Former Congressman Louis Stokes in favor of Mayor Frank Jackson's idea for Cleveland schools

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland needs the kinds of major improvements to its schools that Mayor Frank Jackson is proposing, former U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes said Friday.

"This is the time we must put everything aside and say, 'How do we give kids the education they're entitled to?' " said Stokes, who served in Congress for three decades.

Now retired, Stokes said he decided to speak about Jackson's plan after hearing the mayor talk recently and being impressed with his sincerity about wanting to improve the schools.

"I support the mayor," Stokes said. "I think what he's doing is displaying real leadership."

While Stokes declined to pick sides in the debate between Jackson and the Cleveland Teachers Union over parts of the mayor's plan, he praised Jackson's goal of having more students in quality schools and his courage for pressing the issue.

He called Jackson's plan "a long, tall step toward being the right way" to achieving that goal.

He also praised the union for negotiating with the mayor on several difficult issues, including the layoff and recall of teachers. He said he expects more adjustments in the plan before it is introduced in the state legislature and again as it is debated in Columbus.

"They're going to have give and take, and it's going to work," he said.

But he objected to the union regularly comparing Jackson's plan to Senate Bill 5, a law that restricted collective bargaining and was repealed by voters in November.

Stokes called Senate Bill 5 "the most reprehensible piece of legislation I've ever seen." He said comparing Jackson's plan to it is a "mischaracterization" that "clouds the atmosphere."

"It does not take away collective-bargaining rights, as Senate Bill 5 did," he said. "It alters the means of engaging in collective bargaining, but it doesn't ban it like Senate Bill 5."

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