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Monday, September 19, 2011

A Teacher’s Eye-View of Ohio’s Job-Killing Law | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

A Teacher’s Eye-View of Ohio’s Job-Killing Law | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG:

A Teacher’s Eye-View of Ohio’s Job-Killing Law

Nicole Gentile, a teacher with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and an AFT member, wrote this message to Ohio working families about the job-killing ramifications of S.B. 5, a new law that attacks the collective bargaining rights of workers seeking to maintain a middle-class living. Together with thousands of Ohioans, Gentile is working to repeal the law in the November elections.

I just got home from Marion-Sterling Elementary School. I might not be there much longer.

After nine years teaching in Cleveland public schools, I along with 350 others, received a layoff notice due to cuts by Gov. John Kasich to public education funding.

Instead of investing in our children by funding schools like Marion-Sterling, Kasich chose to cut our budgets first. That’s not all—he and his political allies passed Senate Bill 5, now Issue 2, a bill that bans teachers from negotiating with school districts around basic issues