Public Education Matters

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

Jeff Wensing 0:14
This is Public Education Matters brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:26
Thanks for joining us for this episode of 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 OEA represents. You've heard me say it here many times before, educators have powerful voices, and when educators use their voices to talk to their legislators about public education issues, they can do incredible things to help shape the public education landscape in our state. Just a couple weeks ago, we had some OEA members head to the State House for a coalition lobby day with a few of our partners, like Honesty for Ohio Education. But every year, OEA has its own big lobby days for members so educators can sit down with their lawmakers and educate them about what's really happening in their classrooms and what their students really need to succeed. I know that can sound a little intimidating if you've never done it before, but as our guest on this episode says, you should just try it. The President of the Trotwood-Madison Education Association went to his very first lobby day just last year, and as he tells us here, it turned out to be something he really loves. Take a listen.

David Graham 1:41
Hi, I'm David Graham. I teach eighth grade science at Trotwood-Madison Middle School, and I also serve as the union president there. And. And I'm here to talk about lobby days.

Katie Olmsted 2:01
And you're here to talk about lobby days. That's exactly right. What has been your lobby day experience?

David Graham 2:07
I've been to two different OEA lobby days, one that was last spring and one that was in the fall. I kind of didn't know what to expect when I first showed up in I think it was like May last year, and so when I showed up last year, it was just me, and I noticed that Dan, our current VP, he had brought a whole plethora of people with him, so I guess he was more confident in what was happening than I was, but I guess he's had more experience in that arena than me. But I was just curious to find out what lobby days were like. How can the local union help support the efforts of OEA in coming to those so there's a there was a lot of information given, there was a lot of help in terms of setting up meetings. And OEA helped out with, you know, provide parking, help me know where to be. Here's your representatives or senators that you might want to contact. Here's their contact information. They were open to helping me schedule meetings if I needed to help scheduling them, and they were kind of take care of lunch for me. So it really made me feel welcomed and like really wanted me to be there, so making it so easy to come up and all the information I need so I can be at ease about it. The room numbers for where people's offices were helped me find the buildings. It was all super easy. And so after a good experience with the spring one, I decided when the fall one happened with OEA-R to go and be able to touch base with those centers during that time, even though I'm not part of retired we need to look out for our retired people, even when we're not there yet, we all look out for each other. So I brought a social studies teacher with me that time, and his experience was interesting because he's also a part of the Ohio Social Studies Teachers Association, and so he does a lot of work there. So they were actually presenting in one of the caucuses that day when we did our OEA Lobby Day in the fall. And so we were able to sit in on that caucus, which was pretty extensive when they were talking about that social studies bill that happened back in the fall. So he was very intrigued by watching the whole process and everything, and he appreciated how OEA also took care of us, the information they had, the the team that they have that works on those things is very informed, answers any question very quickly, and has all types of helpful insights whenever you don't know what maybe to do.

Katie Olmsted 4:34
Were you nervous that you wouldn't know what to do? I mean, it does feel like maybe taking a leap, if you've never done one before.

David Graham 4:42
I was a little bit like just bewildered. I didn't know what to think. So I didn't really even know what to be nervous about. I didn't really know, wasn't presenting in front of the whole house like we've seen our OEA presidents do in the past, but I was going to be talking with a state senator or and a state representative. I didn't know what that was like, but it did help that one of the state representatives is a friend of mine. Dates back to my college days, so I saw him while I was up there the first time, too. And so it's just different when you know one of them already, and they've known you when you were young, college, and then the other senator, Senator Blackshear. I hadn't met him before, so I didn't really know how to articulate stuff in a way that would help them and benefit them. So I think I stumbled a little bit in the spring, but did a little bit better in the fall with that just because of doing it before.

Katie Olmsted 5:35
I have to believe that even if you stumbled a little bit, it was still such a valuable conversation, because, as you mentioned, you actually know one of them. It's a personal connection to have our lawmakers hear from not only the people who live in their districts, the people who actually directly are impacted by what they're doing in their own neighborhoods, but also the people who are in the classrooms every day telling them the realities of our public school system. I mean, that is exceptionally powerful stuff. Did you get that feeling when you were talking to your lawmakers that they were truly listening on that personal level?

