Gone are the days of the school marm, who couldn’t get married and remain a teacher. No, teachers of today are faced with issues that would curl the school marm’s toes. We are, however, backed by two unions: The National Education Association(NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers(AFT).
The American Federation of Teachers
(Full disclosure, I am on the executive board of an AFT local, as the PAC Chairperson)
The mission of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, is to improve the lives of our members and their families, to give voice to their legitimate professional, economic and social aspirations, to strengthen the institutions in which we work, to improve the quality of the services we provide, to bring together all members to assist and support one another and to promote democracy, human rights and freedom in our union, in our nation and throughout the world.
The AFT was founded in 1916 and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. It has 1.6 million members, not all of whom are teachers.
It is the smaller of the two teachers unions in the country, but its history has seen its share of hard won battles and controversy.
Just a few of its main battles have included:
Yellow-dog contracts (a contact in which the teacher promises to not join a union)
Tenure (thanks to AFT efforts, 17 states had enacted some type of tenure law by the end of the Depression)
Academic freedom
Segregation (in 1948, the AFT ceased the existence of segregated locals and by 1957, it expelled all locals that refused to desegregate)
Any conversation about the American Federation of Teachers must include a look at the life of Al Shankar. Shankar was the longest reigning president of the AFT, from 1974-1997.
Shankar was a born and raised New Yorker of immigrant parents who started his union activity in 1959. He had watched his mother work long hours in a factory, a fact that ultimately influenced his decision to become a union organizer.
As an organizer, Shankar is best known for his role in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville conflict of 1968, during which Shankar called for a strike over the transfer of 18 teachers; the strike lasted two months. As I have read through the the history of this conflict, I have to admit that I can’t tell you if I agree with his decision.
Towards the end of his tenure (and his life), Shankar sought to create a bond between the AFT and the NEA. He died in 1997 without having bridged the two unions.
National Education Association
Mission Statement
To fulfill the promise of a democratic society, the National Education Association shall promote the cause of quality public education and advance the profession of education; expand the rights and further the interest of educational employees; and advocate human, civil, and economic rights for all.
Double the size of the AFT at 2.8 million members, it is the best known and the most reviled by many non-educators. Its formation pre-dates the AFT by 59 years, starting in 1857 with 100 teachers and called itself the National Teachers Association. By 1870, it had changed its name to the NEA and merged with 3 smaller education groups.
A look at the NEA’s timeline reveals an impressive history of a focus on progressive issues, in particular in the area of women’s rights in the early 1900’s. The NEA had a woman president, Ella Flagg Young, in 1912, eight years before women had the right to vote. In 1914, the NEA passed a resolution which supported the very modern and yet unrealized notion of equal pay for equal work.
In 1966, the NEA and the American Teachers Association (an association of African-American teachers) merged, after some 40 years of dialogue.
So What?
What does all this mean? Don’t teachers’ unions stand in the way of real change and progress in “failing” school districts? I work in one of those school districts and I’d have to say – NO. Our local union has done much to attempt to effect positive change in our schools and have met with administrative resistance. That, however, is a rant for another diary.
Why are politicians always going on about how bad the public school systems are? If you ask me, they’d like to complete the process started with the firing of the air traffic controllers, to break these two powerful unions with 4.4 million middle class voters, who mostly vote on the Democratic side of the ballot. But, we also don’t want to face what is really ailing “failing” schools: poverty. Sure, my school doesn’t have the type of resources I’d like to have to really present 21st century lessons. But the cycle of poverty in a child’s life and family history is devastating. Our school resources are too few to really offer my students the assistance they need to focus on academics (my Bosnian students have experienced war, I have taught students who have witnessed parents murdered, etc.). My lessons on Walt Whitman don’t necessarily resonate the way I’d like.
We live in a society that mocks Presidential candidates for speaking several different languages and overall pays our teachers fairly poorly – go ahead, look up your state’s average, I’m pretty sure that I could work in retail management for a higher pay in some of those states.
We can try charter schools, but research has shown that these “free” and non-unionized schools are generally fairing no better than their traditional public school counterparts. According to a NYT August 26 editorial (sorry, no link, registration req.)
A federal study showing that fourth graders in charter schools score worse in reading and math than their public school counterparts should cause some soul-searching in Congress. Too many lawmakers seem to believe that the only thing wrong with American education is the public school system, and that converting lagging schools to charter schools would cause them to magically improve.
Even better, charter schools run by traditional school boards (and therefore, more likely to be unionized), tend to perform better than independent charter schools.
On average, charter schools that were affiliated with public school districts performed just as well as traditional public schools. That may be a disappointment to advocates who expected them to show clear superiority. But the real stunner was the performance of free-standing charter schools, which have no affiliation with public school systems and are often school districts unto themselves. It was this grouping that showed the worst performance.
Well, I could go on and on. What teacher doesn’t love a captive audience? If you haven’t read the other parts in this Labor series, please so.
Working Together: Part 1 – The Circle of Law by Kahli
Working Together: Solidarity Through The Arts by Man Eegree
Working Together Part III: Joe Hill, A Myth of a Man by shirlstar
I’ve got to grade some papers, so remember, if you can read this, thank a teacher.
