Ohio’s primary election was scheduled for March 17, but in-person voting was canceled at the last minute due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19. We finally have answers to how voters can participate, but time is short.

State lawmakers extended the opportunity to vote by mail in the Ohio Primary until April 28th, but ballots must be postmarked by April 27th. If you voted before March 17, your vote will be counted; you need not take further action.

There will be no in-person voting, with limited exceptions. For instance, if you have a disability or are experiencing homelessness, you will be permitted to vote in-person on April 28 at the county Board of Elections where you are registered.

If you haven’t voted yet, request your ballot immediately. Boards of elections will technically accept ballot requests until April 25th, but by submitting your request early, you’ll ensure you have enough time ahead of the April 28 deadline to fulfill the required steps, listed below. 

STEPS TO VOTING BY MAIL BY APRIL 28:

1. Obtain a ballot request form by clicking here or calling your county Board of Elections to ask them to mail you one.
2. Fill out your ballot request form.
3. Mail the form to the Board of Elections for your County (or, if you have relocated during the crisis, the County where you are registered to vote).
4. Fill out your ballot when it arrives. 
5. Return your completed ballot. It must be postmarked by April 27.

If you haven’t already, you soon should receive a ballot from the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) for this year’s election. Ballots were mailed on April 1 to active members. Individuals receiving a ballot can vote online, by phone, or by mail. Voting closes at 4:30 pm on May 4.
We recommend Dale Price for the STRS Retirement Board.
About Dale Price:

• Dale is a math teacher with 38 years of service and a member of Toledo Federation of Teachers.
• Dale was elected to the STRS Board in 2010, and has served a term as both Chairman of the board and Vice Chairman. His current term runs through August 31, 2020. 

Dale’s priorities for STRS: 

• Dale supports decreasing years of service required for active educators.
• Dale knows quality health care is important and is working to give members the best coverage possible at a low cost.
• Dale was the only board member to vote against the 2020 budget giving raises and bonuses to STRS staff. He has supported reducing operating costs, so there is not a need for additional member contributions.
• Dale led the initiative to lower from 100% funded to 85% funded before considering benefit changes.
• Dale supports live streaming board meetings as well as having some meetings in different cities. He is an advocate for transparency of the fund and board operations.
• Dale initiated the movement to eliminate paper materials for board members and created social media platforms to communicate with members.
• Dale supports reinstating a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for retirees.
• Read more on Dale’s website or Facebook page.

If you do not receive a ballot from STRS, call the STRS Member Services Center toll-free at 888‑227‑7877, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. COVID-19 has disrupted every corner of society, including academia.

We applaud faculty across Ohio who have risen to the challenge of moving courses online, holding virtual office hours, adapting materials, and doing everything possible to ensure that students stay on track. This has been no small feat, but nothing is more important than our students’ success. We will continue to do what is necessary to deliver the highest quality education under these circumstances. 

Of course, we also applaud and thank the workers on the front lines who are caring for patients, making sure we have groceries, and keeping our communities safe. Let’s do our part to support them by staying home.

There is a lot of uncertainty as we move forward. There are legitimate concerns of the financial impact to universities and how that will affect the professoriate. But here is what we do know and what we can do.

Help from the federal government
In the recently passed $2 trillion federal stimulus package called the CARES Act, there is $12.81 billion for the “Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund.” This is direct funding to colleges and universities to help mitigate the short-term impacts of COVID-19.

It was reported, however, that higher education institutions had requested upwards of $50 billion as the amount needed to withstand this crisis. There is hope that a second stimulus bill will be considered and higher education will get another boost in the future.

In order to receive the education stimulus money, states must promise to meet a “maintenance of effort” requirement. This means that Ohio would have to maintain the average funding from the three previous fiscal years for the next three fiscal years to get this funding. However, the legislation granted authority to Education Secretary DeVos to waive this requirement.

Preliminary figures are available for what each public, private, and for-profit institution in the country is poised to receive from the stimulus. Click here for those estimates. Ohio numbers start on page 107.

In addition, there are a couple of measures in the CARES Act aimed at granting a little relief to student loan borrowers:

1) Payments on loans held by the Education Department are suspended through September 30 of this year, and interest is waived through that duration. Anyone can continue making payments on their loans during this time, though.

2) Employers can make tax-free payments up to $5,250 on each employee’s student loans through January 1, 2021. This is not considered taxable income to employees.

These are by no means solutions to the massive student debt problem. Congressional Democrats had pushed for student debt cancellation as part of the legislation, but Republicans balked at the proposal.

State support is ominous
Ohio is set to receive $4.5 billion from the CARES Act. However, in the wake of massive unemployment claims and a precipitous drop in state tax receipts, Gov. DeWine has asked state agencies, including the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE), to cut 20% of their budgets.

Unfortunately, Ohio has a history of balancing budgets on the back of higher education, and if Secretary DeVos waives the aforementioned “maintenance of effort” requirement, the DeWine administration may view the specific federal stimulus dollars to higher education as a reason that State Share of Instruction and the Ohio College Opportunity Grant “can afford” to be cut. However, if DeVos does not waive the requirement, Ohio higher education funding still could get cut but would receive no federal aid to help replace it.

