School employees shouldn't have to pay for failure
Columbus City Schools is right that healthcare costs are rising nationally. But that fact does not adequately explain the extraordinary increase facing school employees.
National employer health plan costs are projected to rise approximately 8% to 11% in 2027, depending on whether employers make cost-control changes. Columbus schools, meanwhile, says maintaining its current coverage will require approximately 19% to 25% more funding, roughly twice the national trend.
That difference deserves an explanation.
The district's own investigation found problems involving its former benefits consultant, Aon, including estimates that were too low and failures to perform certain contractual responsibilities.
The district also had a responsibility to supervise
its consultant, monitor the self-insurance fund, and provide employee representatives with timely and accurate information.
Rising medical claims may explain part of the increase. They do not explain why the fund was allowed to become severely underfunded or why employees were making decisions based on unreliable projections.
Before asking educators to absorb potentially devastating payroll deductions, Columbus City Schools should publicly identify how much of the proposed increase comes from ordinary healthcare inflation, unusual claims, prescription drug costs, depleted reserves, and previous forecasting or oversight failures. It should also explain what steps it is taking to recover losses from Aon.
Columbus schools employees should pay their fair share of current healthcare costs. They should not be required to quietly assume the cost of management failures they did not create.
Jason Ryan, Dublin
Republican control is draining Ohio
Re "We don't need another Ted Strickland administration," Sept. 24: What Rick Lash omitted: Strickland served during the worst national recession since the Great Depression, a recession that began on President George W. Bush’s watch.
If U.S. governors were at fault for the financial impacts of that recession, a lot of governors from both parties all got stupid at the same time. Governors weren’t at fault.
Sixteen years of GOP rule gave Ohio a bribery scandal that brought felony convictions, along with the suicides of rormer Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo and top GOP lobbyist Neil Clark.
As Ohio Capital Journal reported, FirstEnergy gave Sen. Husted a $1 million dark-money campaign donation before Republicans’ HB 6 bribery bill passed.
GOP rule also ended Ohio’s progressive income tax system and replaced it with fat tax cuts for the richest. We now have a funding shortfall for Medicaid, nursing home care, higher education and other services that responsible officials provide for citizens. We need officials who will work for the people. Vote for Amy Acton for governor and Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate.
David Scott, Columbus
Rush to help Vivek Ramaswamy is maddening.
My! How amazing it is just how swiftly Ohio’s General Assembly can act when their political interests are at stake!
While I certainly favor the plan to expedite a gas tax holiday by calling the legislators back from the campaigning recess, their action serves as a clear illustration of their ability to ‘green light’ discussion and votes when their leadership dictates.
Why can’t they take this type of swift action to address Ohio’s School Funding Formula that has been avoided for many years under a series of Republican-dominated general assemblies?
Why can’t they take this type of swift action to address HB-835 to provide medical aid in dying for Ohio residents who would meet the criteria and who would choose the option?
The behavior of the Republican-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission and theOhio Ballot Boardshould be enough evidence that the culture of Ohio’s current General Assembly favors their lobbyists and their own political interests, rather than their constituents. As a result, I am voting for the democrat candidates for the state offices in November – and I’m a Republican!
Don Thompson, Hilliard
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Deductions will be devastating. Columbus teachers shouldn't pay for bad management | Letters
