Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

 Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

 

At the center of the recent teacher insurgency is one particular form of direct action—the strike. The strike occupies a distinctive place in the popular consciousness of teachers and working people more generally, primarily because of its extraordinary visibility, leverage, and power as a tactic but also because of the mythology and romance that is often associated with it. Despite their success in establishing public-sector unionism and collective bargaining (including teacher unionism) in the 1960s, teacher strikes became increasingly ineffective by the mid-1970s and 1980s and had dwindled to a mere handful by the start of the twenty-first century. The success of the teacher insurgency in reestablishing the strike as a powerful tactic is a welcome development, but to maintain and build on that success, we need to be acutely aware of the approaches that best situate teacher strikes to win.

 

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Far too much of what passes for thinking about strikes in the United States— including teacher strikes—rests on a “field of dreams” theory: Call it, and they will come. We must go beyond such romantic notions, which are recipes for disaster, and consider the different conditions and approaches that have led teacher strikes to victory and defeat, to find a way forward that will continue the success of the strikes of the teacher insurgency.

Complete chapter at 

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/the-teacher-strike-conditions-for-success

 

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Leo Casey is Executive Director of the Albert Shanker Institute, a think talk affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. Over the course of a forty-year career, he has been a rank and file public school teacher, the leader of the union at his school and a Vice President of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers.

This text was adapted from Leo Casey’s book The Teacher Insurgency: A Strategic and Organizing Perspective, out now from Harvard Education Press. 

 

Fund the Schools and Teachers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is still refusing to bring the HEROES Act to the Senate floor, keeping states, communities and schools in limbo without the resources they need to reopen safely. While the House Democrats have passed legislation to invest in public schools, universities, child care, school support staff, digital resources and more, McConnell and his colleagues in the GOP packed their bags, put up their out-of-office messages and left for summer vacation. We’re battling a public health crisis, an economic crisis and a racial justice crisis. We need resources to keep up that fight, and the HEROES Act would provide those resources where they’re needed: states, communities and schools. Click here to write to your senators and tell them to pass the HEROES Act. The HEROES Act contains $1 trillion in federal aid to fund essential services at the local level, including public K-12 schools, public colleges and universities, and public hospitals. This funding would support the frontline workers in this pandemic, and it is critical to reopening our society safely. Our public schools, colleges and community hospitals desperately need this money. Without it, we will see thousands of layoffs and draconian cuts to essential services, and we won’t be able to reopen safely, as that will require more money and staff right now, not less. More on the role of Mitch Mc Connell and health care. https://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-mitch-mcconnell-story-seat-at-table.html The funds in the HEROES Act will support the frontline heroes battling the pandemic. Our country’s schools, colleges, state and local services, and hospitals need these funds to keep these critical workers on the job. Without this assistance, essential public services and jobs will be cut just when they are needed most. There will be layoffs at the state and local levels, which will cripple our local economies and deepen the recession. We need these heroes on the frontlines, not on unemployment and food lines. The HEROES Act will help ensure this. We don’t have time to ignore the needs of states, communities and schools. Senators must hear from us. Please click here and write to your senators NOW. In unity, Randi Weingarten AFT President

More on Mitch Mc Connell

Los Angeles Teachers Strike Approaches

The Los Angeles school district has $2 billion in reserves, but it’s not willing to use the money to create the conditions educators need to help students succeed. Educators in L.A. have been bargaining for 20 months, fighting not just for fair salaries but for every child in the city to have a safe and welcoming place for learning, and against the austerity measures for public schools the district’s superintendent continues to promote. The members of United Teachers Los Angeles are fighting for issues that, sadly, are too familiar: adequate funding for public schools, full-time counselors and nurses in every school, smaller class size, fair compensation and community schools. And the boss? Superintendent Austin Beutner is intent on dismantling the school district and prioritizing charters, which syphon off $600 million a year. What he doesn’t prioritize—20 months after the contract expired—is neighborhood schools or a fair agreement with the district’s educators.

A Guide for Teachers on Immigrant Children and Trump Attacks on Immigrants

 Tools and Resources to help protect immigrant youth and their families in case of ICE, immigration, raids and enforcement efforts.
Prepared by the American Federation of Teachers.
Excellent resources.
Downloadable copy  at aflcio.org/immigrationresources. 

Chicago Teachers Prepare for Strike

Tomorrow is Decision Day in Chicago. by Diane Ravitch.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has tried to bully the Chicago Teachers
Union and its leader Karen Lewis.

Lewis was elected by the members because they knew she would
stand up for them.

Emanuel has the support of the Wall Street hedge fund managers
organization, somewhat absurdly called Democrats for Education
Reform. He also has the other big-monied people in Chicago, as
mentioned in this article in the Chicago Tribune, including
billionaire Penny Pritzker.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-teacher-strike-politics-20120909,0,6860745.story

The article mentions that DFER staged a protest at union
headquarters to oppose a strike. I wonder how many hedge fund
managers send their children to Chicago public schools. I am
trying to imagine hedge fund managers marching in front of
union headquarters and carrying signs. I am guessing that what
happened was that they "staged" a protest, meaning that they
hired out-of-work actors to carry protest signs. Maybe the
unemployed actors have children in the Chicago public schools.
Read more here. http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/spirits-high-at-the-chicago-teachers-unionctu-strike-hq/#more-16465
The great thing about having Karen Lewis there is that every
teacher in America knows she will stand strong for them. She
will not sell them out. And she will not sell out the
children.

Certifying Teachers

Re: the article on Certifying Teachers, More by How the Teach in the New York Times today   by Al Baker, on page 1. 

It is accurate that this assessment is better than paper and pencil tests. And, it is accurate that "teaching is action work."   That is why the proposed new assessment system is not nearly as useful, helpful, nor valid as the present practice of student teacher practice and assessment by professionals.  

In this article, Ray Pechone and Linda Darling- Hammond continue their long practice of only telling the positive. And, the writer Al Baker makes the classic error noted in the prior post on media coverage of "reform".

 " Why then in schools do we allow politicians, lobbyists, and other “experts” who are not teachers and have not worked in classrooms for over ten years, and who have not taught children, to make the basic decisions about schooling.  As a starting point, clearly those establishing our policies do not understand testing and its limits.  (See Bracey, 2009).