The teachers union in a suburban Columbus district has pulled out of Race to the Top, putting the district at risk of forfeiting almost a million dollars ($960,000) in RttT grant funding and many of the reforms that would come with it.?? Despite the fact that the union signed a Memorandum of Understanding last spring when Ohio applied for Race to the Top, it still must approve the district's individual RttT plan by October 22 in order for the district to stay in the grant mix and for funding to flow.
The teachers aren't opposed to the requirements of the grant or the changes it will bring about.?? Rather, they are withdrawing from RttT in protest that contract negotiations between the school board and the union have not been resolved (their contract expired June 30).?? Groveport Madison Local Education Association President Tammy Rodich told the Columbus Dispatch:
GMLEA recognizes the value in Race to the Top. Its extensive requirements and short timeline, however, mean several days out of the classroom for teacher members of the grant-writing team, as well as time at home. We regret that there is not more time to do everything, but right now we feel we can only do one thing at a time without compromising the quality of work we do in our classrooms with our students.
The only chance that Groveport will rejoin RttT, according to Rodich, is upon completion of contract negotiations. (By the way, how many teachers are actually members of the ???grant-writing team??? and will be strapped for time??? In 2009, the last year for which data are available, the district reported having more than 200 regular-education teachers.)
How is one supposed to interpret Rodich's statement other than that the union is using public grant dollars, which are intended to improve the education of the district's students, to blackmail the school board into giving in to its contract demands?
That's wrong no matter how you slice it.?? It's also not smart.
[pullquote]How is one supposed to interpret Rodich's statement other than that the union is using public grant dollars... to blackmail the school board into giving in to its contract demands?[/pullquote]
Voter approval of additional school funding is notoriously hard to come by in Ohio.?? While Groveport's voters approved an operating levy last year, they've rejected multiple facilities funding plans in the past decade.?? The district has a $114 million bond issue on the ballot next month to pay for eight new school buildings, a high school auditorium, and athletic facilities to replace Groveport's aging and overcrowded facilities.?? Will voters agree to pay hundreds of dollars more each year in property taxes when teachers can't agree to sacrifice a few extra hours of work to secure nearly a million dollars in funding for the district?
- Emmy Partin
