Daily Kos

Blackwell's education guru is former Fechheimers CEO

Fri Jul 07, 2006 at 08:11:55 AM PDT

This is priceless. Ken Blackwell's ONLY big idea to improve public education in Ohio was delivered to him on a silver platter by Patrick Byrne, a man who once served as CEO of Fechheimer Brothers in Cincinnati.

Never heard of Byrne or Fechheimer Brothers? The Houston Chronicle has. In September 1998, it reported on labor disputes between Byrne and workers at Fechheimer's only non-union uniform plant in San Antonio, Texas. The Chronicle said the plant was littered with dead rats, mosquitoes and other insects, and that workers - mostly Hispanic women who were paid $5.30 an hour and had no health insurance - had to bring their own toilet paper to work. Nice.

That's not all. This prince among men bought a company called Crowley Manufacturing for Fechheimers, but then the employees at Crowley voted to join the labor union UNITE. According to the Associated Press in June 1999, rather than negotiate with his employees, Byrne closed the whole Crowley plant and put 150 people out of work.

Why has Ken Blackwell aligned himself with a man who treated his plant workers this way?

One possible answer is that if you don't have an idea of your own, you grab onto whatever idea is offered to you, and Byrne held one out. So does Blackwell have any ideas of his own to strength Ohio's public schools? Strike one.

Another answer is that Blackwell knows about Byrne's history but doesn't care, since Byrne's connections bring campaign cash. So is Blackwell really just a craven politician willing to say anything to get elected? Strike two.

Yet another possibility is that Blackwell actually believes the pap Byrne is feeding him - that cutting guidance counselors, food service workers, school bus drivers and buses, school nurses, media coordinators, clerical workers, custodial services and host of other school services would save money, which equals improving the quality of public schools. So is Blackwell just not bright enough to handle the state's top job? Strike three, Ken.

Tags: Ken Blackwell, Ohio, education, Patrick Byrne (all tags)

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