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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2011)
Oregon Education Assn. leaders discuss future of schools Around the nation, teachers unions are under attack, facing proposals to di- minish their collective bargaining rights, lower teacher licensing require- ments, eliminate seniority rights, and replace step pay scales with “merit pay” set-ups based on student test scores. The Labor Press spoke with Richard Sanders and Gail Rasmussen of the Oregon Education Association about the fight. Sanders became OEA’s executive director in January — after decades in Massachusetts as a union organizer and trainer. Gail Rasmussen, a longtime support worker in Oregon’s Eagle Point School District, is in her second and final two-year term as OEA president. Will anything be different this school year for teachers or students as a result of battles that were fought this year in the Oregon Legislature? Yet standardized testing is central to the idea that teacher pay should be linked to test score improvements — instead of experience on the job. Sanders: People who work in edu- cation show up at school every day de- termined to do wonderful things for students. But when this school year opens, it will be another in a succession of years where the state has continued its disinvestment in education. There will be at least 10 percent fewer people working in the schools than there were just a couple of years ago. The state will be spending nearly $3 billion less than the funding goal for education that was set a decade ago. Class sizes will be much greater in most school dis- tricts, and supplies will be more dated or lacking altogether. Yet people will go into the classroom and do their best. Sanders: There’s a corporate agenda here. It’s part of the assault on the public sector in general, and part of an assault on public employees. It’s easy to blame teachers when you want to get away from the focus on the dis- investment in education and the public sector and in our communities. They also argue that experience doesn’t mat- ter. That’s completely contrary to evi- dence. If you just look at test results, teachers in their first three to five years have far less success. And 50 percent of educators leave within in the first five years. What would K-12 education look like if OEA really were the most pow- erful political force in Oregon, as some people assert? O PERATING E NGINEERS L OCAL 701 P AYS T RIBUTE TO A MERICA ’ S W ORKERS T HIS L ABOR D AY 2011 Executive Board Members MARK HOLLIDAY - Business Manager & Financial Secretary JIM ANDERSON - President KEVIN MILLER - Vice President STEVE BRADLEY - Recording Corresponding Secretary NELDA WILSON - Treasurer DAVE CARTER - Conductor MELVIN “BUTCH” SARINA - Guard MIKE THUN - Dist. I Rep. HAROLD CHEVRIER – Dist. II Rep. DARREN GLEBE - Dist. III Rep. RAY AKERS - Dist. IV Rep. MIKE WATTERS - Dist. V Rep. RICHARD LAUDERBACK - Dist. V (at-large) Rep. Dispatch Deanna Robles Jon Stoltenberg Office Staff Jonathan Donehower Loraine Draper Boe Ellis Tamara Fuller Cherry Harris Gene Kidd Larry Lovelady Jack Miller Jeff McRobbie Rod Osgood Traci Pardee Melissa Savage Barbara Watts Sanders: It’s really interesting that education is virtually the only profes- sion where experience is now being de- valued and actively attacked. There may be geniuses, like a rookie of the year, but exceptions aside, in every other profession, there’s great value at- tached to experience. The senior part- ner in a law firm gets more money than the junior — there’s a recognition that years of experience contributes to wis- dom and technical expertise that’s of higher value. In the medical profession, do you want the intern to be doing the heart surgery, or the experienced doc- tor? Rasmussen: Do you take a brand new MBA and expect them to run a bank? Sanders: This kind of education re- (Turn to Page 10) The Members and Officers of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 11 honor all working men and women on this important holiday. Happy Labor Day 2011! OFFICE & PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION LOCAL 11 555 E AST F IRST S TREET , G LADSTONE , OR 97027 503-650-7701 PAGE 4 Rasmussen: For one, we would have a sustainable revenue source. Sanders: The people who do the work in schools would sit at the deci- sion making tables as equal partners. Students would be known by educators because they’re not overwhelmed by the number of students. There’d be in- vestment in people. Buildings would be clean and modern and safe, technology appropriately used, textbooks up-to- date. There’d be art, music, sports in the schools. It’s not that complicated to reform education if you’re willing to invest money in frameworks that work. What we know doesn’t work is an increased reliance on a test regime to determine whether children are making progress. This test-driven model, built on punitive structures for teachers, is not what the rest of the world is doing, and it’s not what the affluent in this country support for their own children. In teachers union contracts, a step pay schedule rewards employees for sticking around, and seniority is a fac- tor in transfer and layoff. Seniority is a historic union principle, but teach- ers unions in particular are being crit- icized for it. Why is it worth defend- ing? NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS 7931 N.E. Halsey, Suite 103 • Portland, Oregon 97213 503-257-6691 • 800-547-8907 • Vancouver 360-892-1370 • www.opeiu11.org SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