David Graham 6:15
I felt that way when I was talking with Senator Blackshear, and he's been the one that's been easiest for me to get a hold of, that's a part of my region. I've struggled a little bit with the representative, but I did notice that he had a couple different questions to ask me, just so this is what they're telling us with this bill. And you know, so what are your what are you experiencing? Or how's that play out for you? But when I went in the spring, there wasn't a whole lot that was on the Senate's plate. There was more on the House's plate at that time. So it was more of just starting that relationship with him and then with the House. There was a couple different things going on. So I felt like it was helpful to help articulate some things, because I felt like at least one of the representatives that I talked to, they were given some misinformation about, like, what is what does it look like for the different types of schools and the students that they have come into their buildings? Some of them didn't know that public schools, they take every kid that comes in the door, especially those that live in their district and those with special needs, they've got to see those kids educational needs, whereas charters and private, that's not the same story. And so when they were given the data that it's it's cheaper to educate a kid over here, it's cheaper because they don't have to provide all those additional services. And some of them were not given that information. So I felt like it was helpful for them to be able to get the full scope of the picture, because just trusting wherever they get their information to to be full doesn't always happen. I did find it interesting that I just met Blackshear one time, and he came out to our district to meet with our superintendent and our treasurer back in August, and we were also having a new teacher orientation at that time, and I saw him kind of walk out, and right after he introduced our superintendent, introduced everybody, it was going to be time for the union to do their talk, and do you want to sign up and those things. And it was really interesting when Senator Blackshear came out, he said hi to me, even by name. And my superintendent was like, oh, you know, Mr. Graham, oh, yes, we've talked a couple times. And so I think that also helped with my superintendent seeing that we're supporting public education, we're supporting our students. We're not just here to get on management about contractual obligations and all those things. We do really want to see our students benefit, and we want to take those steps that are necessary to help them out, too.

Katie Olmsted 8:46
Do you find sometimes that's a challenging thing to get people to understand? In your community? I know there's a there's a misconception that you know the unions only supporting the Democrats, and the union only cares about whatever, which is obviously not true. But do you think that's the misconception in your community as well?

David Graham 9:10
I feel like anytime you look for a misconception, you're gonna find it. There's always people taking stuff and twisting it. There's people that assume I know certain things when I don't know everything I know. They assume I knew stuff before they knew. And I'm like, No, I didn't I knew after you told me. So I try to focus on making sure the right information is getting out there. If things are getting twisted and stuff like that, and they want to approach me we correct it and we try to address it. But we also do have our own social media channels for our union, and we put stuff out there of what we're doing, and those types of things. When someone wins an award from like WOEA for Teacher of the Year, we posted about that. And so there's a lot of different things we do on there. And then when certain work is happening, like when I went up for the Lobby Day. Least both of those times, I articulated why we were up there and who we were talking to. So I don't try to focus on really seeing what people's misunderstanding is. I'm just going to keep giving you the message of what we actually are doing, and if something else is getting out there, just talk to me.

Katie Olmsted 10:19
Well and again, it's about having those conversations and setting the record straight, as you did with the lawmakers who had the wrong information. Do you wish more members took part in these lobby days?

David Graham 10:32
I think everybody needs to see validity in it. I thought it was really good when I went to NEA's New President training.

Katie Olmsted 10:40
Shameless chatted about that on another podcast episode, yeah.

David Graham 10:45
And it was interesting when I went out there, because I'm still in my second year as president. I'm going to rerun here in a couple months. But there was just different facets to the union that should be things of interest. Of course, we want to look out for the contractor, protect the contract, and we want to make sure that we're helping to benefit our students and their learning and attracting good teachers. But also we have fun as part of the union as well, but part of that is also legislative interactions and and so NEA did a good job of pointing that out to me, and so when I was trying to process through, what does that look like for TMEA to get involved more legislatively, and then OEA came out with the lobby days, I was like, Okay, let's try that. Let's see what's going on there. Because I didn't really know. And that was, you know, last year I was still first-year president, there was a lot I was learning about OEA, because before that, I was a building rep, and that's all my experience I've had within the union, other than being a member, so I was still very fresh and learning a lot of different things. So I think a lot of the things that I've seen OEA do, and the trainings I've gone to, or lobby days that I've taken advantage of, there's a lot of different facets to help out in becoming aware of how the local could become helpful in impacting those for the betterment of your district, for your students.

Katie Olmsted 12:05
And again, it, it's all of the things, right? And it's partly that legislative thing people don't want to talk politics. That's, I think, one of the big things I don't, I don't want to be involved in politics. When you ask people to do lobby days, what they're not realizing is what's happening at the state house directly impacts what's happening in their classrooms. And I'm wondering if you have had a different insight on that now that you've been on this side of the process there.

