Public Education Matters

Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Jeff Wensing 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 Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the nearly 120,000 public school educators who are part of the OEA across the state. Public school educators across Ohio are facing a really tough time right now. A lot of school districts are scrambling to figure out what to do after the Ohio legislature passed a state budget over the summer that short changes Ohio's public schools by $2.75 billion over these next two years. Our lawmakers broke their promise to finish fully and fairly funding the fair school funding plan in this biennium, and that's left a lot of Ohio educators feeling really downtrodden and disappointed. The whole thing left Jessica Harper feeling mad, the Jackson City Schools teacher was not alone, and she wanted to do something with her fellow educators and community members to funnel that anger into action, as she tells us in this episode of the podcast, what started as a small grassroots protest led to a big community rally, and that was just the beginning.

Jessica Harper 1:46
Hi, I'm Jessica Harper, and I am the government and psychology teacher at Jackson High School in Jackson City schools, and I am also the president of the Jackson City Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 1:59
And you are in your 10th year as an educator. Is that correct?

Jessica Harper 2:05
Yes, I am.

Katie Olmsted 2:06
Okay. Jessica, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us and to help share the story of you and your members and your community as a government and psychology teacher, what did you think when you saw the state budget situation unfolding?

Jessica Harper 2:28
Well, it made me nervous for one, I was also extremely upset and disappointed, especially with with my district senator. You know, he just came right out and said, No, I am not supporting public education. I want to see more funds going into, you know, into private schools and the voucher program and, and, yeah, so it was, it was pretty disheartening to hear that, and, you know, and then to think, you know, I was still there was a little bit of optimism there in the whole process, that maybe somewhere along the line, someone would understand just how important it is to fully fund public education. But, you know, in the end, we didn't have that. And from a government teachers standpoint, it was, you know, I think I had a little more of an idea. I understood things a little bit better, because, you know, that's what I teach. And I know the process and and I know how, you know how tricky it can be to to establish a budget and have it, have it, you know, signed into law. So, yeah, it was, it was just one of those things that when everyone else was going, Oh, this won't be bad. I'm sitting there going, oh, yeah, yeah, you know, yes, it will. Yes, it will.

Katie Olmsted 3:49
Well, that was the thing, you know, it was always supposed to be a good time, right? They made a promise when they signed the fair school funding plan into law in the state budget two budget cycles ago, they made a promise that they would continue to implement it. It was always meant to be phased in over six years. But as as we saw, they were really just trying to fiddle with the formula and fiddle with the numbers to make it so that they could pay what they wanted to pay for public schools and put that money towards vouchers and other pet projects. Yes, two budget cycles ago when the fair school funding plan was signed into law, what did you think then about where we would be and what that meant for your students?

Jessica Harper 4:32
Well, at that point, yeah, I was, you know, it was a pretty, you know, good. It was a good feeling to know that they had a plan in place to fully fund public education over, you know, over three budgets and, and our district was supposed to get our big payout this year for the cycle and, and so we were, you know, our district was like, this is going to be great, you know. We are going to be able to continue with all of our programs, and, you know, we're going to be able to give our, you know, our, all of our educators, a raise that they deserve. And everybody was just so looking forward to that happening, and when we saw that, it wasn't going to, you know, we had to shift gears within our district, and, you know, in preparing for, you know, knowing that we were not going to be fully funded this year and and what we may have to look at at doing to continue to be able to keep our doors open, basically.

Katie Olmsted 5:40
So what does that look like without the fully, fairly funded public schools from the state that you were promised? What does that look like for your students this year?

Jessica Harper 5:50
This year, we don't see too much of a change. There are some small changes right now. Well, when the budget was signed, we lost almost $1.5 million over the next two years, rather than gaining, I think was for over $4 million. So we had my superintendent, and I have been working very closely with the with the funding issue, and so we've, you know, we've had discussions about this this year. He said that, you know, we're okay. We didn't make any cuts to staff that were already here. Now, what we did have to do was we left some, I think we left four teaching positions open this year, because that was just that was an easy way to, you know, to cut that money, we've also had to reduce the number of extended days for some of our for some of our educators, like our guidance counselors, librarians and some of our music department educators. So that's where we've seen the biggest change. Right now the kids, the kids haven't noticed much of anything, right you know yet, but after this year there, there will be noticeable changes for everyone.

Katie Olmsted 7:20
And even now, if you leave four teaching positions open, the workload of those four educators is now going to be in with other classes, larger class sizes, less planning time to meet students, individual needs. There's small things right now, but that really adds up to a difference in the student experience.

Jessica Harper 7:40
Oh, definitely. And let's see, I think two of those, no, three of those positions, I think, were at the elementary level. And now I take that back, two were at the elementary level, one was at the middle school, and one was at the high school level. And, and so, yes, we have seen larger class sizes with the elementary classes, the middle school class was a technology class that was absorbed by our media specialist in the library, which again, does give her a heavier workload. And then at the high school, we lost one of our social studies teachers. He moved on to an administrative position in the district. And so what we did there was just divide up his classes among the remaining four of us in the Social Studies Department. And so this is my first year teaching psychology, and you know, we've, we've had two additional teachers in the building also pick up social studies classes, who, let's see, one is teaching science as well, and then the other one is teaching English. So they do, they are qualified to teach social studies, but that's something that they have not done. So yeah, definitely, we as a staff are seeing changes. However, I you know the students probably don't notice much.

