Lessons from Issue 2′s Defeat: Fantasy Worlds, Insanity and Targeting Teachers

November 10, 2011 | 12:14 PM

By Molly Bloom

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Senate Bill 5, a law limiting collective bargaining for Ohio’s public sector employees, will be repealed after a referendum on the law, Issue 2, was defeated in this week’s general election.

What can we read into the defeat? Depending on who you talk to, it’s either a sign that legislators should try again on the education-related parts of the law, or that the people have spoken and the issue should stay dead.

The Plain Dealer’s Kevin O’Brien, for one, says that the defeat of Issue 2 shows that legislators should try again on SB 5, and this time, target teachers:

Something very much like Senate Bill 5 should be introduced in the General Assembly right away. The sole difference should be its exclusion of safety unions — the Wisconsin approach. The legislation to roll back union power over that state’s local governments never included police officers and firefighters. Instead, it focused on the biggest, richest, most powerful and least sympathetic of public unions: the teachers. That could work here, too.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says the defeat is a power-to-the-people thing:

The vote sends a clear signal that Ohioans will not sit idly by while politicians scapegoat hard-working public employees for an economic crisis they did not create. Those who would dare try to strip collective bargaining rights away from hard-working citizens will now think twice.

The Fordham Institute’s Terry Ryan says you’d be crazy to see SB 5’s defeat as a defeat for Ohio “school reform:”

That would be a terrible mistake. Surveys have consistently shown that Ohioans support bona fide school-reform efforts, and many of the other education reforms that were tucked into the 300 pages of Senate Bill 5 had and still have the support of voters.

The Central OEA/NEA’s Join the Future blog says we should turn now to looking at SB 5-like provisions that were included in the budget bill:

What should also not be forgotten, for education professionals many of the provisions voters rejected last night were inserted into the budget. If there is to be any negotiation or future compromise those aspects of the budget should be placed firmly in the center of the table too, there is no mandate for them and no agreement.

Two more reactions to the Issue 2 defeat:

The Manhattan Institute: “In Ohio’s case, the defeat by referendum of a structural reform approach, which would have given elected officials and agency managers more discretion, will require the state to adopt one of the other two dominant approaches—budget austerity or a combination of concessions and new revenues. Which is to say, Ohioans are in for some combination of service cutbacks and tax increases.”

Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quolke: “Next week I begin meeting with Republican legislators and I’m starting with those legislators that attended the October 25th board meeting to voice support for Issue 2.”