Good News from ISTA President Nate Schnellenberger

November 9, 2011

In a historic, decisive and crucial victory, last night our neighbors in Ohio voted overwhelmingly to repeal Senate Bill 5 – Gov. John Kasich’s attack on public employee collective bargaining rights. By a nearly two-to-one margin, Ohio’s voters told Gov. Kasich and members of Ohio’s legislature that “enough is enough” – the attack on teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public employees needs to stop.

According to a leader in the We Are Ohio organization, Ohioians sent a message to all politicians last night: We don’t turn our backs on people who watch ours, and they used their citizen veto to reject Senate Bill 5.

Hoosier educators and others who support our state’s middle class need to take Ohio’s enthusiasm and make sure it spreads during the upcoming legislative session and 2012 election campaign. I am sure that if collective bargaining rights were put on the ballot in Indiana, we would see similar results to what happened yesterday in Ohio. Overwhelmingly, Hoosiers support the rights of teachers and other public employees.

Ohio’s results should give us hope as Hoosiers that we, too, can get ready now for tomorrow’s victories. This battle isn’t about Republicans. It isn’t about Democrats. It’s about giving educators and other middle class workers a voice on their jobs. It’s about protecting and growing middle class jobs.

Please take a few minutes to celebrate Ohio’s victory, but keep in mind that Indiana educators, their friends and families need to find their own energy and commitment to stop the continued attacks against them orchestrated during the last session of the General Assembly.

Let’s remind Indiana’s policymakers to take a long, hard look at the message that Ohio voters sent to their governor and legislature yesterday. We are all in this fight together – and we all need to do whatever we can for us to be successful.

Let’s learn from what our Ohio colleagues accomplished yesterday – they spoke up, they knocked on doors, they phone banked, they spoke at public forums, they never backed away from discussing or debating the issues with their friends, their neighbors, their policymakers or with the media. They spoke truth to power. And they won.

We can certainly take hope and inspiration from our neighbors to the east.

Some early and interesting analysis from We Are Ohio:

• The vote to repeal Senate Bill 5 won in 82 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
• 2,145,042 No votes were cast for repeal – 255,862 more votes than Gov. Kasich received in his 2010 election win.
• Statewide turnout was nearly 3.5 million votes – the highest turnout in decades for an off-year election in the state.

There's also good election news from our neighbor to the north, the Michigan Education Association. They targeted for recall the chairman of the House Education Committee for his support of policies that weakened teacher tenure and cut funding to public education. Last night, after the results were in, Republican state Rep. Paul Scott accepted the results showing he had been recalled by the voters in his district.

MEA officials said the recall vote reflects backlash over anti-public education policies adopted since Gov. Rick Snyder became governor this year and his political party gained control of both legislative chambers.