliche if you want to say it, but those students are the future. They really are, and if you don't fully fund and fully support our students, you're shortchanging them. Regardless of where you are in the state, we we have people of different different political persuasions. You could be independent. You could be Democrat. You could be Republican. You could be socialists. They attend our public schools. Like educators don't discern. We don't ask at the door what political party are your parents a part of, and we don't do that. We teach all students that come through our doors. We want everybody to be a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, an electrician, a carpenter. If you want to be a cosmetologist, you want to do hair. We want you to be successful, and we have great programs for that. We have great career and technical education programs all across the state. So, going back to your question, like, what do you want Ohioans to know? I want Ohioans to know you invest in your public schools because they are the cornerstone of your community. I would say that they are the backbone and the heartbeat of each community. And when you support our students and you support our educators, you're supporting the next generation of workers in Ohio. You're supporting the next economy in Ohio, and you're just supporting kids, and what is more important than supporting kids?
Katie Olmsted 19:04
And how do we support our schools? What do people need to do?
Jeff Wensing 19:10
Vote, Katie. November 3rd is when people show up. If you vote early, you can show up and and support public education by voting by mail or an early polling location, but we've got to get people to support the candidates that support public education. It's time.
Katie Olmsted 19:28
Jeff Wensing, thank you so much.
Katie Olmsted 19:32
You heard it there. Public Education Matters. Vote. So much of what happens in our classrooms is determined by the people in the state house, the governor's office, and on the U.S. Capitol Hill, and your vote gives you a voice in those decisions and the future of our public schools. Make sure your voter registration is up to date by October 5th, and make your plan to vote. And make sure you tune in for some of the great episodes that are on the way this season here on Public Education Matters. Next week, we are sitting down with Dr. Amy Acton for an in-depth conversation about where she stands on the issues, from fully and fairly funding our public schools while providing property tax relief, to restoring educator voices on the pension board, to her views on supporting educators' collective bargaining rights and ensuring public school educators have a seat at the table in her administration when she's governor. It is a special audio and video version of this podcast. Something we're going to try at different times throughout this new season, and you do not want to miss it. Plus, we have a ton of other great episodes you won't want to miss either. We're going to talk to the bipartisan sponsors of a voucher accountability bill that's in the state house now. We have a kindergarten teacher who wrote a series of children's books that use weather characters to help young learners better understand and manage their emotions. We have an educator who saw a need in her school and then rallied the whole community to create a care closet for her students. There's a conversation with the Central Ohio Workers Center about how they're building the next generation of leaders by helping teach high schoolers how to bargain. We've even got a teacher who created his own holiday to get students excited about learning history, and those are just a few of the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I am so excited about all of the great conversations we're going to share with you in the weeks and months ahead. New episodes will drop every Thursday this season, so make sure you subscribe to this podcast on your favorite listening platform, so you don't miss a thing. Because in Ohio, public education matters.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai