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SHARING AS INSTRUCTED
<br>
<p>Subject: Update Regarding Ohio's FY 2006-2007 Budget and Related Legislative
Initiatives
<br>Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 09:49:02 -0400
<br>From: "Christine Domhoff" <cldomhoff@ysu.edu>
<br>To: "Ivan Maldonado" <imaldona@cc.ysu.edu>, "Carol A. Hovanes" <cahovanes@ysu.edu>,
"Charlene Yusko" <chyusko@ysu.edu>, "Brenda Scarborough" <bmscarborough@ysu.edu>,
"Willa Mattern" <wsmatter@cc.ysu.edu>
<br>
<p>Please forward to friends and co-workers.
<p>
<p>Christine Domhoff, CCNA CCAI HTI+
<br>Youngstown State University, Metro College
<br>Regional Cisco Academy
<br>100 DeBartolo Place, Suite 200
<br>Youngstown, OH 44512
<p>
<p>-----<b>Original Message-</b>----
<br><b>From</b>: O'Donnell, Tina [OH] [<A HREF="mailto:odonnellt@ohea.org">mailto:odonnellt@ohea.org</A>]
<br><b>Sent</b>: Friday, April 29, 2005 8:14 AM
<br><b>To</b>: O'Donnell, Tina [OH]
<br>Subject: Update Regarding Ohio's FY 2006-2007 Budget and Related Legislative
Initiatives
<p>
<p><b>To</b>: All OEA Staff
<p>
<p>C: Executive Committee
<br> District Leaders
<p>
<p>From: Dennis M. Reardon
<p> Earlier this month, the Ohio House adopted HB 66 and sent it to
the Senate. As you know, among its other deficiencies, the House
proposal severely undercuts the funding of Ohio’s schools, significantly
expands
<br>vouchers in Cleveland and into other school districts, undercuts our
members’ negotiated health care programs, and attacks collective bargaining
rights.
<p>The purpose of this memorandum is to inform you about what we are doing
to address these issues.
<p>
<p><u>First, we recognize that we all need to:</u>
<p>
<p> Continue to educate our members about these
issues.
<br> Involve our members in talking directly
with their legislators, with specific focus on their state senators.
<br> Inform legislators about our collective interests
and expected outcomes.
<br> Convince legislators that our positions are
right and that they must support them.
<p><u>We believe that we can most effectively achieve those outcomes by</u>:
<p>
<p> Educating our members about the very real impact
of these threats.
<br> Persuading them to personally contact their
legislators and let them know what they want done and why the desired outcome
is critical to public education.
<br> Continuing to deliver our message directly
to legislators through the efforts of our lobbyists.
<br> Continuing to work in partnership with other
organizations that share common interests with us.
<p>We clearly understand that the tone and volume of our messages will
have an impact on the ultimate outcome.
<br>We believe that our interests are best served by managing that aspect
in controlled phases. That is, we believe that - - at this point
- - our most effective method for achieving our intended outcomes is by
ensuring
<br>that our members, as voting constituents directly contact their legislators,
particularly their state senators.
<br> For example, the more than 220 “educator-lobbyists” (i.e., teachers,
support professionals, administrators, parents, and board members) who
participated in the April 19 Educator Lobby Day demonstrated the power
of direct lobbying.
<p>
<p>In addition to hosting the Educator Lobby Day activities on May 24 and
June 7, we are considering other ways to ensure that our members have the
opportunity to express their support for public education. Our challenge
will be achieving our intended outcomes without alienating key legislators
whose support is critical to our ultimate success.
<p>
<p>We recognize that regularly you are being asked, “What is OEA doing
about this situation?” While we realize this can be a tough question,
it’s important to note that OEA is aggressively implementing the Grassroots
Plan as detailed at the February staff meeting, and OEA leaders and staff
are meeting daily with legislators to help resolve these problems.
Please know that we are as concerned as you and are working as effectively
as we can to ensure that the FY 2006-2007 budget does not further injure
our members' collective interests. Our plan for accomplishing
this requires as much direct member contact as possible. That is one other
area in which you will play a major role. In the coming weeks, many
of you will be asked to distribute materials and information about the
budget bill to our members at their worksites, discuss our concerns and
ask that they
<br>take immediate action.
<p>
<p>We have posted legislative alerts on the OEA website, encouraging our
members to take action on critical aspects in the budget bill. We
request that when you talk with local leaders, you encourage them to promptly
<br>pass that information to their members. At last count, Association
members have sent to legislators more than 1100 emails through the OEA
website regarding the reduction-in-force provisions, the mandatory health
care pool and the privatization threats contained in the proposed House
budget. Those numbers are increasing daily.
<p>
<p>Thank you for your effective work on behalf of our members. Certainly,
in periods of high stress, it is easy to criticize others, including those
who you would hope are working toward similar outcomes. Let us not
fall into
<br>that trap. Let’s continue to work together to educate and mobilize
our members around these critical issues.
<p>
<p>
<br>
<br>
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