David Graham 12:36
I'm not really a person that like plays politics. I don't even know how to play a game. I mean, I'm a straightforward person. I don't try to deceive nobody. I didn't get a seminary degree just because it was fun. It's because I have convictions that way. But when it comes to talking to them, there's senators, their representatives. They're there to represent you, and so they can only represent what the information that they have. And so I think it's important to be able to have those conversations, so that they can have the right information, so that they can see the people that it does affect when certain laws are coming into play, even though, like some people, will focus on one aspect of trying to paint a picture, and a politician can see that as well. You're painting me an imaginary picture, but when you talk about the hard fact reality, it's hard to deny those so I've found the centers and representatives more responsive to here's the actual data. Like it's undeniable. When I say a kid comes to a public school, no matter what their struggle is, we have to teach them, we have to care for their needs. But if you go over to a private or a charter school or some of those others, they can say, well, we don't have those services here. And so a lot of them just don't understand the way education works. Some of them don't understand why special education is and then also, a lot of times, think of even the centers that are a part of the caucus for education, and some of them talk about being educators in their past, yes, but just like my administrator that evaluates me, they had two or three years of teaching experience. Talk to anybody that's worked more than a decade. And two three years isn't enough to get a good picture, so it's helpful, especially for those teachers that have taught for a long time, those peoples that have worked the education support jobs for a long time, to be able to help paint that picture of how this impacts the people that are in the buildings that are impacting the next generation.

Katie Olmsted 14:38
Now I know you can only speak to your conversations with your own lawmakers, because those are the conversations you've had. But do you get the impression that that other lawmakers would be very receptive to this?

David Graham 14:53
I haven't heard anybody having a bad experience when I've gone to the lobby days. I see a lot of different people before i. OEA does a good job of bringing everybody in for a light breakfast, and so you're all meeting there together. Yes, I think the second time, I definitely remember a debrief. I don't remember if we had one the first time, because we went to the House and we were sitting in a session. So we didn't necessarily have a debrief afterwards, but in the fall, they had a debrief afterwards, because there was a retirement dinner session that they had with some lawmakers. But nobody mentioned having a bad experience. Everybody mentioned that I saw mentioned they had a good experience, even people that maybe I didn't see them after the event. I saw them at a different OEA event. Everybody that I've talked to that has gone to a lobby day has had a good experience with it. I think a lot of that good experience does have to do with how OEA preps you to go, but also, in a sense, they do see that lawmakers are at least taking a meeting and having a conversation with them. And so I think that's very helpful in painting a picture that people would want to going ahead and try and keep doing that. I think one thing that stood out to me, that I remember when Dan was given his speech when he was still running for VP, is he mentioned having those meetings and developing those conversations with people, and that what what's really resounded with me now that he is our current VP, is just having those conversations, being part of the legislative work, and having your local representative senators know who you are, and when things come up, they know they may not get the full picture and it will contact you. There's not necessarily bad things about relying on OEA to do it. I mean, OEA was even mentioned in the State of the State address and positive comments about their efforts. But it is also good for the local, because it's one thing for Jeff and the other people of OEA to mention stuff to the representatives, but it's another thing for the local that's going to be affected by this to mention it too.

Katie Olmsted 17:02
There will be more lobby days. I think there will always be more lobby days. What would you tell other OEA members who are thinking, I don't know. Should I go?

David Graham 17:13
If you don't know what to suspect and you're a little cautious about it. You want to make sure your people are having an experience that you can at least describe to them, go do it for yourself, or find somebody within OEA that you've met at OEA different events and go together. Yeah, it was a little intimidating my first time I went alone, but I'm kind of fine being by myself. Sometimes I got kind of used to it for periods of my life. But just find somebody else to go with you. Find ask, ask at your uniserv meeting or something like that, who would go with me so that you can go to those meetings together if you want find another local president to go with you or ask another officer to go, especially if you have that leave time built in within your unions agreement, because I have days that I can use for that and not count against me. So work on those things ahead of time and come up with a plan to at least try it out. And if it doesn't work for you, then, then maybe it's not a thing that you see yourself thrive in, maybe those types of conversations you don't find particularly enjoyable, but you can paint that picture for the next person that might you could put it up as, okay, we need a committee that's our legislative committee for our local that works with the mayor and works with these people of the state. And I'll sign you for a leave form when they have a lobby day. And you can go up and do it instead of me, because maybe you don't enjoy it. Just come up with a plan for that, because OEA does a great job of making it easy for you to come and do it, at least go give it a chance and try it, and then if it doesn't work for you, at least you know how to describe it to find somebody that could go in your absence.

Katie Olmsted 18:50
And it's one more educator, even if you're not loving it, but I hope you do. It's one more educator whose voice is in the conversation, and if we're not, if we're not putting our voices in the conversation when these decisions are being made, those decisions are going to be made without us. David Graham, thank you so much for having this conversation with me and for all the work that you do to make sure our lawmakers know what's happening in our schools and what their decisions mean for us.

David Graham 19:19
No problem. Thanks for having me.

Katie Olmsted 19:24
Thanks again to David Graham for sharing his experience and thoughts with us. If you want to join for the next OEA Lobby Day, keep an eye on OEA's social media pages and website for info. We'll also update the show notes for this episode with all the details. While you're there, make sure you subscribe to public education matters, wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss another conversation in the future. New episodes continue to drop every Thursday this school year to keep you in the loop on all of the big public education issues facing our state. Because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai