Pictured is Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
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CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland teachers have voted to authorize a strike this fall if negotiations fail as their three-year union contract ends in June.
The conflict sets the stage for a showdown between the largely White teachers union, most members of whom are suburbanites, and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the three- term Black mayor of the majority Black major American city who controls the city schools and appoints board of education members per state law.
According to a Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper article published May 14, some 96 percent of union members last week rejected a contract proposal recommended by a fact-finder, making it possible for an upcoming strike.
The no votes amounted to 87 percent of the more than 4,000 union members, including those that did not vote, which meets the 60 percent threshold needed.
"A strike is an option only if the district refuses to provide a better way forward," Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quolke told the Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper. " Our members and the kids of Cleveland deserve the best learning conditions possible."
Quolke is White and is at odds with Jackson and the school board regarding contract negotiations and radial changes initiated since 2012 that he supported, among other initiatives, including the manner in which teachers are evaluated.
Cleveland voters will decide in November whether to renew a 15-mill schools tax levy approved in 2012 with support from 57 percent of the voters.
The Democratic mayor has said that the board of education that he appoints has the power, though he was the face of the levy campaign in 2012 and ran for reelection the following year on a political platform of reforming and improving the largely Black and impoverished school district.
Jackson has not said publicly whether he will embark on an unprecedented fourth term next year. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE ON WHETHER CLEVELAND MAYOR FRANK JACKSON WILL SEEK AN HISTORIC FOURTH TERM IN 2017 AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS
Sources have said that the mayor will likely seek re-election in 2017. He won re-election handily over millionaire businessman Ken Lanci in 2013. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE ON MAYOR JACKSON'S ELECTION TO A THIRD TERM AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS
The school system remains at the bottom like the neighboring largely Black East Cleveland school district on state report card mandates and relative to standardized testing.
Meanwhile, Ohio State Legislature continues to promote an unconstitutional public school funding formula that gives more monies to rich school districts based in part on property taxes.
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