By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

CLEVELAND, Ohio – If the nation’s teacher unions were ever to open a Hall of Fame to honor their most reliable supporters, Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner would be a shoe-in.

Turner, a Democrat, emerged as a Big Labor hero by leading the charge to repeal Senate Bill 5, a law that would have stripped Ohio’s public employees of many of their collective bargaining privileges.

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In case that didn’t fully establish her far-left bona fides, Turner recently introduced a bill to “require men to receive psychological counseling to verify that they have a medical reason for taking erectile dysfunction medications, such as Viagra, before they can legally obtain a prescription for it,” reports the Huffington Post. The outlandish legislation was reportedly Turner’s attempt to turn the tables on males who seek to regulate women’s health issues.

Clearly, Turner is a proud progressive who ought to have plenty of “street cred” with other leftists.

But all of that means nothing to the Ohio Federation of Teachers, one of the Buckeye State’s largest teacher unions.  OFT members are waging personal attacks against their former ally because Turner supports special legislation that would exempt the beleaguered Cleveland Public Schools from some union work rules and would allow the school district to share some of its K-12 money with – gasp! – charter schools.

Cleveland taxpayers will be asked later this year to support a new school levy for the academically failing and financially troubled school district. Supporters of the special legislation believe the reforms are a good faith effort to show taxpayers they’re not being asked to throw good money after bad.

Simply put, Turner is trying to help turn around failing schools that are jeopardizing the futures of thousands of Cleveland children, and the teachers union is attacking her for deviating from union orthodoxy. It’s a perfect illustration of how myopic and self-centered the teacher unions have become.

“Turncoat” Turner says she has “received several calls into my office, threats into my office, saying ‘we’re not going to fund your campaigns, we’re going to run people against you.'”

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“I’ve proven myself a champion of workers’ rights, particularly teachers, and then to have them send threats like that to my office, it’s just totally unacceptable,” Turner said, according to Cleveland.com.

Even the Cleveland Plain Dealer criticizes the union for its “senseless line of attack” on Turner in a recent editorial.

“It’s fair for unions to lobby for positions they favor, but not when they make it personal – and it’s self-defeating for the OFT to ignore the interests of teachers in the Cleveland schools,” the editorial reads.

The editorial points out that sharing revenue with high-performing charter schools will enable the Cleveland district “to claim the charters’ test scores and student enrollment as their own. That’s a win-win for children – and teachers,” the editorial concludes.

But OFT’s reactionary members only see a once-reliable “friend” who has dared put the interests of children ahead of union orthodoxy, and they’re determined to make Turner pay for her transgressions.

If the welfare of Cleveland students weren’t at stake, this “family feud” on the political left
would be as entertaining as it is instructive.