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. Then call OEA' action line to be connected directly to your Ohio senator's office.
This email was sent to me on Friday. I've done what I can to ensure that it's real. While I can't find the totality of the testimony anywhere online, I have found that there is a very active union member named Phillip Hayes who does teach at Brookhaven High School in Columbus, Ohio.
I wanted to pass along some testimony from this past week's SB5 hearings from Woody Hayes' grandson, who is a teacher in the Columbus area. Please take a few minutes to read his remarks. I hope you'll find his words inspirational...
Good afternoon Chair Bacon, committee members. I thank you for giving me the opportunity today to speak candidly and personally regarding my opposition to Senate Bill 5.
I am a high school social studies teacher at Brookhaven High School in Columbus, Ohio. I have loved history since I was a little child. I am a teacher because it is in my DNA. I need to tell you why I am a teacher, but it involves a bit of family history.
My paternal grandfather¹s father was a teacher, principal and later superintendent. It was only natural that after graduating from Denison my grandfather also became an educator, teaching high school social studies and coaching high school football on the side.
He enlisted in the Navy shortly before the attack at Pearl Harbor, seeing the gathering storm clouds of war on the horizon, such was the mettle of his generation. He commanded two destroyer escorts during WWII.
It was in his lap that he explained to me what WWII was about, why he enlisted, what he hoped to give back to his country. It was there, in the safety of his lap that I found a love of history.
Most people who know my grandfather know he was a veteran, but that isn¹t what they remember him for.
You see, he also loved football. After being honorably discharged at the end of WWII, he worked as a head football coach for Denison and Miami. He was a long-shot candidate, but applied for and was hired on as the head football coach for Ohio State following Wes Fesler¹s resignation.
So yes, if you¹re wondering, my grandfather was Wayne Woodrow Hayes. He gave me his love of history and his love of teaching. It was because of him that I became a teacher. I think it is reasonable to assume that because of Woody Hayes, I am speaking to you today.
Realize that though I am of his flesh and blood, I am not him. I am my own person. But he taught me many things, many valuable lessons that made me who I am.
Woody always said "You win with people."
Without a doubt, because of the people, you have won. You sit in the chairs you are in because of the people. Regardless of committee appointments, regardless of President X, you are where you sit because of the people.
Many of you on the committee are thinking that when I refer to the people, you mean the voters.
Without a doubt, you would not have been elected without the voters¹ consent. Yet I speak more broadly.
You are where you sit because of the police officers that helped keep you safe when you were a child. You are where you sit because of the firefighters who were ready to respond at the ring of a bell to a call that there was a fire at your house or your neighbors. You are where you sit because of the many teachers that helped shape your lives and challenged you to move to the next level.
I can tell you who my most influential teachers were; Mrs. Collins, who gave me my first after- school detention in second grade; my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Lehman, who told me I was a talented writer, my tenth grade English teacher, Mrs. Novak who never gave me above a C on a paper, something that frustrated me to no end.
Think about your favorite teacher. The one who motivated you to do more than the assignment or the class asked for; the one that inspired you to be where you are now.
These are the people who have helped you win; these are the people that, if they are still living, you should thank on National Teachers Day in person.
I wonder; if you were to tell them where you are, where you have been, what you have been through to get where you are and what you have done, what would they say about what you¹re doing now in regards to Senate Bill 5?
I could tell you that my local teachers union, the Columbus Education Association has multiple alternative compensation programs that have been negotiated through mutual agreement between my union and the school board. I could tell you that the first and only time CEA went on strike was 1974, while the Ferguson Act was in effect, before strikes were legal. I could cite facts and statistics about unionization and this and that and one thing or the other, but you¹ve probably seen it in the media and on the internet.
Chairman Bacon, I am here to make a personal appeal to you. We share many things in common. You, like my father have law degrees, both serving your communities; he was a Franklin County Prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge; you served the citizens of Lancaster. You are a member of the Republican party, the same party that my grandfather supported. As a child, President Nixon spoke at my grandfather¹s funeral; I remember greeting then-Vice President George H.W. Bush campaigning in 1988 after alighting from Air Force Two. But I am here for something deeper.
My two sons, like your daughter, have autism spectrum diagnoses. It is because of public schools teachers that they have been able to excel.
I, like you, have learned about the myriad of acronyms associated with ASD. Many of those acronyms end with 'T' therapy. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy‹these are the things that have gotten them ready to excel in the classrooms of public school teachers.
It is because of the health insurance benefits that my district has provided that they have been able to excel in school. Yet these benefits have not been given freely to me or my sons by my district; they have been negotiated, thanks to my union.
Senator Bacon, members of the committee, this legislation will not just affect me, but my children. They are my family. This legislation punishes teachers, firefighters, police officers, state workers and their families. I urge you to pigeonhole this bill; to not send it to the floor for a vote.
My grandfather also said something else. "There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone, all that we send into the life of others comes back into our own."
My brothers and sisters are all here; what is sent into our lives will come back into those that send it to us. Please vote no against sending Senate Bill 5 to the floor.
Mister Chairman, members of the committee, I thank you for your attention.
At this time I will attempt to answer any questions that members of the committee may have.
Thank you.
Phillip Hayes
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