[May 6, 2020] As school districts across Ohio face the prospective loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid due to the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ohio Education Association (OEA) calls on federal and state lawmakers to take urgently needed steps to provide relief so that Ohio’s students are not hurt.

“Parents and communities cannot count on being able to go back to work unless they can count on their kids going back to safe schools,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro. “It is going to be really hard to count on safe schools for our kids if we have massive cuts to education funding,” he said, adding that social distancing in classrooms and other safety measures will only be possible with adequate staffing to keep class sizes small.

“While we understand that state leaders have to make difficult choices, we have to make sure we are prioritizing education,” DiMauro said. “This is our future.”

DiMauro said the kids that are going to be most directly affected by budget cuts are the kids who are already suffering. “They’re the ones that don’t have technology access,” DiMauro said. “They’re the ones that come from communities that don’t have as many local resources to provide support to them.”

In order to make school districts whole for the remainder of the fiscal year, OEA is calling on state leaders to utilize funds from Ohio’s $2.7 billion rainy-day fund to preserve state funding that directly supports K-12 public education, the state share of instruction for public colleges and universities, and education services provided at adult and juvenile correctional institutions and County Boards of Developmental Disabilities. “As has been widely acknowledged, it is surely raining in Ohio now,” DiMauro said.

The OEA is also urging Congress to provide $175 billion in critical funding for the nation’s schools as part of the federal CARES Act for states and local communities.

“The federal government clearly has the ability to provide the resources that are needed right now,” DiMauro said. “It’s going to take those kinds of resources to make sure we don’t lose a generation of kids.”

OEA represents 122,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.

https://www.ohea.org/press-releases/2020/oea-urges-federal-and-state-lawmakers-to-provide-relief/?fbclid=IwAR36NCHxBHJ6h6SDk8_GDEefsfOyLq8-NY3wBzY4O4_oSb6f8N4RIVupbu4

https://www.facebook.com/OhioEA/videos/1628113717329395/

Education Advocate Leaders (EALs) are members! They strengthen their local associations legislative and political grassroots capacity year-round, by engaging fellow members around legislative and political campaigns.Each local can have up to three Education Advocate Leaders one to represent primary, intermediate, and secondary educators or one to represent the different classifications in a classified local, SCOPE or Higher Ed. Central OEA/NEA will provide a $100 stipend to each local Education Advocate Leader.To become an Education Advocate Leader apply online: www.centraloeanea.org/ealA list of criteria for receiving the Education Advocate Leader stipend follows.
Mandatory Criteria:

• Communicate with your local/colleagues on education issues
• Contribute to the OEA Fund for Children and Public Education
• Recruit at least 10 colleagues to receive Central ACE’s emails and send their addresses to russell@jointhefuture.org
• Attend an Education Advocate Leader training session

Strongly Recommended:

• Play an active role in local election activities
• Attend at least 1 OEA phone bank or canvass
• Like and Share Central Social Media Content

Stipends are paid in December to Education Advocate Leaders who have completed all the mandatory requirements.Education Advocate Leader training details: Three (3) training opportunities are available:
May 14, 2020 @ 5:00pm at the Simon Kenton Inn, Springfield
May 19, 2020 @ 5:00pm at the Central Office
Jun 15, 2020 @ 2:00pm at the Airport MarriottRegister for a training by logging in to your Central account, where you will be taken to a list of events, then select “Going” from the drop-down of the training session you wish to attend.Topics covered will include:

• Communication & Involvement (sign up colleagues to ACE’s list, disseminating info to your local)
• How to deliver an effective message
• 10 Reasons to belong to OEA
• Cyber lobbying, and engaging Central, OEA, NEA Social Media
• Understanding what FCPE is & is not
• Statehouse lobbying
• EAL Stipend Criteria
• Campaign 2020
• NEA Strong Public Schools

To apply to become an Education Advocate Leader apply online: www.centraloeanea.org/eal

strongpublicschools.org