Teachers’ Union Complicit in Union Busting?
Myles Hoenig
The
‘union’ in question is the Prince George’s County Education Association
in Maryland. That might be a stretch but it does support the overall
philosophy of the Obama/Duncan administration regarding education. That
is clearly one of privatization of public schools, union busting and
merit pay, which is often the grease to achieve the other goals. Divide
and conquer.
At our last full faculty staff meeting we were
informed of a project, FIRST,(Financial Incentive Rewards for
Supervisors and Teachers) that will be implemented next year. That’s a
good marketing word for ‘merit pay’. For now, this is a voluntary
program. For now. For signing up, certain teachers will get an
automatic pay increase of $1500 for teaching subjects that are hard to
staff with certified teachers.
The President of our ‘union’ is
a committee member. Did he ask my school if we even want it? Did he ask
us and other schools that are on this voluntary list if he can be on it
representing the ‘union’? I was part of a group of teachers that
successfully fought merit pay a few years ago at another school that is
now on that list for next year. The union was pushing it then and got
its way now, regardless of how the rank and file feel about it.??As one
who teachers ESOL, I would be eligible for the extra funds. ESOL is a
demanding field in many respects. However, I love it for its near
purity in teaching. For many of us, we don’t have to deal with many of
the same problems that content area teachers have. That includes
behavior problems and for some, teaching a class that is required for
State assessment classes, like English and Government. Those stressed
and distressed teachers are apparently a dime a dozen, even though
their classes are vital for graduation. Too bad. No extra bucks for you.
Let’s
see who else is not viewed as important enough to receive extra few
dollars in their paycheck. There’s the PE or art teacher. They only
keep some students from dropping out because the rest of their subjects
are so ‘boring’. What about the school counselor? Does talking a 15
year old out of cutting her wrists or joining a gang not valued enough
to say, “You deserve a little extra”?
Although details are not
fully hashed out, one who signs up for this program will be regularly
observed to see that they are teaching ‘the’ way. Who are these
observers who will be assessing teachers’ performances and active in
deciding how much they will get for that particular element of the
program? Will be they former teachers who have a wealth of experience
and leaders in their field? Or will they be more in the vein of Arne
Duncan, who never spent a minute in front of a classroom, except maybe
as a high school student giving a report?
An argument presented
to me by a die-hard PGCEA supporter is that the State Superintendent of
Schools, Dr. Nancy Grasmick, is proposing language in
“Race to the Top” that is to be accepted, whether the union approves or not, unless they endorse it, and then can have a say.
This
FIRST, independent but still part of the “Race” philosophy, is similar
to the concept of the ‘lesser of two evils’. Like with Presidential
elections, or any other for that matter, when voting for the lesser,
one is still voting for evil. Will the teachers unions, who clearly
oppose much of Duncan’s initiatives, (1) endorse Obama in 2012? Will
they endorse any candidate that supports the Duncan Doctrine? Will our
PGCEA not only endorse them but even our governor, running for
re-election, who has the power to replace Dr. Grasmick and hasn’t in 4
years? Although not being on the ‘inside’ I could reasonably assume
that the answers to all is ‘yes’. (2) (3) The union mentality that we
in the trenches deal with is more to go along and try and be almost a
squeaky wheel rather than being on the forefront of change and holding
administrations accountable, from the school house to the White House.
We
might be between a rock and a hard place. Maybe as a federal mandate we
might not have a choice. But, we should have a voice. We as teachers
should be informed before it’s implemented, in order to organize, if
necessary, not just to be told how it’s going to be implemented. We
shouldn’t have the president of the association, who is the cousin of
the program director, sit on the committee. We need independence in a
Union. We need a union that joins with their brothers and sisters and
says, “Stop” to the Duncan onslaught of schools, teachers and unions.
We need cooperation with all segments, but we don’t need
“collaborators”.
