....Oregon Education Assn. leaders respond to assault on teachers
(From Page 4)
form is driven by outsiders, rarely by
people who have experience as educa-
tors. Educators are dismissed as having
a vested interest in defending the status
quo. But let’s understand the status
quo. Go out and observe what’s work-
ing before you dismiss seniority. Go in
a classroom with a 20-year veteran.
The same reformers who argue
that teacher experience doesn’t mat-
ter then argue that training doesn’t
matter either - for example, proposing
that charter schools should be able to
hire teachers who don’t have teaching
licenses.
Sanders: It’s patently absurd.
You’ve nailed the contradiction. They
tried to drive that in Oregon this year.
We value young energetic people com-
ing into the schools, but the idea that
you could walk into a classroom and be
an immediate success is completely de-
fied by the data.
There’s also a push to separate
teachers and their union. Reformers
will say they love teachers but not the
teachers union.
Rasmussen: The union is a group
of individuals together in a common
cause. Educators want to have a voice
in the things that matter when it comes
to educating students. But around the
country our voices our being mini-
mized. People don’t understand how
we work, that we are a democratic or-
ganization.
Sanders: The polling is pretty con-
sistent: Positives for educators are in
the mid to upper 70s. After years of
constant attacks on the quality of edu-
cation, it’s pretty remarkable. And in
this climate, it’s remarkable that over
50 percent have a favorable view of
teachers unions. That said, we have not
made teaching and learning the center-
piece of our work. Like a lot of unions,
we’ve focused on wages and benefits
and job security and members’ rights.
I don’t think there’s any question that
the vast majority of union members —
no matter what they do — are like our
members: They take pride in the work,
they acquire skills over time, and in
most cases could do the work without
all that much supervision and do a
good job. Yet unions continue to focus
on wages, benefits, and member rights.
Those things are immensely important.
But we’ve conceded too much of the
control of the work we do.
We haven’t talked about what
many reformers regard as a magic
bullet - charter schools. What’s your
position on charter schools?
Rasmussen: I think it’s incredible
that we siphon funds out of the public
schools to fund charter schools, when
we don’t seem to find funds to ade-
quately fund and support schools for all
kids.
Sanders: The evidence is in, and it
shows that the vast majority of charter
schools perform no better and in many
cases do worse than traditional public
schools. Research also demonstrates
that when charter schools are success-
ful it’s because they winnow out stu-
dents who are problematic.
The thing that’s really heartbreaking
about this is that the charter school
movement was begun 20-some years
ago by public school educators as a
space to try out all kinds of innovations.
But by the mid ‘90s when the voucher
movement had failed, charter schools
became the pet of the corporate sector
that’s trying to drive education reform
in a particular direction, to undermine
public education and weaken all
unions. Charter schools were originally
intended to be laboratories for innova-
tion that would be brought into the pub-
lic schools. Now they’re an opportunity
for entrepreneurship in education,
which is a dangerous path to be going
on. There are big investors in it because
there’s a lot of money to be made. We
saw the next step in that evolution here
in Oregon this year with the online
charter school bill, which funds for-
profit online charter schools. That’s the
next step in the evolution of this move-
ment — an opportunity for people to
make money off education.
Pretty soon we can just employ in-
structors in India to teach our kids via
Skype.
Sanders: [Laughs] That’s where
we’re going.
Should all union members, all
working people, be concerned about
attacks on the teachers union?
Rasmussen: Yes.
Sanders: Think about it. At this
point, public sector unions are the
largest unions left in the state. We’ve
seen it in other states, the assault on
public sector unions. But our members
are middle class workers. Ours is a
struggle not just to defend our union,
but all unions; not just to defend public
education, but to defend public services;
not just our members, but working peo-
ple and the labor movement. We have a
good relationship with other unions in
the state, and we’re all coming together
around ballot measures. I think we’re
getting ready to go on the offense and
not be on the defense any more.
‘American Made’
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
SEPTEMBER 2, 2011