Beachwood Teachers' Union Responds to Senate Bill 5

Wednesday’s 17-16 passage of Senate Bill 5 in the Ohio Statehouse has Beachwood City Schools teachers reeling.

“This is devastating for teaching,” said Beachwood Federation of Teachers President Evan Luzar Wednesday evening. He added, “Can you imagine anyone who would want to teach in this environment? No.”

The bill, sponsored by Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, restricts collective bargaining rights of 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees and establishes penalties for employees who participate in walkouts. The bill now goes on to the Republican-heavy House of Representatives and The New York Times reports that the bill is expected to pass next week.

Ohio District 25 Sen. Nina Turner, D-Cleveland, who represents Beachwood, part of Cleveland, Shaker Heights and other nearby cities, was one of 10 Democrats and six Republicans* who voted against the bill.

Luzar led a group of dozens of teachers at Monday’s Board of Education meeting asking the board to pass a resolution opposing the bill.

“The community needs to know that Senate Bill 5 at its root, at its very premise, is that these teachers are to have no voice in the education of your children,” Luzar read from a prepared statement. “If Senate Bill 5 passes it will be unlawful for us as a group to have a contractual conversation that considers the voices of the very professionals who spent day in and day out with your children.”

The dozens of union members and union supporters in the room responded with standing applause to his and several other statements made opposing SB 5.

Though the board did not propose a resolution, members praised the teachers for their work and said they are interested in their well-being.

“Our interest with the teachers doesn’t stop with negotiations on [Senate] Bill 5. We’re concerned with the much larger picture,” Board Vice President Mitchel Luxenburg said.

Beachwood’s Rep. Armond Budish (D) has been an outspoken opponent of the bill, said his office Thursday. Budish will join Turner and Rep. Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland, at the Working Families Tour at the Fatima Family Center, 6600 Lexington Ave., Cleveland on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. for a town hall meeting about SB 5.

*Editor's Note: The original version of this article stated that 11 Democrats and six Republicans opposed the bill.