Just days after LA instructors declared success in their strike for much better class conditions and limits on charter schools, their colleagues in Denver — another “blue state” — have voted to walk off the task, with a really comparable set of needs.
Last year’s #RedForEd strikes were concentrated in Republican-dominated red states, however whipping up on teachers and advocating through charter-school privatization of public system is a bipartisan illness, with numerous establishment Democrat backers.
California’s not done, either: Oakland teachers have seen a stable decline in their funding and working conditions, a phenomenon that has tracked carefully with the number of black and brown students in their classes (and the siphoning off of privileged and wealthier white trainees into charter schools).
ARLENE INOUYE: Yes, and we’re delighted for the educators in Denver that they’ve taken this step.
And I feel like what we’ve found out through the years is that when you interact clearly what the message is and you reach out to moms and dads and community, our cumulative power is what got us to win. We have a chapter leader in every single school. And we have teams now, arranging teams, at every school. And we have constant communication. I believe, as you see, Amy, when you talk to anybody, any teacher or parent out there that were on the picket lines, they will inform you the very same message, why we’re combating. And it’s very clear to us.
And I think by being able to arrange across the board and bring in the voices, the common voices of our moms and dads and our educators—and I, myself, by the method, am a speech and language professional. I worked 18 years in L.A. Unified. And we have a varied work—diverse membership, including speech and language, including health and human services, OT/PT, you know, psychiatric social workers, and so forth. And in some cases these little groups feel like their voices aren’t heard. However we were able to provide—we were able to draw attention to all of the needs in our schools, all of the experts, and also the trainees, of course, and what they require, and truly lift this up and to see it as an problem of social justice in our schools.
We were likewise able to bring in some nonmandatory topics of bargaining into our schools, which we call typical good concerns, like green space on campus, stopping the criminalization of youth through the wanding. We were able to bring in an immigrant defense fund. We’re making a statement of our worths and of what’s vital for how our schools requirement to address the requires of our trainees.
A Blue State Teacher Disobedience: Denver Educators Vote to Strike as L.A. Educators Win Big Triumph [Democracy Now]
(via Naked Capitalism)
