* Here is a real shocker! According to the DaytonBusinessJournal, the Dayton Chamber of Commerce is supporting Gov. Kasich's
* Kasich and the Ohio Republicans have decided to strip Ohio's public employees of job protections offered in their new plan to wipe out collective bargaining. One idea pushed by Ohio Sen. Shannon Jones (Republican) is to eliminate pay scales based on years of service. Instead, public employees would get merit pay. If you've ever worked in an office or with other people, you are aware of office politics. If you're boss doesn't like you, harasses you, or disagrees with your point of view, you might never get a raise.
Kasich and the Ohio GOP are pushing merit pay for teachers and all public employees. There are many problems with that, especially for teachers.
Let us imagine that teacher "A" is a good teacher, young, attractive, has 5 years of experience, only a Bachelor's degree, and is friendly with the principal. Because of his/her friendship with the principal, teacher "A" tends to get all the smart, well-behaved children in his/her classroom, and they all perform extremely well on state tests.
Teacher "B" is a good teacher, has 20 years experience, a Masters +, but he/she has a respectful, working relationship with the principal. Teacher "B" always seems to have students with behavior problems, learning problems, and poor performing students placed in his/her classroom. Even though teacher "B" has improved the reading and math levels of her students, has good feedback from parents, has minimized negative classroom behavior, his/her students have shown average improvements on state tests.
According to Kasich and the GOPers, teacher "A" should be rewarded more even than teacher "B" because "A's" students did exceptionally better than those in the other classroom. Kasich and the Republicans want to change the way teachers, firefighters, police, nurses, and other public employees are paid, receive benefits, and have job protections. They even want to take away teacher sick days. (Obviously, Kasich and the Republicans have never been exposed to 25+ running noses/coughs on a daily basis.)
Kasich and his Republican cronies are trying to go after public employees as a means of punishing them for supporting Democrats. With an approval rating of 30%, Kasich is jeopardizing keeping that approval rating so high. Every teacher, firefighter, nurse, police officer, service employee, and public employee has families, relatives, and friends who will not approve of the blame game Kasich and his white Republicans are waging.