On March 30, OCAAUP President John McNay sent a letter to ODHE Chancellor Randy Gardner stressing the importance of higher education funding, especially as unemployed Ohioans seek educational opportunities during the economic recovery. We will continue to communicate with state leaders about the importance of supporting our colleges and universities.

Unlike the federal government, the state government cannot borrow or print money and is required to have a balanced budget, so it is limited in what it can do to solve this budget crisis. The state has a “Rainy Day Fund” of $2.7 billion. DeWine has indicated a willingness to dip into the fund, but even an additional $2.7 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to the revenue Ohio is losing and will continue to lose in the coming months.

What we can do
Now is the time for our chapters to engage with administrators about how resources will be spent in the wake of this crisis. If cuts are to be made, they must be made to endeavors peripheral to the academic mission. We cannot accept any reductions to faculty positions if administrations, athletics, and pet projects remain unscathed. At worst, there should be shared sacrifice across our institutions.

As the entire nation focuses on the necessity of supporting essential workers, we believe that it is time for our colleges and universities to re-prioritize–to make maintaining the numbers of full-time instructional faculty a priority. Although we certainly recognize the important contributions of university administrators and staff, over the last four decades, just about everything peripheral to our institutions’ educational missions has been given a higher priority than instruction.

Additionally, we must be vigilant that administrations do not misuse this crisis to impose long-term increased teaching loads, shift more teaching online, eliminate programs, lay claim to intellectual property, or even try to thwart our union contracts.

One of many lessons we have learned already from this crisis is that the American economy derives its strength from labor. We are proud to be an association that represents the hardworking faculty of academia. Keep up the great work, and we will keep you posted on further developments.

An Ohio Senator wants to make it harder for future state legislatures to pass income tax increases.

Senate Joint Resolution 3 (SJR 3), introduced by Ohio State Senator Dave Burke (R-Marysville), would require super-majorities (2/3) of both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly to pass an income tax increase.

The bill, currently being considered by the Ohio Senate, would put the question to voters in this year’s November elections, should the bill pass both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly.

This is a proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution.

On behalf of the Ohio Conference AAUP, President John McNay submitted opposition testimony to the Ohio Senate Ways and Means Committee on February 11. Here is what he said:

“Members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee:

My name is John McNay, and I am President of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). The Ohio Conference AAUP represents over 6,000 faculty statewide. I am also a professor of history at the University of Cincinnati.

On behalf of my association, I am submitting this testimony in opposition to Senate Joint Resolution 3.

There was a time when Ohioans could attend a public college or university in the state tuition-free. The Ohio General Assembly used to have a commitment to funding higher education, understanding that, in order to have a healthy democracy and economy, the state must have an educated, well-rounded citizenry. We need to return to the understanding that public higher education is a public good, not a burden.

However, now, on average, less than 15 percent of college and university funding is allocated by the state. The result has been skyrocketing tuition, leaving students with five- and six-figure debts for earning a bachelor’s degree. The result also has been our institutions selling off state assets in exchange for long-term lease deals in which private companies now reap the benefits of taxpayer-funded investments.

The legislature should be discussing ways to increase state revenue to fund education at all levels, not legislation that could have the impact of hamstringing future general assemblies from responding to pressing needs. SJR 3 is incredibly short-sighted. This approach is terrible for all long-term investments. If this legislature is serious about more students earning degrees and improving Ohio’s economic climate, it should reject this bill and focus on funding public services, including making higher education more affordable.

Taxation and spending should be like a thermostat – adjusting to changing conditions by moving up and down accordingly. The proposed supermajority approach in SJR 3 suggests the furnace cannot come back on unless the room temperature drops below zero – at which point the plants have died and the pipes have burst. We ask this committee to reject this resolution, which may seem politically expedient now, but could spell disaster later.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony.”

Senate Bill 120, co-sponsored by Sen. Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) and Sen. Michael Rulli (R-Salem), began as a simple bill to authorize the Auditor of State to conduct performance audits of any and all state institutions of higher education — an idea that we generally support.

However, after the bill was passed by the Ohio Senate, House Republicans used the bill as a vehicle for privatization language.

Before passing the Ohio House Higher Education Committee, a substitute bill was adopted with amendments permitting public colleges and universities to enter into long-term lease agreements (20-75 years) with private vendors to renovate existing residence halls and build new residence halls. It also allows those vendors to avoid paying property taxes.

The Ohio Conference AAUP consistently has opposed this kind of privatization, not only because private entities benefit from what have long been taxpayer-supported services and assets, but also because the privatization can impact the jobs of campus workers. When a private entity takes over residence halls, it becomes about profit, not service to students.

The bill was signed quickly by Gov. DeWine last week, after the full Ohio House voted in favor of it by a vote of 87-5. Unfortunately, because the privatization amendments were adopted at the last step in the committee process, stakeholders like us, as well as potentially impacted unions like AFSCME, were not given the opportunity to weigh in against it.

We will continue to keep an eye on future privatization attempts and express our disappointment in the process by which this bill passed in its final form.