Senate Bill 5...bad for education...bad for Ohio

(I'll be repeating this intro each day of the week. Feel free to skip it each time if you're a repeat visitor.)

I need some help here.

An Ohio state Senator, Shannon Brown, has introduced a bill, Senate Bill 5, that will drastically change the landscape of education and public service in Ohio. Feel free to take a while and read the full text of the proposed bill here.

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Today I'm going to talk about how to help make your voice heard via email.

The first line folks that we need to convince are the members of the committee responsible for voting on SB5:

• Kevin Bacon - chair - 466-8064 - SD03@senate.state.oh.us
• Keith Faber - vice-chair - 466-7584 - SD12@senate.state.oh.us
• Joe Schiavoni (currently opposing SB5, thank him, please) - SD33@senate.state.oh.us
• Bill Beagle - 466-6247 - SD05@senate.state.oh.us
• Edna Brown (currently opposing SB5, thank her, please) - SD11@senate.state.oh.us
• Jim Hughes - 466-5981 - SD16@senate.state.oh.us
• Shannon Jones (the bill's author) - 466-9737 - SD07@senate.state.oh.us
• Kris Jordan - 466-8086 - SD19@senate.state.oh.us
• Eric Kearney (currently opposing SB5, thank him, please) - SD09@senate.state.oh.us
• Tom Sawyer (currently opposing SB5, thank him, please) - SD28@senate.state.oh.us
• Bill Seitz - 466-8068 - SD08@senate.state.oh.us

Here's the text of the letter that I've been sending each of these folks each day:

I live in West Chester, Ohio and teach in the Princeton City School district, and I am vehemently opposed to Senate Bill 5.

The radical proposals of SB 5 are not reforms of public education; they are attacks on the rights of public employees and on the safety and education of all present and future Ohioans. There is no investment, no stimulus package that is as effective as an investment in education, and in a tough economy, with Ohio facing a major budget deficit, we must focus on the essentials. Nothing is more essential than giving our children a quality education that prepares them for good jobs.

I have never considered myself a single-issue voter. I have considered the varied positions of every candidate and chosen the one what has best agreed with my views.

For this, however, I will proudly become a single-issue voter and will do everything in my power to see any supporter of SB 5 voted out of office. I will organize and donate and spread the horrible truths about the supporters of this bill: that they voted against the people of Ohio and in favor of corporate interests who will benefit by taking away the rights of worker.

I urge you to vote against SB5.

Only a handful of reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions and depriving working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice. I have no use for those - regardless of their political party - who hold some vain and foolish dream of spinning the clock back to the days when organized labor was huddled, almost as a helpless mass.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Lonnie Dusch
(my address)
West Chester, OH 45069
(my phone number)