International Teachers Join Educators, Students, Community in March for Education Reform
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Emmelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, took part in the Save Our Schools rally this weekend and sends us this report.
Educators, students and community members from across the nation joined together July 30 for the Save Our Schools March and National Day of Action. The crowd of thousands rallied for two hours in the Washington, D.C., summer sun on the Ellipse Park, just south of the White House. After hearing from speakers such as former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education and New York University professor Diane Ravitch to actor/activist Matt Damon—whose mother was a teacher and union member—the crowd began a march around the White House. The rally united everyone under the cause of education reform, but the variety of signs and slogans on display (“We Need Teachers Not Tests,” “Equality for English Learning Students,” “Cut Corporations Not Education”) emphasized the variety of issues that need to be addressed to rebuild public education.
Being Competitive Means Strong Schools, Manufacturing
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This is a crosspost from the Detroit News by UAW President Bob King.
If there is one thing that UAW members and leaders have had to understand and deal with it is the concept of being competitive in the global economic marketplace in which we all now operate.
Our members have accepted major changes in their workplaces and in their contracts to make the companies in which we work fully competitive and successful globally.
In studying the global economy, it is clear to me, in manufacturing in particular, that for a nation and its businesses and workers to succeed in the global marketplace, there must be a new high level of collaboration and cooperation by employers and management, workers and their unions and the government.
I am concerned that the current extremist leadership of the Republican Party does not understand this concept of collaboration and cooperation. Many days I wonder whether they care if the United States will be globally competitive in the 21st century.
AFT’s ‘Not Waiting for Superman’ Site Tells the Whole Story
The movie “Waiting for Superman” has spurred a conversation about our nation’s education system. But the movie doesn’t tell the real story about what’s happening in our nation’s schools. The AFT is not waiting for Superman—its members are telling the whole story now.
Visit AFT’s “Not Waiting for Superman” webpage here to get the whole story, and click here to join the conversation on how we can help all children—not just some—get a great public education.
On the website you’ll learn about the great public schools across the country where AFT members work. The site shows many of the productive labor-management efforts that have turned the collective bargaining process into a powerful tool to improve schools. And it points out the work of local unions across the nation, supported by the AFT Innovation Fund, to take the lead in improving teaching and learning. None of those things were even mentioned in “Waiting for Superman.”
Executive Council Focuses on Jobs, Election, Workers’ Rights
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In the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Depression, the AFL-CIO Executive Council laid out a road map for how the Obama administration and Congress can fundamentally revamp the nation’s economy so that it puts workers first. President Barack Obama, who addressed the Council on Aug. 4, seemed to get it when he said that making things in America is at the heart of the economic recovery. The Council also laid out plans for the critical fall elections.
In a series of statements, Council members reaffirmed the need for immediate adoption of the AFL-CIO’s five point plan to create new jobs and warned that reducing the deficit must come after we create more revenue-producing jobs. You can check out all the new Executive Council statements here.
Community Is Family
By Carlos Daniel Rosa
In this cross-post, Carlos Daniel Rosa, an AFL-CIO Union Summer for Jobs intern working in Chicago, reports on a recent speech by Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. You can read posts by the Chicago interns at http://chicagointerns.blogspot.com/.
A few nights ago, I heard Karen Lewis, the newly elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)-IFT/AFT Local 1, address a standing-room-only crowd.
She brought down the house. Lewis began her speech by stating that when the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Board of Education closed a school they had never even visited, they weren’t just closing a building, they were destroying a community and, in turn, they were destroying a family. “Community is family,” she said, “and that’s something they don’t understand.”
Executive Council: Central Falls Students Deserve Better than Mass Teacher Firing
The AFL-CIO Executive Council today condemned the firings of the entire education staff at Central Falls (R.I.) High School and called on the Obama administration and the local school superintendent to work together with the teachers to create an environment that allows students and teachers to succeed.
(You can tell the Central Falls school administration that the students deserve better and to work with teachers to build on improvements at the high school by signing an AFT petition here.)
In the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, more than 90 dedicated professional educators are out of a job. On Feb. 23, the Central Falls school trustees fired the entire teaching staff of the high school, which is located in Rhode Island’s smallest and poorest city.
In all, 93 got pink slips—74 classroom teachers, plus reading specialists, guidance counselors, physical education teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals. Negotiations over strategies to improve the school between teachers and the school superintendent broke down when the superintendent walked away from the table and fired the teachers.
NEA’s Van Roekel: This Is Our Time, This Is Our Opportunity
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The changes in our country since the November elections have been dramatic and union members must be ready to take advantage of the opportunities for working people. In a powerful speech at the AFL-CIO Convention this morning, National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said this is the time for working families to rebuild America’s working and middle class.
Making those changes requires power and power comes through unity, Van Roekel said.
We must find a way to change the country’s attitude towards the union movement and the middle class. We need the power to act.
‘Green’ Schools, Healthy Kids
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With Congress set to begin a new session this week, the AFT is putting the state of America’s school buildings on the agenda. As part of its two-year “Building Minds, Minding Buildings” campaign, the union recently released two new reports, one on “green” school buildings and the other on funding infrastructure projects.
The reports reinforce President-elect Barack Obama’s call to improve the physical and technological infrastructure of U.S. schools as part of a stimulus plan to jump-start the economy.
Says AFT President Randi Weingarten:
Our members across the country always have been actively involved in finding solutions and bringing attention to the issue of school infrastructure. These latest reports will provide them with some of the insights and information they need to continue their efforts.
Educators Praise Obama’s Choice of Duncan as Ed. Secretary
The leaders of education unions today praised President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Arne Duncan, superintendent of the Chicago school system, as education secretary in the new administration. AFT President Randi Weingarten, Jill Levy, president of the School Administrators (AFSA), and National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said Duncan has shown genuine commitment to the key priorities for an incoming education secretary.
In a statement, Weingarten says:
There may be times when we will differ, but we believe we will agree fully that America’s students and teachers need an education secretary committed to focusing on real solutions for closing the achievement gap and providing every child with a rigorous, well-rounded education that prepares him or her for college, work and life.
