In his latest opinion piece, Mr. Friend accomplishes a little bit of GOP bashing and blows a lot of hot air. Glad you got that out of your system, Mr. Friend.

Now, for some real ideas, let’s start with your mischaracterization of the SB 5 committee. Your article leads one to believe that the committee committed a violation by replacing the committee member, when in fact the violation is that when they replaced the committee member, they didn’t issue a message declaring that they did so — a small parliamentary procedure. Should it have been followed? Absolutely, follow the rules.

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In his latest opinion piece, Mr. Friend accomplishes a little bit of GOP bashing and blows a lot of hot air. Glad you got that out of your system, Mr. Friend.

Now, for some real ideas, let’s start with your mischaracterization of the SB 5 committee. Your article leads one to believe that the committee committed a violation by replacing the committee member, when in fact the violation is that when they replaced the committee member, they didn’t issue a message declaring that they did so — a small parliamentary procedure. Should it have been followed? Absolutely, follow the rules.

But let’s be clear on what the violation was. Below is the pertinent portion of Senate Rule 19: …the President of the Senate, by message, shall name, and may substitute, members of the Senate to serve on boards, commissions, task forces, and other bodies….

Now let me undertake to refute your talking points. Your doom and gloom approach to analyzing the Republican method left me shaking my head. Each time you made a claim, you failed wholeheartedly to support it. The theory that SB 5 is going to have a significant impact on our state’s long-term fiscal health is both foolish and shortsighted. Mind qualifying that with some facts? Education is going to take a significant hit. Evidence, anyone? Merit based pay raises, like many ivory tower ideas, sound great on paper, but lousy in practice. Really?

So let me get this straight: Your position is that the convention by which corporations have for hundreds of years paid their employees doesn’t work? School districts most in need of capable teachers will watch potential educators pass them over in their job search. This just doesn’t make sense. The point of SB 5 was to increase competition (little lesson we learned from the free market…newsflash — it works) in order to improve the quality of the educators instructing our children.

Increasing competition leads to teachers skipping over districts where they might find a job? You’re going to have to explain that to me. As Enzo Ferrari once said, Racing improves the breed, meaning basically, when you compete against other carmakers, you figure out what you’re doing wrong and have a chance to fix it. That’s competition, and it’s what’s been missing from public education since the dawn of the Department of Education.

I lost count of the number of times you make the cosmic leap from SB 5 to punishing the poor for being poor. What do you suggest this means about being poor? Is it a permanent state of being? How do we help poor people quit being poor? (Hint, not a trick question) You help them find a job. I’d be willing to allow the government to do this simple task, except that the government does an abominable job at — well, let’s face it — everything.

On the subject of jobs, here you are amazingly inconsistent. On one had, Kasich, Inc. destroyed job prospects of a new generation of teachers, while on the other hand he is cast as evil for preserving the jobs of 1,500 Clevelanders. Make up your mind. Do I believe in the validity of corporate welfare? I certainly don’t. I oppose the handout as much as you might. It’s your inconsistency with which I have a problem. You oppose the handout on the principle that it is to line corporate coffers, but consider this: why would Diebold or American Greetings want to leave Cleveland in the first place? If a city or the state of Ohio places a tax or regulation burden on corporations such that they decide to leave the state, isn’t it incumbent on that state or city to at least try to maintain those jobs? 

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