Do We Need a General Strike?

I’ve gotten to the point where I almost hate to look at my Facebook teacher friends’ statuses. It seems that whenever the School Reform Commission has done its last stupid, vindictive, anti-union maneuver, another stupid, vindictive anti-union one follows immediately on its heals.

I know that in New York, an advertising agency has been hired by pro-charter, anti-union groups to publicly bash both the union and its president. They have taken out full-page ads in the New York Times and large billboards near busy highways that disparage and insult the American Federation of Teachers and what they do, which is teach children against all odds. I have sat in my chair and shook my head, but never expected similar tactics would be used here. But in today's feed I found this:

http://phillydeclaration.org/2014/10/14/guerilla-marketing-firm-tapped-to-counter-protest-thursdays-src-demonstration-in-forthcoming-anti-union-campaign/

Our union has not had a strike in several decades I believe. It’s because both parties showed up and the negotiation table ready to truly give and take. Now that the SRC has become entrenched in Philadelphia, Governor Corbett has appointed Bill Green, who has been anti-public schools from the beginning. In fact, when his father was Mayor of Philadelphia, he rescinded the contract that had been bargained and that resulted in a long strike. It looks like Mr. Green was appointed to the SRC to do something similar.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has been bargaining in good faith since our contract ran out in September 2012. The initial offerings from the SRC included taking away almost everything we had won in the bargaining process since the inception of the union in the 1970’s. This included taking away requirements for a working water fountain, a teacher’s desk and chair, a closet for the teacher’s purse and coat, separate rooms for the nurse and counselor to insure privacy, chairs and desks for every child, etc. You can see that their proposals were ridiculous. The SRC unilaterally eliminated seniority and class size limits after the contract ran out and instituted hire-back rules that had previously been outlawed by the contract. They wanted us to take a pay cut, increase the working hours and days, and pay a sizable chunk for our medical benefits, which were free as a consolation for not getting any raises. In fact, the School District had suggested it! The last bargaining session with the SRC found the PFT offering $24 million in paid medical benefits. This was on top of the $78 million the SRC “borrowed” from the PFT Health and Welfare Fund, $30 million of which the union told them to keep. The SRC declined to acknowledge it at all and has not been back to the table since. The SRC considers the talks are at an impasse and instead of calling in an arbitrator or mediator, decided to unilaterally cancel the contract the union members have been working under during the negotiations. Although the School District feels that the state legislature gave the SRC power to do that, the union and others are suing the district for the action.

The teachers of Philadelphia have endured 60 school closures, countless charter schools, vouchers, layoffs, and draconian budgets that leave schools without books, supplies, counselors, nurses, secretaries, assistant principals, copy paper, and even toilet paper. Cleaning staff has been laid off so that in many schools the only cleaning that can go on is emptying trash baskets and occasionally sweeping the floors. Bugs and mice run rampant through the dirty schools and teachers are supposed to supply tissues, toilet paper, paper towels and soap or hand sanitizer.

The last straw and one close to my heart is the recent decision of the SRC to abolish the union’s Health and Welfare Funds, stop benefits for retired teachers, and to institute payments for formerly-free medical benefits for teachers, counselors, classroom assistants, and secretaries. The much touted benefit program they rolled out claimed a cost of $20 to $70 for employees (5% to 13% payments). But the real costs for those who wish to keep a similar plan they have now are more like $140 to $650 a month! In addition, principals who make six-figure salaries pay only 7% and our superintendent who makes over $200,000 only contributes 5%. They are trying to balance their budget on the back of the teachers. The lower payment yields high deductibles and co-pays of 10% for hospital stays and ER visits. You will find the chart with the real costs below. Last year they had negotiated payments for benefits with the blue-collar workers and principals and then rewarded them by laying off cleaning staff and assistant principals. We are waiting for the other shoe to drop on us too. I am a retiree with 3 more years to collect Social Security. I already pay $1350 a month for medical coverage for my spouse and I. Now they have eliminated the prescription benefits, which will now cost my spouse and I upwards of $10,000 a year just for prescriptions.

I see the frustration in the posts of current teachers, counselors and nurses, trying to do more with nothing. Every day I wonder how they have the strength to go into work each day and smile and teach. I spend every day thanking God I have retired and don’t have to deal with the reality that is the current school district. Sometimes I have to NOT read their posts so I don’t become depressed about the anti-teacher, anti-union, anti-public school attitude that prevails nationwide and is especially onerous in Philadelphia.

