...Teacher strike looms at Portland Public Schools
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many other employers, PPS used to of-
fer fully-paid health insurance for teach-
ers and their dependents. Since 2004,
teachers have paid 7 percent of the pre-
mium. Now, the district wants to cap its
current contribution at $1,431.32 per
employee per month, a limit which
would rise by 2 percent a year. If insur-
ance costs go above that cap, teachers
would have to pay 100 percent of the in-
crease. PAT disagrees, and proposes
that the 93-7 split be continued.
• WORKLOAD. Teachers have
summers off, but during the school year
they work long hours: Beyond the hours
they’re required to be at school, they
spend time at home preparing lesson
plans and grading schoolwork. Large
class sizes increase that “off-the-books”
workload — and decrease the quality of
the classroom experience. But the exist-
ing Portland teachers contract holds the
line against overcrowding with a clause
that says work load “shall be generally
comparable to that which existed in the
1997-98 school year.” Last year, an ar-
bitrator interpreted that to mean, for
high school teachers, no more than 180
students, or an average of 30 students
per class, since high school teachers
teach six classes. PAT proposes to up-
date the clause to refer to the 2010-2011
school year. PPS proposes to eliminate
the work load restriction altogether.
BATTLING CORPORATE
EDUCATION REFORM
can and should be measured by exten- the district’s bargaining stance, they see
sive use of standardized tests, and they the district following the national cor-
believe teachers and schools should be porate education reform template. Dis-
judged, ranked, punished and rewarded, trict bargaining proposals would expand
for student test scores. Schools and management rights, and diminish teach-
teachers are told they must increase stu- ers’ rights.
In contrast, PAT proposed an alter-
dent test scores year after year, with no
nate model of educa-
new resources, or face
dire consequences. ...when teachers look tion. In a contract pro-
posal titled “providing
Principals are assumed
the schools Portland
to be competent and at the district’s
students deserve,” PAT
fair: They can tell good bargaining stance,
invites the district to
teachers from bad
join a fight for new
ones, and they should they see the district
sources of revenue to
be given greater power following the
restore electives, asks
to fire bad ones — or
the district to commit
to force good ones to national corporate
to reduce class sizes,
teach in bad schools. education reform
and asks the district to
And if “outdated”
template. District
ally with the union and
teachers union rules on
discipline or transfer bargaining proposals parents to push back
against educational re-
get in the way, those would expand
forms that narrow the
must be swept aside.
curriculum.
That’s the nature of the management rights,
“This is really a
“reform” sweeping and diminish
stepping-off point to
through public educa-
figure out what we as
tion in Oregon and teachers’ rights.
teachers, parents, and
around the country, as
community think pub-
teachers perceive it.
lic education should
“Teachers are feel-
ing attacked nationally,” says PPS board look like,” Sullivan says. “We want to
member Steve Buel. “We need to be be education justice fighters. And
sensitive to that, and I haven’t seen us maybe we don’t get a raise this year, but
we do get a counselor in every single
be very sensitive to it.”
Buel, a retired teacher, is founder of building and a licensed media specialist,
Oregon Save Our Schools, a group crit- and help for kids. I think they don’t
ical of the corporate education reform know what to do with that.”
PPS refused to discuss what PAT
model. Buel says when teachers look at
termed its “student-focused” contract
proposal, deeming it a permissive sub-
ject of bargaining. In response, PAT
submitted what it called a “district-man-
dated” proposal, inserting economic
impact to some of its proposals. For ex-
ample, the union proposed that the dis-
trict give teachers a steep bonus if class
size exceeds allowable limits. Since pay
issues are mandatory subjects of bar-
gaining, Sullivan says the proposal was
intended as a way to force the district to
talk about class size. The bonus isn’t the
point, Sullivan said; the point is to pre-
vent unreasonable class sizes. But PPS
painted PAT’s class size bonus proposal
as a money grab.
Meanwhile, the district is paying
$15,000 a month to labor relations con-
sultant Yvonne Deckard. Deckard is a
retired City of Portland human re-
sources manager who is well-known to
union members there for her aggressive
style. Thus far, PPS has paid $240,000
for Deckard’s advice, on top of what it
pays for its in-house HR director and di-
rector of labor relations. PPS is also
paying outside law firm Miller Nash
upwards of $800,000 while also em-
ploying in-house counsel. For months,
PAT asked during bargaining to see the
district’s outside legal bills, but received
nothing but excuses.
And in press releases and other pub-
lic communications, the district has got-
ten aggressive with the union, calling
parts of the previous contract “out-
dated,” and suggesting PAT was not se-
rious about bargaining because it de-
clined to meet during the summer. Sul-
livan says bargaining has never taken
place during the summer: That’s when
teachers work other jobs, take vacation,
and enroll in classes.
With a strike beginning to seem
likely, PAT has begun working to build
community support. On Oct. 4, it
launched a web site created by political
consultant Mark Wiener, teachersand-
parentstogether.com. The site asks
teachers, parents, and community mem-
bers to sign up to receive email updates,
and to spread the word about the dis-
pute on social media.
A group of high school students —
the Portland Student Union — has
formed to support teachers. Several of
its members have addressed the School
Board, calling on the district to listen to
teachers.
“Please, set aside your reckless
union-busting agenda, and do your job,”
Cleveland High School senior Ian Jack-
son asked board members Oct. 21. The
group is also circulating an online peti-
tion asking the district to return to the
bargaining table.
“I think it’s important to see the
teachers union struggle in the larger
context of the attack on workers,” said
Madison High School social studies
teacher Adam Sanchez, chair of PAT’s
external organizing effort. “The teach-
ers union is being attacked because it’s
the largest unionized sector in the
United States.”
Beyond work rules and compensa-
tion, there’s another dimension to the
dispute. It’s a battle over what public ed-
ucation will look like in years to come.
Teachers perceive that they are under at-
tack by a well-organized national move-
ment, funded by billionaires and hedge
fund managers, that is pushing a corpo-
rate ideology on public school systems.
Core assumptions of this movement are
that schools are failing, and that teachers
and their unions are to blame. Propo-
nents of what has come to be called
“corporate education reform” place
great stock in ratings and rankings: They
believe that educational achievement
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NOVEMBER 1, 2013