Press

“The Senators who voted to pass SB 1 may think that they’re targeting 'woke' professors, but the expansive nature of the bill means that they’re targeting every single student, professor, and staff member at Ohio’s public colleges and universities. They are so angry over their unproven theory that higher education is ideologically biased that they’re willing to take down our world-class system of public colleges and universities. Instead they should focus on the real issues affecting higher education in Ohio, like keeping tuition affordable and surviving tumultuous threats to federal scientific and health funding that schools rely on. As this bill moves to the Ohio House, we are urging representatives to either scrap this flawed bill or give serious consideration to amendments that will blunt the worst of the impacts.”

“As currently written, SB 1 will put Ohio’s world-class system of higher education at risk by stifling academic freedom, raising administrative costs, impeding recruitment and retention of talented faculty, and pushing more young adults out of Ohio,” said Melissa Cropper, OFT President and Secretary-Treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO. “The Senate can avert the worst of these risks by taking the time to consider amendments and make this bill better.”

“For more than twenty years, Ohio families have dealt with insufficient school funding. Parents, students, and educators have been asked to do more and more with less and less. The Fair School Funding Formula was designed to fund education based on what that education actually cost. Over the past four years, we have gotten closer to the goal of a fairly funded education system. The refusal to use current costs in the formula undercuts the Fair School Funding Formula as a whole by using old data to calculate financing for current expenses.  We are confident that the people of Ohio want their schools to be funded at levels that will afford all children the opportunity to live up to their potential, and we look forward to working with Gov. DeWine and the Ohio legislature to make that happen with a fair and fully funded formula.”

DELAWARE, OHIO — A strong majority of staff at Delaware County District Library (DCDL) voted to form their union, Delaware County United Library Staff (DCULS), according to secret ballot election results released today by Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board (SERB). The results showed that 82% of valid ballots voted in favor of the union. The new union, which includes 85 librarians and library workers, is the sixth group of Ohio library workers – and the fifth in central Ohio – to successfully organize with the Ohio Federation of Teachers since 2021.

"Ohio has world class colleges and universities because Ohio has world class higher education students, faculty, and staff. We deserve legislators who will work with us to solve problems like rising tuition and keep Ohio colleges and universities competitive in our region and in the world. SB 1 doesn’t do anything like that. Instead it uses culture war politics to attack workers’ rights and turn campuses into hostile environments for people of color, immigrants, and other marginalized communities."

“HB 8 is a mess of a bill that will jeopardize student health and safety, lower the quality of the education that Ohio students receive, and dissuade people and businesses from moving to – or remaining in – Ohio.

This legislature seems to think that it's their job to micromanage what books are in a classroom, force teachers to put students in danger by outing them, and require schools to allow students to leave during the schoolday for religious instruction. Ohio parents and communities want to, and are capable of, continuing to make these decisions locally for their individual school districts. We hope that Governor DeWine will veto this bill and push back against the one-size-fits-all unfunded mandates from the statehouse.”

Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper released the following statement about SB 104:  “Every child deserves a safe and welcoming learning environment. We have been dismayed in recent years as extremist legislators have pushed for laws that target, intimidate, and harass trans and non-binary students. They do so at the expense of actually solving the real problems that students and educators face..."

CINCINNATI, CLEVELAND, TOLEDO, AND ENON, OHIO — Today, members of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Cleveland Teachers Union, Toledo Federation of Teachers, and Greenon Federation of Teachers conducted literacy instruction for select groups of parents in their respective school districts. These trainings, developed by AFT) members and adapted by Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) members, were the start of a new phase in the OFT’s ongoing work to support literacy education. 

DELAWARE, OHIO — Today, an overwhelming majority of librarians and library workers at Delaware County District Library (DCDL) called on their Director and Board of Trustees to recognize their union. 

“We love our libraries and many of us want to build long-term careers here,” said Kaleb Kramer, adult services specialist at the Liberty Branch Library. “That’s why we’re coming together to form our union so we can fight for a voice in decisions that affect our work and for improvements — like parental leave, equitable benefits for part-time workers, and wage increases — that will reduce turnover and improve workplace standards.”

“Voluntary recognition of our union allows us to immediately begin working collaboratively with our Board and administration on a fair union contract and on other shared priorities, like building support for our levy in this year’s election. Most importantly, voluntary recognition of our union is a clear statement to the community that ACPL staff, administration, and Board members are united to provide the highest quality libraries and resources to our patrons.”