The House Education Committee voted Monday to kill the state’s minimum pay scale for teachers in a move some members hope will let school districts create new or merit-based pay plans.
If passed into law, the bill would allow districts negotiate new pay scales with their local teachers union, without the state requiring minimum pay and without any requirement that pay schedules follow the traditional pattern.
Most districts pay well over the minimum, but use the same basic pay structure.T he minimum amounts mostly affect teacher pay in poor, rural districts.
The vote 10-5 vote came over the objection of the committee’s Democratic members and of the state’s two large teachers unions – the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
Rep. Teresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat, suggested in questioning witnesses that the change would “really pull the floor out from these teachers who are already at the bare minimum.”
Rep. Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat, also opposed the change.
“This is Senate Bill 5 rearing its ugly head,” said Antonio, who said she fought against a similar portion of the controversial bill from 2011 that restricted the rights of unions representing public employees.
Republican leadership of the committee had added the elimination of the pay schedule to House Bill 343, a bill that covers minor changes to several earlier laws, last week.
The House had passed a similar change in 2013, but it was rejected in the state Senate.
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