Katie Olmsted 9:02
Yeah, I want to go back to what you were saying as you were watching this, this whole thing unfold. You said it was disheartening to see. And a lot of people, when they're feeling disheartened, sit back and go, Oh, well, that's that. It's going to be terrible. But here we go. But that's not, that's not what your reaction was. What did you do?

Jessica Harper 9:23
I got mad. Good. A lot of times when, when I feel that something happening is unfair, not just not to myself, but to those around me, that it affects a large group of people that I care about and I care about my students. I care about the educators in our district. I couldn't just sit back and let it go because I saw that. You know, if we did that, because, like you said, that is so easy to just say, Oh, it is what it is, and be done with it. But. When, you know, when I saw basically the writing on the wall, when, when the governor released his version of the budget, I thought, this is not going to go well for us. I, you know, we started talking at that point, you know, hey, what can we do? You know, nobody really had any ideas at the time. It was, well, let's just wait and see. Let's just wait and see. Uh, what kind of spark this whole idea for a rally was the fact that Dave Taylor, who is our US Representative in our district, he came to Jackson to do a little meet and greet that was private, but it just so happened that one of our board members and our superintendent were invited, and so we kind of found out about this little meeting, and a few of us showed up, along with some community members who were also retired educators from the district. And you know, we wanted to greet representative Taylor with a few signs, and he walked out the back door instead. So yes. So we didn't end there, though, you know, we were there. We had our signs. We wanted to let the public know what was going on, so we crossed the streets and in front of the the courthouse, and just had our little, you know, our little protest right there. And the the local newspaper came by, did an interview, and, you know, we got that written up in the paper. And that's basically where it started. Was, was, I would say, very grassroots, you know, just, just a little thing like that. And then from there, I worked with one of the retired educators. And you know, he's also very passionate about about, you know, not only school funding, but just, you know, fairness and equality for all and, and so, you know, we, we started bouncing ideas off of each other, and, you know, and we came up with, with the rally that, that we, that we organized for public education funding.

Katie Olmsted 12:14
So tell me about the rally.

Jessica Harper 12:18
Well, we held it in in April. Uh, we had to move it once, because, oh my gosh, the weekend that we were supposed to have it, we had a terrible downpour, and it just so happened at the park that we were having it in floods, so we decided to move it. And, you know, we all the work up up to that point, you know, getting it out there. We use social media a lot, you know, to, you know, to get that message out there about the rally and to come out and support. And then, you know, of course, I also worked within and, you know, talked with the educators in my district. And then I also being that I am on our, our district's executive committee. I also reached out to the union presidents, you know, in the district surrounding us, got them involved. And because, you know, not only was, you know, our district being affected, their districts were being affected as well, and and so we saw that, you know, the importance of bringing them in and and letting them, you know, show the public to that it's, it's a it's a larger problem than just with our district. And so getting the word out, you know, through social media and through the educators, because, of course, you know, they would spread the word as well. I felt that we would have a good turnout, but I wasn't again, I wasn't quite sure. And then when we had to change the date, I thought, Oh, this is not going to be good because, you know, it's so short notice. And changing it, you know, I hope that, you know, people still show up. And so the day of the the rally, I just happened to be I'm an advisor for the youth leadership association and the youth in government group here at the high school as well. And I had been in Columbus at the State House for the past two days before that, with my kids. So I had to leave there early on Saturday, and came down for the rally. And when I, when I got there, I got there a little early, and I'm looking around like, Oh no, I don't see anybody. You know, there were a few people there and that, you know, I had worked with and getting it organized, but that was really about it. I was like, oh no. And then the gentleman from the local newspaper showed up, and oh, where is everybody? I'm like, well, they'll be here, they'll be here. And they came. They really, oh my gosh. Yes, I mean, people just started showing up. You know, my fellow educators from from my district showed up. The the union president from Oak Hill local showed up. Then the local president from Wellston showed up. And, I mean, and then their teachers started showing up. Community members started showing up. And, you know, and then I had, I had friends coming that I had not seen in years, that that came to, not only, you know, support, you know what I was doing, but to show their support for funding public education as well. And I will, I will admit that I was, I was overcome with emotion when I was standing on the line on Main Street, and, you know, looking at the the number of people I had, because I was at, I was at the end of the line, and to look down and see all of those people who were there to support fully funding public education and and I met, I got a little teary eyed, because it was it was good to know that I was not really like the only one in a small group that cared, And to see our community come out and support was, was something that, you know, it's, it made me realize just how important they see our public education, you know, in our area, I don't know. I mean, it was, it's something that I will never forget. It was, it's a feeling I will never forget. Not only was it a feeling of accomplishment, but again, it was just a feeling that, you know, yes, people care and and, yeah, that was probably the best part.

