Hello, Columbus!

Strikes build power

In 2022, the picket line brought parents and educa-tors together, and bridged common gaps between academic teams or depart-ments. Union members felt a part of something powerful, educators recall. "It was the best professional development we ever had," Gray says.

But it's not like you walk into school the day after a strike ends and all is better, she adds. Everything was the same, except educators-especially union leaders-were even more exhausted than usual.

One significant change did happen fast: Within months of the strike, school-based substitutes moved to join CEA. These educators had been the only full-time, frontline employees in Columbus City Schools without union representation. Not only were they poorly paid, they also didn't have a voice, notes Kim Maupin, who became a building sub after a 32-year teaching career.

"We are teachers-we are teaching-but we weren't being recognized or respected for that work," she says. In 2023, the subs' first-ever union contract not only boosted their pay, but also provided paid family leave and professional development.

'We are the union!'

In 2023, CEA's "member action team" rolled back into high gear when Columbus City Schools proffered a new tax levy to infuse nearly $100 million into public schools. Frankly, it looked like it was going to fail, says Izetta Thomas, lead organizer for the Columbus Education Justice Coalition.

Thomas, a former special education teacher, has led conversations with more than 1,000 community members over the past two years. She says she has found that many residents don't think the district "speaks to them," or invests adequately in their students. "A lot of our folks [are] tired of the status quo, tired of a district manag-ing decline," Thomas says.

The levy would help fulfill the promise of better, safer schools, but the school board was doing a poor job of talking to voters. Weeks before the election, only 36 percent of voters supported it. So, union members stepped up and mobilized their partners.

"We went to the neighborhoods nobody else was going to and did phone banking with the voters nobody else deemed import-ant," Thomas says. And the levy passed!

Now the school board is talking about closing schools to save money-and, of course, it'll be schools in communities of color, which can then be turned into for-profit charter schools, Decker says. "Obviously, it's a Trojan horse to attack public education," he adds.

But teachers are ready. The key thing they learned two years ago is this: "We are the union," says art teacher Annelise Taggart. "Our leaders aren't the only people in the union. It's all of us."

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