By Dick Morris
10.17.2011
On Tuesday, November 8, the public employee unions in Ohio are hoping to pass a ballot measure repealing the labor reforms Governor John Kasich has passed this year. They want to kill reforms to teacher tenure, stop merit pay for teachers, eliminate school choice, stop union members from paying more for pensions and health insurance, and keep mandatory collection of union dues.
Conservatives – everyone – needs to give money to stop the unions from winning this fight. If they repeal Senate Bill 5 – Kasich’s reform legislation – it will reassert union power and block reforms all over the nation.
The unions tried to kill similar reforms in Wisconsin by recalling state legislators. But they were turned back by a special outpouring of national conservative activism. Now they are trying outright repeal in Ohio.
The Wisconsin reforms are changing the face of public education. Giving teachers the right to pay their own union dues has triggered a 50% cut in teacher union funding. Particularly important is control of health insurance for teachers. The union uses this power to make profits of 30% which fund its political action operations. The Wisconsin and Ohio laws put an end to this ripoff.
If we sustain Senate Bill 5 in Ohio, we will doom the political power of the public employee unions. They will not have the muscle to dominate legislative elections anymore and the teachers union will no longer run our public schools. (And, if they do, we will have school choice and can send our children to good private or church schools or home schooling).
American Report 