Public Education Matters

Intro - Various members and students speaking 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Scott DiMauro 0:15
This is Public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:26
Welcome back to Public Education Matters. I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I am so privileged to work on the communications team for the Ohio Education Association to help tell the stories of the educators who use their united voice every day to make our union strong. We haven't always had that kind of collective power for public employees here in Ohio. Earlier this season on the podcast, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Ohio's collective bargaining law taking effect, but that's just one part of the story, which is still being written by OEA members today as they continue to work for the conditions they need to succeed and best serve Ohio students. OEA-Retired member Marti Franks joins us for this episode to share her memories about another chapter in that story in the mid 1980s when she was working in Twinsburg schools and was part of an OEA lawsuit to have tutors - what we'd probably call instructional coaches today - paid as the professionals they were. We'll get to that. Honestly, though, Marti's stories about the past and her perspective about the present and the future for educators and unions are all so valuable... well, I picked her brain on a lot of topics for this episode. Take a listen.

Marti Franks, thank you so much for sitting down with us to share your stories with us. We want to talk about, of course, your recollections of the OEA lawsuit to make sure that tutors got paid fairly. But your stories really don't start there. Your stories start in Michigan, where you tell me that you were part of the first and only Catholic school teachers union in that state's history. I love a good story. What can you tell me about how that happened?

Marti Franks 2:26
Well, I can tell you how it began. And, of course, I'm glad you said recollections, because somebody might jump in and say, well, wait a minute, you know - And which is fine, but as far as I know when, when that school closed, as it did, as so many Catholic schools did, many years after I left, they were still the only Catholic school teachers union in Michigan. And we formed the union at the very beginning of the school. It was a brand new school, and we were a brand new staff, and they we only had the first two grades because we were phasing in. So we was everything was experimental. And the public school was threatening a strike. And so the principal told us that if we would sign up contracts which weren't really contracts, they would pay agreements - that had no resemblance to a contract. But we didn't know that - that that they would, he would then when the school settled, the public school settled, we would get whatever raise they got, within $100. Well, they settled, and we didn't get any money. So when we went back to Father and said, so, so where's the money? And he said, Oh, you're gonna have to talk to the school board. So we went to talk to the school board, and they said, 'well, did you get in writing? I guess you need a union.' And of course, we formed a union. And through a lot of mistakes, trial and error, we ended up being certified with both the National Labor Relations Board and the Michigan Labor Relations Board. So when later on, our union was challenged, when NLRB pulled out of those kinds of agreements, we were okay because we had Michigan. So we managed to survive all of those years. And the only thing that took the union with down finally was the school closed. And it had been in problems for a long time, and I, when I started the first four years group, we had 1000 students. When they closed it, they had under 100. So it was, it was a sad story. But anyway, so that was my beginning of my work with teacher unions, and I never looked back.

Katie Olmsted 4:35
And I find it interesting what you're saying about how the pay agreement really wasn't a contract. In Ohio, pre-1984 when the state's collective bargaining agreement took effect, there really wasn't a lot, even for the "union contracts," I say with air quotes, even though it's an audio only podcast, because there was not legally protected collective bargaining in Ohio at that time, OEA members fought to get that, and they worked tirelessly to get that. But then that doesn't actually solve all of the problems in our state, either, and that's where Marti, you come back into the story. Mid '80s, I think you're saying 1985, 1986 you were part of a really important lawsuit with OEA. What can you tell me about that?

Marti Franks 5:25
Well, I was desperately trying to get a teaching job, and I ended up with a tutor job in Twinsburg, and I loved Twinsburg, and I ended up staying there, but at that time, you had to have a you had to be certified teacher. You had to go to all you had to you follow the teacher contract in terms of length of day. You had to you do a planning you had a planning time which they didn't give you the plan they gave. They made it a duty. And then we had to go to all the staff meetings. But we were paying, we were getting paid classified money. And I, when I got there, I was so happy to have a job, you know, I was ready to do anything. And but a woman who had been, who had been, had my job before that for five years, they filed a suit on her behalf, and in that settlement, she was given, she was placed five steps up, and she got back pay. And I got a step up, because that's all I had put in and back pay. So that was my first experience with the union. And I called when I when I realized I was doing this, I called the man who was a new LRC this, this was a new LRC, and said, Do you remember all of this, Bill? And so we were both old folks, know, so we had to dig around a little bit. But yep, that's that's what happened. And then from that time forward, now, and I think they still do at least in Twinsburg but I don't know, be for sure, that they still hire like these, they call them coaches, which is basically what a tutor, what a tutor was, and they still pay them on the teacher salary schedule, and they advance on the scale. And it made a big, big difference for a lot of people. And even though, you know people, and people talk about the low pay in public schools, the low pay that the teachers get, but when I moved from the Catholic school to the public school, and I had 17 years in the Catholic school, I was on step 17. When they put me on step one, it was more money than I'd been making, so already I knew that this was where I wanted to be.

