OFT President on Vouchers, AI in Schools and First Contracts

Melissa Cropper, President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss three recent developments for the OFT.

She discussed the American Federation of Teachers’ Devices Down, Eyes Up initiative — a bold new vision for public education that calls for screen bans in early grades and restrictions on student-facing AI in elementary schools, while preparing older students to engage with technology critically. She also detailed a bipartisan Ohio Senate bill that would require private schools accepting voucher funds to meet the same accountability standards as public schools, as Ohio's voucher program now exceeds $1 billion annually and has essentially no oversight.

Cropper also celebrated a wave of first-contract victories — including the first KIPP charter school contract in the country, first contracts at Menlo Park Academy and Columbus College of Art and Design, and a continued fight at Columbus Metropolitan Library, where an election is now underway.

• AFT President Randi Weingarten's Devices Down, Eyes Up vision, presented at the National Press Club, calls for banning screens for students in pre-K through second grade and prohibiting student-facing AI in elementary schools. It frames technology as a tool that should support critical thinking and human relationships rather than replace them. Cropper said the emphasis is not on retreating from technology but on ensuring children develop the skills to think critically before they are given AI-assisted shortcuts.
• Ohio's school voucher program now exceeds $1 billion annually, with the majority of recipients coming from families who had already chosen private schooling and never attended a public school, Cropper said. Bipartisan legislation introduced by Ohio Sens. Kent Smith and Bill Blessing would require private schools that accept voucher funds to submit to audits, report attendance records, disclose special needs enrollment and meet the same accountability standards as public schools, under the banner “if you take the dough, we got to know.”
• OFT is batting 1.000 on first contracts in 2026, having secured agreements at every school it has organized. Cropper noted that the statistic is significant given that nationally, about 50 percent of organizing wins never result in a first contract. The OFT’s recent victories include a four-year fight at Menlo Park Academy and a three-year battle at KIPP Columbus that cost the charter network $2 million in union avoidance fines and produced the first KIPP contract in the country. First contracts were also won at Columbus College of Art and Design for Ohio's first adjunct professor bargaining unit in the private sector, Athens County Public Libraries and Kaleidoscope Youth Center.

Devices Down, Eyes Up: A Vision for Schools in the Age of AI

Cropper attended AFT President Randi Weingarten's address at the National Press Club and described it as an incredible experience. The speech, delivered under the banner Devices Down, Eyes Up, laid out AFT's vision for how public schools should navigate the current moment in technology.

The most discussed elements of the vision are its early childhood provisions: a ban on screen time for students in pre-K through second grade and a prohibition on student-facing AI tools in elementary schools. Cropper was careful to frame this not as a retreat from technology but as a sequencing argument. Children need to build relationships with each other and with their teachers. They need to develop their own capacity for critical thinking, social skills and information literacy before devices enter the equation. Technology, she said, should be a tool that students learn to use, not a replacement for the cognitive work that learning requires. If students do not first develop the ability to evaluate information independently, they will not be equipped to analyze what AI provides when they eventually encounter it.

Ohio Vouchers: Over a Billion Dollars, Almost No Accountability

The voucher conversation has been building for years, and Cropper said Ohio is now at a point where the fiscal and educational consequences can no longer be ignored. The state's voucher program exceeds $1 billion annually. The original premise — giving low-income children from struggling districts an alternative — has been effectively abandoned, Cropper said. The majority of voucher recipients today are families who chose private schooling from the beginning and never set foot in a public school. They are now being subsidized by state tax dollars, with no accountability for how those funds are used.

Ohio Sens. Kent Smith and Bill Blessing recently introduced bipartisan legislation to change that. The bill would require private schools that accept voucher funds to undergo audits, report attendance records, disclose special-needs enrollment data and meet the same accountability standards that public schools already meet.

A Wave of First Contract Victories

Cropper concluded her appearance discussing how the OFT has secured first contracts at every school it has organized this year — a 100 percent success rate that she noted stands in stark contrast to the national average that stands around 50 percent.

Menlo Park Academy's contract took four years to reach. By the time it was signed, only two members of the original organizing committee remained. New workers who came in along the way saw the same poor conditions their predecessors had organized to address and stayed committed to the fight. They won.

KIPP Columbus is a larger national story. KIPP spent $2 million fighting both the organizing drive and the contract campaign. Workers stayed together through three years of resistance. The resulting contract is the first KIPP charter school contract anywhere in the country. Cropper said the contract could impact the charter school organizing movement beyond Ohio.

Columbus College of Art and Design's contract is notable for a different reason, she continued. The workers covered are adjunct professors, and Cropper believes this is the first time adjunct professors in Ohio have secured a union contract at a private institution. Adjunct professors at public institutions in Ohio do not have collective bargaining rights, but CCAD is a private school, which opened the door.

Athens County Public Libraries and Kaleidoscope Youth Center — a Columbus organization serving LGBTQ+ youth that has been heavily affected by federal funding cuts — also reached first contracts.

Columbus Metropolitan Library: Election Underway

The one ongoing fight Cropper discussed involved the Columbus Metropolitan Library, where voting in the union election began this week, six months after workers first filed for an election in December. The long wait and the library's sustained anti-union communications campaign, which Cropper said escalated from monthly to weekly as the election approached, have been difficult for workers to navigate. She believes the campaign has only strengthened their resolve and remains confident in a union victory.

Columbus City Council Member Rob Dorans has been a consistent public voice against the library's union busting efforts, calling out the administration's conduct openly despite knowing board members and the executive director personally. Cropper called him a labor hero and said she hopes his story reaches a broader audience.

More information on the Ohio Federation of Teachers is available at oft-aft.org.

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