Dem education leader outs hidden charter school agenda in state constitution panel

State Rep. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo), who serves as the Ranking Member of the House Education Committee, today called on legislative leaders in both the House and Senate to ensure that Democratic members of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Committee represent the principles and values of the teachers, parents and students they were elected to serve. 

“We cannot enable a public official, under the guise of representing Democratic values, to push an agenda that is contrary to our party’s principles and destructive to our public education system,” said Fedor, in her letter. “Doing so would betray our brothers and sisters in labor who teach and nurture children each day in public schools across Ohio, and the working families who rightfully expect the state to provide their children with an excellent education that prepares them for future success.”

Full copy of the letter is below:

March 4, 2016

Dear Leader Strahorn and Senator Schiavoni,

I write as the Ranking Member of the House Education Committee to ask you both to exercise all means within your power to explore the removal of Paula Brooks from the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission (OCMC) Committee on Education, Public Institutions, and Local Government. Brooks has worked consistently for the past year to subvert the Democratic agenda to strengthen public education, using her place on the committee to instead promote the agenda of online charter school magnate William Lager.

Democratic members should stand firmly behind the principle of a high quality public education for all students. This is inconsistent with the Lager agenda that Brooks promotes: removing elected members from the state board of education, stripping local communities of elected school boards, and calling into question the Ohio Constitution’s “thorough and efficient” clause upon which Ohio’s commitment to our children rests.

We cannot enable a public official, under the guise of representing Democratic values, to push an agenda that is contrary to our party’s principles and destructive to our public education system. Doing so would betray our brothers and sisters in labor who teach and nurture children each day in public schools across Ohio, and the working families who rightfully expect the state to provide their children with an excellent education that prepares them for future success.

As elected officials, we are oath-bound to defend the Ohio Constitution. Therefore, we cannot allow our constitution’s mandate to provide a superior public education to be subverted. The committee members of the Ohio Constitituional Modernization, appointed by state legislative leaders, must represent themselves honestly and transparently. Thus, I respectfully ask you to explore all options to remove this barrier to honest representation in the Education, Public Instituions and Local Government Committee of the Ohio Constittional Modernization Commission, for the benefit of all of Ohio’s children.

Sincerely,

State Representative Teresa Fedor

District 45