Katie Olmsted 7:41
What does that say to you about the power of unions and the value of unions in people's lives?

Marti Franks 7:47
You know, it's it's interesting, because I have been a union rat ever since I could be a union rat. And it goes back to my father, and that's where I can, and I can give you an it's anecdotal, but it's true: My father was a sports editor for the Detroit Times, and it was his dream job. It was the only, it was a job he wanted all of his life. But when they offered him the job, it was administrative, and he was a he was in the newspaper industrial credit union, and he said the only way he would take that is if he could stay in the union. Well, they were so desperate to get him that they said, okay. And then he said, and and another thing, I won't fire anybody. And so they said, okay. Well, then fast forward to many years when the times was sold. It was the one of the few Hearst papers that was making money. So they sold it right out from under him. We got a telegram at two o'clock in the morning shutting down the paper. It was the most heartbreaking day of his life. And yet, all of the other people on administrative staff got two weeks severance; because dad was in the union, he got a year. And he and he would, and he said to me time and time again, because, as you know, fathers like to repeat wisdom as often as they can, but he always said, wherever you go, look for the union. And I never forgot that. And I and I do, I support, I just do it. Just it's in my DNA, and it's in my religious tenets. And it's interesting to me, because of my, my, my was always in Catholic schools, and unions seem to be where, that's where unions lived. And I worked with nuns and priests, but particularly the nuns. They are the best union people ever. And when we did go on strike for one day, a Catholic school on strike with nuns on the picket line, well, we got a we got a picture in Newsweek magazine. This little bitty school, because they saw nuns on the picket line. But the whole idea of it, we're all in this together, one for all our brothers and sisters, and since that time, I've been active with them, AFL-CIO, for a lot of reasons. And it's just, it just makes perfect sense. It just makes perfect sense. And so and not just for teachers, but for everybody, but particularly for teachers, because teachers are so vulnerable. And even more so than I when I was working. I just, I mean, I keep thinking I wouldn't have lasted a week. I don't know what I would have been able to teach. It just and but I always feel that there was, there's work for me to do an OEA, because these are the battles that were what that we're facing all the time, and that's what protects students as much as teachers. It's just critical to education. And even to those Parochial schools and Catholic schools and Lutheran schools and all those schools, those are wonderful schools. They don't understand what will happen to them if the public school system goes away. The public school system - the Catholic school system, was the strongest when the public school system is strong, because then you have a symbiotic relationship. And I remember when I was teaching, none of the teachers who were teaching in my school could afford to send their school kids to that school. When I got to Twinsburg, I discovered, much to my surprise, because I led the very cloistered life, that more there were more teachers who were Catholic teaching at Twinsburg High School then we're teaching at Aquinas High School with me. And so it was. It was quite eye opening. So, unions.

Katie Olmsted 11:51
As a side note on this one, my mom grew up in Catholic schools, thought she had to be a nun to be a teacher, so that's why she decided she wanted to be a nun. And thank goodness she changed her mind. I say, having sitting here today. But she, you know, she's an OEA-Retired member herself. And I see from my own family and growing up with an OEA member as a parent, the value of the union and what that has done for our lives. And that again, for you, Marti, started way back - I shouldn't say way back. That's not nice -

Marti Franks 12:27
1967, that's way back. I'll give you the way back on that.

Katie Olmsted 12:31
So slightly less way back then in Ohio, it started with that lawsuit for you to get you paid as the professional you are. When you were first approached by that LRC you were talking with, how did that conversation go to your recollection?

