Senate Bill 5 is the controversial new Ohio law passed this year which restricts the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
The law will face a statewide referendum this fall and among the unions fighting hardest to overturn it will be the teachers unions. But, you know, teachers unions here and nationwide are beginning to lose the argument that for years portrayed school policy as all about the kids-and not about the teachers and their welfare.
Increasingly, it has become obvious that salary, benefits and tenure are the first order of business for unionized teachers, not the well-being of students. And what better evidence for that than this from California: Faced with deep budgetary problems that will affect school districts in that state, the only way out appeared to be teacher layoffs.
But, that's before the California Teachers Association put pressure on the state legislature which decreed that to deal with the fiscal situation none of the state's school districts are permitted to lay off teachers.
The better solution they agreed was to lay off the students, eliminating seven days from the school year. Well, here's hoping Ohio doesn't adopt that priority.
Write and let me know what you think. I'm Bill Applegate.
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