But people are starting to fight back. Last year, parents rallied their school communities to oppose turning their schools over to charters. Helen Gym, a nationally-known parent activist, regularly contributes articles to the Notebook, an outside-the-district newspaper that highlights and investigates issues in the school district. Helen has spoken at rallies, at the SRC meetings, at parent gatherings, anywhere people will listen. Daniel Denvir at the City Paper, and Kristen Graham at The Inquirer, are two of our journalist supporters in the city media. And today’s newsfeed yields the unions citywide discussing a general strike in support of the teachers, since we are the only teachers’ union in the state not allowed by law to strike. Diane Ravitch, public school activist extraordinaire, fights for us in her blog and rallies others to speak out in support of public schools and the mess they’re in because of corporate reform methods that are not working.

I thank everyone who leaves a message of support or disseminates the correct information about our situation. The current teachers, those laid off, and the retirees all need your voices against the evil dealings of the SRC.

SPEAK OUT!

Fact Checking by the Notebook
http://thenotebook.org/blog/147806/fact-checking-district-claims-about-contract-cancellation#comment-85875

Philadelphia unions ponder a general strike to support the PFT
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20141015_Outraged_by_cancellation_of_teachers__contract__city_labor_leaders_considered_calling_general_strike.html#WkIE5UdGVHjMXqEJ.01


The REAL costs of the new medical benefits:

The Game is On! Our Contract is Revoked.

I don’t know what the legislature was thinking when they gave the School Reform Commission (SRC) such broad powers over the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). The law was written in such a way as to NOT mention it was only for Philadelphia, but made it obvious when they wrote it to apply only to first class cities. Duh! There’s only one first class city in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia.

Among other things, the law dissolved the city-appointed school board, appointed a state-appointed majority School Reform Commission to govern the schools, and negate the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ (PFT) right to strike. One of the never-before-used-privileges it gave to the SRC was to cancel the contract and to impose terms on the teachers. These things were supposed to fix the financial and educational woes of the city schools. In the dozen years of SRC control it has done neither.

 In the years since the SRC took over, we have not had a strike, nor an imposed contract, but have negotiated several contracts in the regular manner. For 2 years, the PFT has been negotiating with the SRC with absolutely no GIVE on the SRC’s part. The PFT understood that the district is in a financial bind, and offered to forego any raises. The union also loaned the district $30 million from its Health and Welfare funds to help the SRC balance its books. Last year, the SRC revoked the pay steps for people with advanced degrees and longevity. Teachers who stay more than 10 years get no extra pay for remaining, but it is an incentive for the young teachers hired to stay. After being encouraged to get advanced degrees by the SRC, so we could become “highly qualified,” the teachers who got those degrees 2 years ago were denied their pay raises. The school district, unlike many of its suburban districts, does not pay for nor reimburse teachers for advance degrees.

The SRC claims that the teachers did nothing to help the financial troubles of the district. They are dead wrong. In addition to settling for being paid less for a much more difficult job than their suburban counterparts, 19% less than a local district, our Philly teachers typically spend thousands of dollars of their own money to supplement their meager $100 supply allowance from the district. They spend their own time after and before school to do extra-curricular activities needed by the students. They teach in neighborhoods where two-thirds of the students suffer from PTSD due to the violent atmosphere or high poverty of their environment. They have even provided soap, toilet paper, copy paper and tissues for their classrooms, supplies that the district will not provide.

This scenario has been due to happen sooner or later. Here in Pennsylvania, The last several governors have not supported public education. In 2010, the state legislature did a study and found that the public schools in the state were underfunded by BILLIONS of dollars. Although Governor Rendell supplied the extra funds for the public schools via use of the stimulus fund from the federal government, he failed to change the school funding formula to make education funding fair across the state. Even though there were additional funds for districts where students were non-English speakers, special ed, or high poverty, it was not enough. When Governor Corbett came into office, he revoked the additional funds for those groups of students, and stopped reimbursing school districts for some charter school expenses. Thus the available funds that the stimulus had provided were now gone, as well as the additional funds for poor, special ed, and ELL students.

Charters have been given rampant growth opportunities and lack of oversight as the public schools in Pennsylvania, especially in Philadelphia, siphon away the best students, and leave the special ed, behaviorally challenged, and non-English speaking students to be educated by the city schools. Only a handful of these charters have been able to score better on the state tests, with all of the cyber charters and 50% of the brick-and-mortar charters performing worse than the public schools they replaced.

In the recent debate by the gubernatorial candidates, Mr. Corbett said he was no friend of education unions. That has been obvious since day one of his term. But can the teachers’ union wait until the November election and January change of watch to get the imposition of work rules revoked. I submit that we cannot. It’s now time for action, and that action seems to be pointing to a strike, legal or not.

