Second thoughts about teaching

Second thoughts about teaching

You could say that I was a late bloomer. I took classes at Youngstown State University for two years right out of high school. Even then I knew I wanted to teach; I just wasn’t ready for college. After 15 years of job hopping, I decided to go back to YSU to finish my degree in education. Now with a year of school left, I find myself terrified of what the future of education in Ohio holds.

The cause of this fear: Senate Bill 5.

SB 5 affects the public employees in Ohio and takes away collective bargaining rights from union members. Police, fire, government employees and teachers are being targeted. So what does all this mean for teachers entering the classroom?

First, it means that teachers can no longer rely on their union to negotiate contracts for them. Each teacher will be responsible for their own negotiation. This means that there will be no base salary requirement for the school boards to pay. Also, as part of SB 5, merit pay is replacing automatic pay increases. This means the school boards can evaluate standardized test scores for the basis of yearly pay increases.

What happens to teachers who do not have a standardized test for their subject? I want to teach middle school social studies, but Ohio got rid of the standardized test for 8th grade social studies. Does that mean I will never be eligible for a pay raise? Unfortunately, no one knows.

Another component of SB 5 states that public employees are no longer permitted to negotiate health-care benefits, retirement benefits or leave of absence days. This means that instead of paying 10 percent of my health-care benefits, I can expect to pay at least 12 percent if not more. The same thing goes for teacher retirement funds. In a field where employees are expected to be highly qualified and underpaid, this makes me rethink becoming a teacher.

My decision to become a teacher was not made with the intention of making big money. I want to be a teacher because of the passion I feel for history and my love of sharing that passion with others.

But now my decision has become less about what school districts do I want to teach at and more about what state can I go to where teachers have not lost their rights.

This is a sad time in the Ohio education system — a time, I fear, that will result in fewer people becoming teachers and more public school districts suffering a lack of good teachers.

Wendy Mirkin, Youngstown