Attacks on teachers aim to weaken unions

A wave of teacher layoffs, the rise of charter schools, and a claim that teachers and their unions are opposed to evaluations have turned into a U.S.-wide assault on teacher unions.

The two major educational unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, are among the largest unions in the United States. Even in states like North Dakota, where unions represent only 3.2 percent of workers, or South Carolina and Georgia, where it is illegal for public employers to bargain with teacher unions, they still exist and function.

A staggering 300,000 teachers lost their jobs from August 2008 to August 2011, a 7.1 percent decline. According to the White House report “Teacher Jobs at Risk,” another 280,000 educational workers face layoffs in 2012.

Rightists have targeted teacher unions for the educational system’s deficiencies and failures, whatever the teacher’s role. Staff shortages, overcrowded classrooms, crumbling buildings, rooms too hot or too cold, rain entering classrooms through windows that don’t close, etc., are all ignored. Plus teachers lose weeks of instruction time grading tests that are often incompetently produced.

Chicago and San Francisco teacher unions have announced they may strike next fall. In San Francisco, the district plans to cut wages and benefits by $30 million in the next two years.

In Chicago, teachers are protesting changes in the school day, in how teacher pay is determined and how performance is evaluated. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said, “I have never, in my 22 years of teaching and being in the classroom, seen this kind of hostility and this disrespect for teachers.” (Huffington Post, May 13)

NYC unions fight school closings

New York City has about 1.1 million K-12 students in public schools. New York’s United Federation of Teachers, the largest AFT local, has withheld its signature on an agreement with the Board of Education regarding a scheme for Annual Professional Performance Reviews. In response, the administration of billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg has closed schools arbitrarily defined as “failing.” After laying off half the staff, his administration will re-open them in the fall with different names.

Generally, the BOE sweeps out the older, more experienced teachers, who also earn the highest pay. Their replacements are younger, less experienced and — of course — paid less.

This is the turnaround model established by the federal government for schools it deems are “failing.”

A teacher in a specialized New York City high school, whose classes have been videotaped and posted on a national website, told Workers World, “I feel attacked as a woman, teacher and union member by [Bloomberg’s] administration.”

Mayor Bloomberg has closed 117 schools since taking control of the school system in 2002, while opening 396 new schools that rarely serve the same high-needs students. Parents, students and teachers have often protested these closings; they say the real solution is more resources.

On April 26, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, appointed by Bloomberg, voted to shutter 24 additional “struggling” schools, using the federal turnaround model. Earlier that day, Michael Mulgrew, UFT president, led a protest of parents and teachers outside City Hall with signs that read “Support our kids” and “True reform requires investment.”

On May 7, the UFT and the principals’ union sued the city to prevent the closings. Ernest Logan, of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, called them “sham closings” and “an attempt to go around collective bargaining.” (Daily News, May 7) Bloomberg’s attack on the union over the suit got wide media play. The UFT and the CSSA have sued the city twice before without much effect.

The UFT has made some efforts to build coalitions involving the parents and other unions. It has also organized teachers at non-union charter schools. But its main thrust has been to support the Democratic Party in elections.

More than this will be required to save the city’s schools for students and teachers.