The Philadelphia Notebook describes the revocation of the contract here.

http://thenotebook.org/blog/147781/src-revokes-contract-changes-health-benefits#comment-85250

 Fact Checking the SRC
http://thenotebook.org/blog/147806/fact-checking-district-claims-about-contract-cancellation#comment-85875

 

 

Learning How to Get Along

The article in August 18^th’s Inquirer on philly.com states,

“The Taney Dragons look like the best parts of our city – multiracial, integrated, winning. They reflect our city schools: six of the 12 players are District elementary students from McCall, Meredith, Penn Alexander and Masterman. One student is from World Communications Charter. One of Taney’s stars was the only girl among the PA teams and the team was the most racially diverse in the state.

You’d think that would be even more cause for celebration but along the way, they’ve faced hateful and ignorant racist and sexist attitudes as a result.”

See the link below for the back story.

http://parentsunitedphila.com/2014/08/08/phillys-own-taney-dragons-are-the-feel-good-story-of-summer/

This news is a little old but serves to put a spotlight on a discouraging reality. So many years beyond the Civil Rights marches, MLK, and the Brown vs. Board of Ed. ruling, we still have to endure such racist ideas and harassment, even where kids are concerned. When Vic and I were Scout leaders 20-30 years ago, we lived in an integrated neighborhood. It was one of the best things about our little borough. We actually moved in as many were moving out, and never regretted the decision. Because the neighborhood was integrated, our kids’ friends were also. They played together in the driveway, walked to school with each other, and participated in sports teams and band activities. Our school district did not have the best reputation, but I found little to criticize about the education my children got there, despite the court-enforced bussing necessary for the integration of its elementary schools.

I believe the best experiences in living together other than on the same block were offered in Scouts, sports and band. Having to work together in activities and earning badges, camping, hiking, and discovering new experiences, the boys and girls in Scouts managed to show the adults a thing or two about getting along. Our sports teams were great examples of racial harmony because they were working toward a common goal. I do believe our community being integrated played a large part in their success since the kids already played together at home. We constantly struggled, however, to prove our worth to the people outside our neighborhood.

The school sports teams – football, soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse – constantly dealt with racial remarks from opposing teams and even from some of the coaches and a ref or two. Because we had integrated teams in a mostly white section of the county, we were an anomaly. I believe we may have been the only fully integrated set of teams in the county. There were no token whites or blacks, but we were pretty evenly distributed. Our kids had to be trained to ignore the racial taunts of the other teams who tried to get our kids to start a fight and get penalized, We did file complaints with the sport authorities, but the harassment never completely stopped. It was discouraging and disappointing that the kids had to learn of racial contempt at such a young age. But I was relieved, on the other hand, that they had already learned not to judge people by the color of their skin as young children. In some cases I believe it made us stronger and more cohesive, but it should never have happened.

In Scouts, the racial abuse was more subtle, and was realized only in retrospect. When our leaders were involved in all-white troops, they always got the campsites in better parts of the Scout reservation. Our troop somehow always managed to get the campsite that was farthest way from the mess tent, activities, and physically separated from the non-integrated troops by distance, no matter how early we registered. After several years, it finally dawned on our leaders what was going on. My husband says that it was the only time he was ashamed to be a Scouter.

Scouts also offered a look into the racial attitudes of others in the neighborhood, finding out that not everyone felt the same as we did. We wanted to plan a get-together for the families in the troop and approached the all-white private swim club. We were told in no uncertain terms that we could not. Nothing directly racial was said, but other non-integrated troops had been able to use the facilities. So we looked elsewhere, to the all-black swim club on the other side of town. We were welcomed by the officials and for the most part, the day went without incident. One kid there wanted to know why we weren’t at “our” swim club; that we didn’t belong. But a few of our scouts who belonged to the club told him otherwise.

Although it meant that my last child had to be bussed to school when the others had been able to walk to school, I am all for integrating schools. There’s so much opportunity there for understanding that people are people wherever you go, as Dr. Seuss would say. Even better is integrating the neighborhood! There are mean kids and bullies of every race and creed; bad people and wonderful people come in all colors. Kids need to learn that color has no unfortunate tags exclusively associated with it. The only way you’re going to get that across is by living somewhere that presents those opportunities everyday. The way things are today, there are still many segregated communities that rarely have opportunities to interact with people of other races and creeds. So much room for those old stereotypes to rear their ugly heads!

Let’s not allow our society to slip back to where it was before Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Jim Thorpe, Rubye Bridges, MLK, etc. We need to be a true Melting Pot, living the motto – E Pluribus Unum or Out of Many, One.

Still learning!