Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast for a monthly check-in as the 2026-2027 school year begins across Ohio.
Cropper discussed the federal administration's systematic cuts to Head Start, which she described as a death by a thousand cuts, making programs nearly impossible to operate without eliminating them outright. She reported on first contract wins at three Ohio Locals — Menlo Park Academy, KIPP Charter School and the Columbus College of Art and Design. All three are starting the school year with union contracts for the first time. She updated listeners on the Columbus Metropolitan Library, where staff are now working toward a first contract after last month's organizing win.
Finally, Cropper delivered a clear message to OFT members about Ohio's gubernatorial race. The differences between the two candidates on public education and teachers' unions could not be starker, and the election deserves to be at the top of every educator's priority list when they go to the polls, she said.
Melissa Cropper spent the late summer traveling across Ohio, meeting with Local Union leadership and rank-and-file members. Her first message at every stop was gratitude, she said. The teaching profession has been under sustained pressure from mandates, political attacks and struggles to recruit and retain educators. The people who continue to show up and commit their professional lives to the work deserve recognition, she said.
The second message at every stop was urgency. Ohio has a governor's race that Cropper described as among the most consequential for public education and teachers’ unions in recent memory. A new governor will take office regardless of the outcome. Who that governor is will determine the direction of education policy in the state for the next four years.
Cropper was careful to stress she does not tell union members how to vote. Voting is a personal decision shaped by a full range of priorities. What she does consider her responsibility is to tell members exactly where each candidate stands on the issues that directly affect their profession and their union.
The Republican candidate has publicly called for a private education system, has stated that Ohio does not have a school funding problem and said he wants to eliminate teachers’ unions. Cropper said it is difficult to have a conversation about education policy with a candidate who holds those positions.
On the other hand, Democratic candidate Dr. Amy Acton is already in conversation with OFT about what education policy should look like. She wants teachers’ unions at the table, and understands that teachers’ unions are the teachers who work in schools. She is talking about how to reframe education in ways that make it meaningful again for students, parents, communities and the professionals who work in it, Cropper said.
Cropper's encouraged her members to make their profession and union the top priority when casting a vote in November. They can vote for whoever they decide, as long as they go in knowing what each candidate actually means for teachers and for public education in Ohio.
Cropper described the federal administration's treatment of the Head Start program as a death by a thousand cuts. The administration has sought to eliminate Head Start entirely and has been unsuccessful. Its alternative has been to cut funding, eliminate regulations, bury programs in paperwork and create operational requirements that make it functionally impossible for many programs to stay open even without an outright elimination order.
Head Start is a preschool program designed to give children from underprivileged and underserved families the educational foundation they need to enter kindergarten on level footing with peers who have had more advantages. The program addresses the reality that children who arrive at kindergarten unprepared tend to fall further behind over time, widening an inequality gap that is difficult to close. Cutting it, Cropper said, does not save money in any meaningful long-term sense. It shifts costs — in the form of students who are not ready, teachers who must address those deficits, and communities that absorb the consequences — onto the public school system and society in general.
Among the most encouraging developments Cropper reported is that three OFT locals are beginning the 2026-2027 school year with a union contract for the first time. Menlo Park Academy, KIPP Charter School and the Columbus College of Art and Design — all publicly funded institutions — have reached first agreements that give their educators a voice, a path to improved pay and benefits and the protections and security that come with union membership.
Cropper connected the significance of these wins to Labor Day. Workers who have been in unions for a long time sometimes take for granted what that membership means. The new locals do not. She described conversations with workers who had no sick leave, no say in being transferred across the city without notice and no structured avenue for raising concerns about their working conditions. Getting a first contract changes all of that. It creates collective power to address those issues and lifts up individual workers who previously had no formal mechanism to do so, she said.
The Columbus Metropolitan Library workers, who won their organizing election last month with 86 percent of the vote, are now working toward their first contract. Cropper said additional organizing conversations are underway that the OFT is not yet ready to make public. The desire to organize remains strong across the sectors where OFT works, she added.
Cropper closed with a Labor Day message rooted in the moment's history. The 132nd anniversary of Labor Day as a national holiday is not just a number. It is a reminder that the rights workers have — sick leave, job security, a voice in the workplace, protection against arbitrary treatment — were fought for and won by people who paid a real price. They are not guaranteed. They require constant attention and constant defense.
Ohio, she said, is a state with strong labor rights and a strong labor history. That is not something to take for granted. Other states would welcome what Ohio workers have, and the political forces that would prefer to eliminate it are active and organized. The organizing campaigns and first contract battles happening right now are a reminder of what unions do for workers’ quality of life and why the work of building and protecting union membership never really ends.
More information on the Ohio Federation of Teachers is available at oft-aft.org.
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