Appreciating Teachers and Education Support Staff

He had hoped to distract from the ongoing of investigation of Russian collusion with his presidential campaign by withdrawing from the Iran deal on nuclear proliferation. However, Trump was upstaged by the bombshell revelation by Michael Avenatti (Stormy Daniels {Stephanie Clifford’s} attorney) that Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, had received more than $500,000 in disbursements from AT & T and Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to Essential Consultants and other companies that serve as Cohen’s political slush firms, which funded the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels

As we come to the end of our celebration of the Annual Appreciation Week for Teachers (May 7-11, 2018) and other certificated professionals (counselors, social workers, school psychologists, etc.), we must also acknowledge the contributions of education support professionals (ESPs) —public school engineers, custodians, security staff, bus drivers, secretaries, teacher aides, etc.—who are also major contributors to the education of children in our public schools (although we honor them with a day in November). It is worth noting that the West Virginia teachers’ strike was a joint effort between teachers and ESPs. Moreover, it is important that we take stock as to where teachers and other education staff are in these successive protests and strikes. Beginning in March 2018 in West Virginia, the strikes quickly spread to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, and Colorado.

Elsewhere, thousands of North Carolina’s teachers are planning to come to Raleigh, the state Capitol, for the “… March For Students and Rally For Respect” to lobby state lawmakers for better pay and working conditions” on May 16th. So many teachers and ESPs have filed for personal days that more than a third of the state’s public school students will not have classes on that day. Thirteen North Carolina school districts, representing more than 538,000 students, are closing schools, including the three largest, Wake County, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, and Guilford County. South Carolina’s teachers are also organizing to plan a work stoppage. It is ironic that the states where the strikes have taken place are all controlled by Republicans, and they have passed the education policies against which teachers are rebelling. Furthermore, many of the teachers on the picket lines voted for Trump and have long supported Republican officeholders at the local, state, and federal levels.

But a disturbing reality is that several of the strike settlements for salary increases, investments in public education, and benefit and pension reform are little more than promissory notes designed to buy time for Republican-controlled legislatures. None of the negotiated terms are implemented immediately, and the times for execution of some agreements stretch to 2020 when some governors and legislators will have left office. Even more disconcerting is the fact that some of them negate the demands that were made for wage increases for ESPs, Arizona being the prime example. As a consequence, the Republicans have likely caused a split in the ranks of teachers and other public education staff members, with respect to future job actions, in the event of a lack of follow through on the aforementioned deals.

Republicans at the national level are still bearing down on teachers and other public school employees: cutting federal education funding and proposing more privatization of public education, e.g., educational vouchers for military families despite the military’s pushback against this initiative. To be candid, teachers and ESPs are being placed on a ‘death march’ where they are being starved of the necessary resources to survive as individuals and to effectively educate the students under their charge. President Trump, his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, his thirty-three Republican governors, and the growing number of Republican-controlled state legislatures are playing the long game. They are slow walking their privatization efforts while Trump continues to appoint, and have confirmed, district- and appellate-level, right-wing federal judges who will continue to chip away at element s of, and/or eliminate altogether, collective bargaining. The forthcoming Janus decision, scheduled to be rendered in June 2018, is expected to eliminate the right of labor unions to collect fees from non-union members for the service of collective bargaining, further weakening public-sector unions.

As we celebrate teachers and other public education staff, we must be mindful that they are engaged in a classic struggle which, if they lose, will have a substantially negative impact on future generations of students. Students of color will disproportionately suffer these adverse outcomes as their numbers are increasing exponentially, and it appears that the Cartel of the power and economic elite have little interest in in educating them. If we truly appreciate our teachers and education staff, we must collectively unite behind them to ensure they prevail. It is in our interest to do so.