Marti Franks 12:49
Oh, it's interesting. And as a matter of fact, when I did call the LRC, it turned out he was just the LRC in training, and down there was another LRC there that I had forgotten about. But I don't remember so much about it, but except that I was like a kid in a candy store. I thought, whoa, I'm gonna because I really didn't. It was Sally's lawsuit. I was just coat tailed. And it just, it was just amazing to me, that and the other part, and then I went on, of course, big surprise to be the president of Twinsburg's union for a long, long time. But the reliance on the LRC and when the LRCs came in and took care of it, they took care of it. And so I just had to be there and answer the questions that had to be asked. But they navigated all of those sites. And back in those days, there what the teachers did not have that many rights and contracts were pretty short. And there were all kinds of issues that we had to - they were breaking a lot of brand new ground and but the the one thing about OEA was we had those LRCs, and I relied on my LRC all the time. And I remember the one year that we they were going on strike. It was way back when Marilyn Cross was president, and I'm telling you, the RAs and everything else, all of us were going give us our LRCs. We need our LRCs, because to us, OEA was the LRC. And so that so that was my sense of, I was never afraid to go into battle, because I never felt that I was alone. I always called, checked in, is this, can I do this? And if they said I could do it, I did it. And you and that was so important, because, you know, we're teachers, we're not negotiators, we're, you know, we're doing some pretty hefty level lifting for the work that we do within the district. But if we didn't have that LRC at the other end of the line and so that they could keep us from it's, you know, it's really easy to make some, you know, some pretty bad mistakes, and we have, we're talking about teachers careers. So when a teacher comes to me, and teachers, of course, they're teachers, so they're not real sophisticated always when they come with their issues. And we have to be very, very careful to make sure we don't lead them down a garden path, that we don't tell them we can do what we can't do. And I think, and I think that's still the case. I know it's still the case. So I do feel that OEA, all of us, feel less empowered than we used to, because there are so many people who are out to sink public schools, or worse, make them into a cash cow.

Katie Olmsted 15:42
So let's talk about that. I mean, you, we're obviously talking about the history here, but you are very involved in the present, and you are very on top of the issues in our state. Keeping in mind that this episode is is going to be dropping in the new year, and I don't I'm talking to you at the end of September, so I don't have a crystal ball about what's going to happen in the months between then, but what is your sense of of where things stand?

Marti Franks 16:12
It's interesting because it's - I've been out of the classroom for a long time, and you don't realize how fast that time goes, but I still, I attend the the, you know, our regular meetings. I keep, I keep in touch with with the field and with my friends that are still teachers. But I think it's that bridge too far. I think that people are beginning to realize young teachers, particularly, they come into after and they are so so well educated. These young teachers are just amazing, but they come in with a sense of their own value, and so they are more apt to get involved right away, because they want agency over their lives. They want to make decisions. They want people - they want the decisions being made by people who were in the classroom. Because there was nothing less welcome than - I mean, the things that people would tell me I needed to do as a teacher would just boggle my mind. And I'm thinking, you know, if I did that, I could do that, I could do that, but that'd be my last day in the classroom, you know, and rightfully so. And you know, people just have such a simplistic view of what goes out in the classroom. And of course, they do. I have a simplistic view of what the doctor does. But then I don't presume to tell the doctor how to do his job. And so I think that young people are doing more of that. I like to see OEA reaching out more to the young teachers, and it's hard because they're so busy, but to let them know that there is a there's a place for them here, not just to belong and to be protected, but to belong and be in charge. And I see that younger and younger folks coming up to the executive positions, which is great. Some of the some of the problem is with all people. Some of us have to get out of the way. I have no illusions that I should be in a leadership position. I had that. I took my turn. There are younger people to do that. But there's a lot I can do. There is a lot I can do, as long as I understand what needs to be done. And I think so I love, I never, never spent a minute not being active in OEA. I just couldn't, you know, just was, it's been so important to me.

Katie Olmsted 18:49
Well, Marti, thank you for all that you have done and all that you do continue to do as a member of OEA and for educators across the state.

Marti Franks 19:00
Welcome. You know, it's the gift of life, that when you have a life that matters, that's the biggest gift that you can have. It just it is because every single day, I don't question, I don't question my role in the world. I know I'm doing good work, and I know it's important, and that's a gift. Not everybody has that.

Katie Olmsted 19:22
Our thanks again to Marti Franks for sharing her perspective for this podcast. We are always looking for guests to come on and share their own thoughts. If you have a topic you'd like to explore here, please send me an email at educationmatters@ohea.org. We'll see you back here again next week for another insightful conversation about the big issue shaping the public education landscape in our state, because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai