Post-Mortem of May's Houston Education Rally

On May 19th, 2018, educators throughout Harris County congregated near Discovery Green for the "Texas Public Education Rally." Co-sponsored by AFT, the "rally" was not advertised as a protest, demonstration, or anything looking like a strike, as we know educators do not have the legal right to strike in Texas. The Facebook invitation explained:

We are proud to announce that on May 19th Texas AFT, Mike Collier, and Texans for Public Education will be holding a Rally for Public Education for all teachers, parents, students, and all those who care about public education across the state of Texas. Join us at Discovery Green in Houston as we stand up for a first-class public education system and hold our leaders accountable.

Mike Collier is a candidate for Lt Governor and will run against Lt Governor Daniel Patrick. Collier's "issues" page has a fluffy claim that education is a "highest priority" but includes little detail except that he is opposed to standardized testing and that higher education should be affordable.

Texans for Public Education are a very imprecise advocacy group who are "a group of people who are sick of what the politicians are doing with our school system, so we're taking it back using something they understand very well."

The intended day for the "rally" was the day after the shooting at Sante Fe High School, and the discourse sharply moved to a question of "safety." We will address realities of school safety in a future posts. Here, we want to return to the "rally" in Houston and its insufficiency to impress neither the taxpayers nor the politicians.

We suppose that Texans could build some critical mass similar to educators in West Virginia or Colorado or North Carolina or Arizona where they decisively used effective solidarity and effective communication to persuade the community that neoliberal politicians' decades of education budget and policies have demonstrated ... again ... that neoliberalism is always a poison pill for the community.

But Texans shouldn't hold their breaths.

Seth Uzman explains that Texan educators have multiple disadvantages compared to other states:

1. The part-time Legislature, meeting only every two years, while bureaucrats of SBOE and THECB maintain daily hours. 
2. Second, in any right-to-work state with no collective bargaining rights, striking has potentially significant penalties for militant teachers. Duh.
3. "Aggravating the situation is the state’s cruelly stupid mechanism for funding teachers’ benefits. Texas is one of 15 states that doesn’t allow teachers to pay into Social Security, leaving them instead with a poorly organized pension fund through the state’s Teacher Retirement System." 

We want to discuss these other issues including the lean towards a privatized pension fund. We also need to review the state and court hostility toward laborers. We need to discuss the collaboration of community colleges and the THECB.

Actions like the rally for public education may have value in bringing together and energizing a group of people, but only if there's a significant next step that presses the need for face-to-face meetings with legislators. Because we know that as long as rallies take place outside of work hours, outside of legislative sessions, outside of the the earshot of the SBOE and the THECB, that those with power aren't listening. It will take more sustained action to be heard. The State of Texas is a well-organized oligarchy and each educator must become more direct, effective, and energized against it.

Rally for Public Education, today 12-3pm

Join public educators and allies today at Discovery Green from 12-3 to show your support for public education. You can also use the hashtag #txspeakout and check out the Facebook page here.

The goals of today's rally, as articulated by the AFT, are:

1) To show solidarity in our pledge to vote for public education supporters in the primary runoffs and November general election.

2) To show legislators, the governor and the lieutenant governor that we won't take "no" for an answer to these demands:

• An increase in the state contribution to public education funding, including a significant increase in state per-pupil funding.
• A state-funded pay raise for all school employees.
• An increase in the contribution of state funds for health care for retired and active public school employees, and an increase in the state contribution rate for school employee pensions.
• Fix the punitive accountability system by eliminating A-F ratings and repealing the law that lets the Texas Education Agency take over school districts.

Whether or not you can attend, head over to sign the petition in order to express your support of these goals. We stand in solidarity with public educators across Texas who are standing up for students and themselves.

North Carolina Teachers Protest

Photo: Gerry Broome/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Thousands of North Carolina teachers marched in Raleigh today, joining other red state teacher groups to demand better pay and public school funding. Like teachers in other states, North Carolina sees themselves faced with falling or stagnant investment in public education while private businesses see tax cuts.

Teachers in Raleigh, North Carolina are now following their fellow educators from all over the country in protest for better educational funding, better wages and respect. 👊 #RedForEd pic.twitter.com/pEI9fl8odL

— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) May 16, 2018

In announcing the march and day of advocacy, The North Carolina Association of Educators noted that North Carolina "is one of the worst in the country in the amount our elected leaders spend per student, about $2,400 behind the national average," in addition to ranking 37th in teacher pay. Many teachers, today in NC and in other states, have highlighted the fact that they are not marching solely for improvements in personal salaries, but for changes to the way public education is funded. It's an important reminder that the conditions of labor for teachers are a direct reflection of the state's support of public education.

The goals of the march were to demand from leaders in the state general assembly:

• Significant investment in per-pupil spending so our students have the resources to be successful.
• A multi-year professional pay plan for educators, education support professionals, administrators and all other school personnel. This plan must include restoration of compensation for advanced degree and longevity. The plan must also stop the flat-lining of experienced educator’s pay.
• Investing in the health and well-being of our students and making schools safer through increased school nurses, counselors, social workers and other support personnel and expansion of Medicaid to improve the health of our communities.
• Fix our crumbling schools and large class sizes with a Statewide School Construction Bond.
• Prioritize Classrooms and Not Corporate Board Rooms. (NCAE)

What an amazing sight to see! Educators united! #REDForED pic.twitter.com/ZIUQSzUZo4

— Gwendolyn Smith (@Counselor_GwenS) May 16, 2018

We support these and all other educators fighting for better pay and support, and we encourage all union members to attend the Houston Celebration of Public Education on May 19 to express your support for public education.

UC System Workers Prepare to Strike

photo via the AFSCME Facebook

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, the largest union in the University of California system, plans to begin a three day strike this week. AFSCME is the largest workers' union in California, and the UC system is the largest state employer, so the ongoing negotiations and the coming strike are important and have huge potential to affect all of California's workers.

AFSCME represents largely lower-income workers, including gardeners, cooks, drivers, custodians, lab techs, and nurse's aids, and these employees are disproportionately women, people of color, and immigrants. An expected 25,000 AFSCME workers will strike, with an equal number expected to join from the California Nurse's Association and the University Professional & Technical Employees union. (UC has requested, and obtained, a restraining order that bars "essential employees," including pharmacists and respiratory therapists, from joining picket lines.) The union that represents graduate student workers is not officially on strike because of contract agreements, but many graduate assistants and tutors are also expected to exercise their individual rights to join the strike.

The action is taken in response to a recent study and report written by the AFSCME Local 3299 which showed a widening income gap between the highest and lowest wage earners in the system, including the particularly damning statistic that the "share of total payroll cost for UC’s top 10% of wage earners grew from 22% to 31%, while the share for the bottom 50% dropped from 24% to just 22%." The study also found that "UC's highest-paid administrators include a higher proportion of whites and men than the State of California while its lowest-paid workers are mainly people of color and women."

The scale of income disparity, especially as that disparity is so obviously skewed along racial and gender demographics, is unconscionable and particularly egregious in the UC system, though it should be noted that such disparity is not abnormal within academic institutions.

AFSCME's requests in bargaining with the UC management were for wage increases, benefits protections, job security, and ending this discrimination. The raises that have been offered, paired with other cuts within the system, have been deemed unacceptable, and the union voted to strike back in April.

In addition to the large nature of the union action, this strike is also important because it represents solidarity from higher paid workers, such as those represented by the CNA, with the lower-wage workers of AFSCME. Workers with higher salaries and better protections within the institutions are joining the fight, an absolute necessity for true change. 

We stand in solidarity with workers in the UC System as they fight for equality and fairness in the workplace.

Updates on Arizona Educators' Calls for Pay Increase

As of Monday 30 April, Arizona educators have completed two (2) days striking, closing schools, and marching across the state. Arizona's teachers have been building on the increasing resistance to red states from educators, and they continue the solidarity movement. (Colorado teachers are also threatening to strike) As recently as Tuesday 17 April, Governor Doug Ducey said he would not meet with organizers of Arizona Educators United and called their protests a "political circus" coordinated by "political operatives." But last week, the governor offered a budget agreement to boost teacher pay by 20 percent by 2020, though he has not addressed infrastructure improvements. 

On the first strike day, students and educators at more than 1,100 schools participated in walk-ins in support of the teacher effort. #RedForEd organizers estimate more than 100,000 people participated. Today, Monday, marching teachers will attempt to meet with their legislators in the capitol face to face.

The AZ teachers have simple demands:

• 20% raise for all teaching and certified staff
• Competitive wages for all classified staff
• Return school funding to 2008 levels (23:1 class ratio)
• No new corporate tax cuts until AZ per-pupil spending reaches national average
• Yearly raises until AZ teacher salary reaches the national average

Arizona teachers are among the lowest paid in the country, according to federal data. Average salaries last year were actually $8,000-$9,000 less than 1990 salaries when adjusted for inflation.

We should notice that teachers' solidarity actions -- specifically, a single day walk-out -- was effective. Communities supported the teachers after very effective communication and planning. Notice the effective video by Arizona Educators United:

We recommend following Arizona Educators United for both information and their strategies to communicate with their teachers, their communities, and their legislators.

In this blog, we are very interested in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and, now, Arizona educators using effective strategies to press their claims. We hope that Texas educators can learn from these movements to change our state education environment.