Aspiring Educator and CSU student Alissa Burkholder moderated The Ballot: Fight for Education, Oct. 22 at the Julka Hall Atrium. The discussion brought together five speakers to discuss education in Ohio and how this midterm election Nov. 3 could affect it.

The panel were state representative Sean Patrick Brennan, a CSU alum; Dan Greenburg, vice president of the Ohio Education Association (OEA), Rachel Grabowski, OEA staffer; Joe Nicklos, superintendent of the SMART Academy and CSU alum, and Dr. Joanne Goodell of the CSU School of Education and Counseling. 

The panel focused on three themes: school funding and property tax, educator workforce, and why vote, and what comes after. School funding opened with Rep. Brennan. “The single biggest issue facing Ohio public schools is funding,” he said.

Nicklos shared his views on levies, educating listeners on their limits. Once levy money comes in, the amount is “frozen” at that level until the next levy passes, while property tax continues to rise. This is one of Ohio’s disadvantages, as most states allow for school taxes to inflate as property tax does to the same scale. However, because of House Bill 920, Ohio has to return to the ballots each year. 

“In Parma we have not passed a new money levy since 2011," Nicklos said, but "people still criticize our school board and superintendent, even though they’ve been able to stretch this money for almost a generation.” 

 

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That observation led to one of the main changes in the educator workforce. Educators are now stepping into the role of advocacy. 

“Educators are in this role to be nurturers,"  Greenberg explained, “but being a nurturer is not enough. We also have to be advocates; we also have to be politically aware, we also have to be politically active.”

Greenberg said that getting people to the polls to vote, even on small items like levies, is crucial for the continuation of quality education. Teachers are failing to realize that no political activity, not caring, and no voting result in job loss, outgrowing current school buildings, and loss of student activities and resources, like sports team cuts. 

There are many disparities across school systems, with reports from Nicklos of visiting Southern Ohio schools that still use outhouses due to no running water, to private schools funded by parents with the ability to invest endless resources into student needs. 

This, along with the poor pay and the joining of school districts across Ohio, even in the Cleveland Area, is showing the instability of teaching jobs. 

“We are facing huge waves against our system, particularly in terms of recruiting young people to be educators,” Goodell said, pointing out the difficulties of attracting students to education. 

The panel agreed that local elections are always important, but noted that some of the local elected officials who currently have seats are making public education a priority, with many current bills passed and now awaiting a governor's approval. 

Grabowski emphasized the importance of the upcoming governor's race in Ohio. “We get a governor that is pro-public education and pro-labor union; we have hopes that (new bills) could move forward pretty quickly,” she said.

To get these votes, though, Rep. Brennan is looking for engagement in politics from students. Many students, even those here at CSU, participate in rallies and protests, but won’t show up for the less riveting forms of mobilizing change. 

“Until we start knocking on the doors of people and changing the hearts and minds of Ohioans, nothing is going to change, “ Rep. Brennan said.

After the event, Burkholder explained why she set it up.

“I wanted to create this event because the election coming up in November is huge for me as a future educator," she said. "This event allowed people to receive true information on what the ballot will have on it, as well as create connections that I feel CSU really hasn’t seen yet.”

“I am very happy with how the event turned out and I hope there is a large voter turnout in November.” 
 

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Voters can vote early in Ohio until November 1, with in-person voting on November 3.