OEA Officials Say the Future of Ohio Requires Fulfillment of the 2009 Ohio Education Opportunity Act

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 4, 2010, the Ohio Education Association (OEA), representing 130,000 teachers, education support professionals and higher education faculty, held its Fall Representative Assembly at Veterans Memorial in Columbus. The theme of the Assembly was, The Future of Ohio: Our Opportunity and Our Mission. The OEA is the eighth largest state affiliate of the 3.2 million-member National Education Association (NEA).

In her remarks to the delegates, OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks said that she and other OEA officials want to meet with Governor-elect John Kasich to listen to his ideas on public education, including K-12, special education, higher education and overall funding for learning in Ohio. Frost-Brooks emphasized to the more than 1,000 delegates attending that the OEA remains committed to the Ohio Education Opportunity Act, passed as House Bill 1 in July 2009.

"The Ohio Education Opportunity Act is a tough-minded set of challenging reforms that called for everyone involved in public education to change, to do better and to do more," said Frost-Brooks. "We embraced this legislation. We fought for its passage. And we fought for the funding and implementation efforts that followed. And it fulfilled our highest hopes for public education in Ohio."

Special guests Governor Ted Strickland and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel echoed Frost Brooks in their remarks.

Governor Strickland, who signed the Ohio Education Opportunity Act into law in August 2009, stressed the need to hold Ohio policymakers accountable for public education, noting that the legislation is an opportunity to ensure the best possible future not only for students but also for Ohio.

"We are going to take back our profession, and we are going to own education reform," said NEA's Van Roekel.

"We know the many challenges ahead in fulfilling the changes of the Ohio Education Opportunity Act," Frost-Brooks said. "Now it is time to ensure that we fulfill that promise through hard work and enthusiastic implementation."

The Ohio Education Association is the state's largest professional employee organization and represents 130,000 teachers, faculty members, and support employees in Ohio's public schools, colleges and universities.

SOURCE Ohio Education Association