Ohio Democratic legislators won't fully support Mayor Jackson's education plan, Activist parent hoping to be mayor says its illegal

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (Photograph by The Cleveland Plain Dealer at Cleveland.com www.cleveland.com)

Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25)

Ohio State Rep Sandra Williams (D-11)

Cleveland Schools Parent Donna Walker-Brown

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman

Online News Blog.Com(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

COLUMBUS-Ohio-State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and state Rep. Sandra Williams (D-11) stood with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and a few of his Republican state legislative friends during a press conference yesterday at the Statehouse in Columbus on the mayor's controversial Cleveland schools education plan but would not pledge full support for it.

Accompanying the mayor was Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon, a proponent of his educational plan.

And noticeably absent were practically all the rest of the Cleveland area Democratic legislators, including House Minority Leader Armond Budish (D-8)and state Reps. Barbara Boyd (D-9), Bill Patmon (D-10), John Barnes Jr. (D-12), Nickie Antonio (D-13), Mike Foley (D-14), and State Sen. Shirley Smith (D-21).

"The senator is still examining the plan and has not taken a position," said a spokesperson for Smith.

Turner and Williams, who also leads the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, say they support parts of Jackson's plan to improve education for Cleveland kids, aside from the collective bargaining prospects.

And stalling on the collective bargaining piece that the Republicans want blood on is by some measures an indication that they were merely sugar coating a rejection of Jackson's plan to strip teachers of tenure and seniority rights relative to teacher layoffs by seeking a state law to negate the collective bargaining agreement that his appointed Cleveland school board signed off on.

Whether they support the aspect of the plan to use public monies for charter schools through a proposed November Cleveland schools operating levy is unclear.

Cleveland schools parent Donna Walker- Brown, who announced earlier this week that she is running for Cleveland Mayor next year and who has called for an end to mayoral control, which is only applicable to Cleveland' predominantly Black school system, says Jackson's plan is illegal because under the mayoral control law, which the state legislature adopted in 1998, the city mayor is limited to appointing a school board and cannot independently devise educational plans that disregard collective bargaining agreements and slate public monies for charter school use.

"The mayor is limited to appointing the Cleveland school board under state law and his education plan is illegal," said Walker-Brown.

The Cleveland Teachers Union is also in a fight with Jackson over his plan, one crafted with Republican Gov. John Kasich without teachers or parents at the table.

In spite of skepticism by Black leaders and Democrats, Jackson hopes to get the Republican controlled state legislature to pass his recommended law to negate significant parts of the teachers' collective bargaining agreement, even though a similar law, dubbed Senate Bill 5 and pushed by Kasich and House and Senate Republicans, was overwhelmingly repealed by Ohio voters last year.

At a Cleveland City Council committee meeting on Mon. Cleveland Teachers Union officials pledged to target Jackson with the same venom that unions across the state used to targeted Kasich last year on SB5 if he does not back off of efforts to dismantle teacher tenure and seniority, though they said that reform efforts are needed.

A second term mayor of the predominantly Black major metropolitan city who is use to getting what he wants and doing as he pleases, Jackson is taking the rejection in stride, possibly.

Reach Kathy Wray Coleman by email at kathy@kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, and by telephone at 216-932-3114.