Katie Olmsted 16:56
People most certainly do care. The community cares, parents and educators. Everyone cares about this public education funding issue, except for our politicians. Sometimes, yes, not going to lie, and again, that's that's disheartening. It's so disheartening to see this, this community event, to see the united voice of so many people coming together and our politicians basically sticking their fingers in their ears, going, I can't hear you.

Jessica Harper 17:22
Yes, and we did. I did invite our representatives, you know, our district senator and representative to the to the rally. Nobody showed up. You know, I'm shocked by that information. Show, I know, but you know, I did, I, you know, along with the rally, you know, I've also been encouraging everyone to contact, you know, contact our state senator, and because he's, he's the, you know, he's the one that needs it most, and I've just continued to contact him, and so has everybody else. So, yeah, we're not letting up.

Katie Olmsted 18:02
And that's, that was what I was going to say. There is, it is disheartening to have them not listen to us. But I had a feeling that that was not the end for you. You I, I'm going to guess you got mad and you took action.

Jessica Harper 18:16
Yes, yes, I did. And prior to the the rally, I also went to the OEA Lobby Day in March. And you know, there was, there was a group of four of us from my district who went. And so we met with Jason Stevens. And you know, very, you know, very nice. And you know, assured us that he was a firm supporter of public education, which was good to hear. And then we also were able to meet with Senator Shane Wilkin, and that was a larger group, because they combined our group with, I think, another school district, and the difference in in the way each one kind of delivered their their message, I guess, or their stance was, was definitely noticeable that Senator Wilkin was not, was not for funding, fully funding public education. And the discussion to get a bit heated at that point, we ended on a good note, and and I told him, I said, Well, I hope to speak with you again at the next lobby day. So the next lobby day, of course, came around in May, and I contacted his office, and never heard anything. And so I thought, that's okay, you know, I'll stop in and drop something off it, you know, at his office with his assistant. And I got there and it was locked I'm like, oh, wow. You know, he is really just, he does not want to want to talk about this, you know, he does not want to acknowledge the fact that he is, he is a major part of this problem in fully funding public education. He is a he's a roadblock, you know, so again, that that fueled my fire a little bit more to continue to to contact him.

Katie Olmsted 20:06
You're a government teacher. Is that how government is supposed to work? Politicians literally locking their doors so that they that their constituents cannot help them understand the issues?

Jessica Harper 20:18
No, that's that is the complete opposite of how it is supposed to work. And every every email that I send to any of my representatives, rather whether it's state or federal, I always mention you are representing me. You work for me. I don't work for you. You need to listen to your constituents. Because I think they need to be reminded now, are they paying attention to that? I don't think so at the moment. And I think that's where we need to look ahead, you know, to future elections and and show show those politicians, show the politicians who are not listening to their constituents, just what we think about that. And you know, if enough of us, you know, get mad and and follow through with that, I definitely believe there, there's a huge change coming and with that, you know, more support for public education.

Katie Olmsted 21:20
Jessica, you are in your 10th year as an educator, and I know you were involved in Ohio's New Educators or ONE when you were in the first few years of your teaching career. Now, as you're entering that mid career phase, are you planning to get involved in any of that mid career cadre work?

Jessica Harper 21:39
I'm in that middle area, right, you know, the end of of, you know, new teacher and getting into my mid career. So I'm kind of hanging on until, you know, I can get into that mid career area. And, you know, I really hope to work closely with that group as well, you know, because I think it's definitely an area that I would say has been a little more ignored than, you know, than the new teachers, and then even you know, our older teachers, who are approaching retirement, you know, we make sure that they are taken care of and and they are prepared, and that in the new teachers have their supports as well. But when you get to that middle level, we're all sitting here like, well, you know, it would be nice to, you know, to have a little help in some areas and know that we have that support. So I'm looking forward to that.

Katie Olmsted 22:35
At the end of the day, it's about making sure that every educator has a voice in their career, in the policies coming down from the State House, in in the funding that allows us to do our jobs for our students. And I'm so grateful for all the work you've been doing already and over the course of your career to make sure that the educators around you have a voice. Jessica Harper, thank you so much.

Jessica Harper 23:00
Well, thank you for inviting me. I have enjoyed this thoroughly.

Katie Olmsted 23:07
Our thanks again to Jessica Harper for sharing her perspective on this episode of the podcast. Our Ohio lawmakers need to hear your perspective too. They need to hear from educators about how their decisions on school funding and other public education issues are impacting your students. You can find a link to OEA's legislative watch page to make sure you're up to date on everything going on in the State House. In the show notes for this episode. On the next episode of public education matters, we're sitting down with the president of a local association in Lawrence County to talk about what he wants lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to know about the challenges facing rural schools like his. Make sure you subscribe to Public Education Matters wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss that conversation or any other conversation this season, because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai