by: Jason O'Neal, FFWP
The
administrators and moderators of the group reviewed questionnaires given to
those who wanted to join. These surveys
asked how potential members are connected to the education field. Because I had just recently moved to Phoenix
to take a job as an “educator” for a non-profit which provides temporary
housing for undocumented migrants, I was allowed to join the group.
Once inside the
AEU Facebook page, I was able to chat and post comments on the timeline. There were more than twenty thousand members
from across the state with some from other regions of the U.S. I quickly noticed that many of the conversations
were aimed at coordinating events and hundreds of teachers were posting selfies
and group photos wearing red tee-shirts.
#RedforEd was underway and, although it can be argued about how
ineffective a tactic like wearing shirts in solidarity can be, it appeared to
be a unifying action for this group. Discussions were also taking place in relation
to a potential walk-out by these teachers in response to stagnating wages and
the legislative failures of the state government to properly fund public
education.
Some of the more
conscious comments made by multiple members were targeted at the Arizona
Education Association. Joe Thomas,
president of the AEA, had just appeared at a press conference where he took the
opportunity to endorse a Democratic Party candidate for governor in the
upcoming elections in November. https://www.azcentral.com/videos/news/local/arizona-education/2018/03/07/arizona-education-association-endorses-david-garcia-governor/32701863/
Perhaps tired of
the same political rhetoric, these class-conscious members were not happy with
the AEA turning this action into an endorsement of David Garcia, a professor
turned politician who unsuccessfully ran for Arizona State Superintendent of
Public Instruction in 2016. Aside from
laying blame for the education crisis on the current governor, Doug Ducey,
Garcia comes with support from the usual suspects of the liberal flavor of politics
for the two-party government of big business.
With about a dozen non-profits and labor union endorsements added to a
slew of state senators and legislators, as well as countless school board
members, Garcia is portrayed as the Democratic savior of education in
Arizona. https://dg4az.com/supporters/
For the rest of
that afternoon on into the early evening I engaged with AEU members through
private messages and comments on various posts.
The group came from a wide variety of backgrounds and were concerned
about many aspects of a possible teacher strike. Hundreds of likes and hearts were clicked
that day and Facebook provided a platform for questions and open discussions
between teachers from all over the state and from dozens of school
districts. Most were encouraging
messages professing support and asking about an upcoming march, but smaller
groups were actively planning and coordinating local actions and organizing at
their work sites. At one point I was
even involved in a conversation about learning from the lessons of the West
Virginia strikes. A wildcat strike,
which went against the current laws in that state, resulted in a pay raise of five
percent for all state employees. The
Arizona group, however, was looking at how the West Virginia legislature
responded and quickly realized that government officials fought them every step
of the way. Additionally, the teachers
in Arizona voiced their displeasure with how the West Virginia elected
officials were going to pull the money from healthcare and other social
spending programs. This group of
educators didn’t want the same thing to happen here. Not all voices of AEU were united,
however, as many retired teachers who receive pensions and are supplementing
their income by substitute teaching were concerned about a strike because it
would affect their pocketbooks. One of
them, a retiree living in Mesa, tried to get me removed from the group because
he didn’t like my use of the term “business agent” when describing how a
movement like this can get swallowed up by the labor bureaucracy if they aren’t
careful.
Feeling
energized and optimistic of a potential mass action movement developing here in
Phoenix, I “friended’ several teachers from the group who liked the exchange of
comments I had with other members. Over
the next weeks AEU continued their calls for #RedforEd every Wednesday and not
surprisingly that slogan has been picked up by more than a few of the local
politicians. When I attended the March
for Our Lives in Phoenix at the end of March, I saw many people in attendance
were wearing their red tee-shirts and carried signs with slogans about education
funding. This was an exciting moment
because Facts For Working People has discussed on several of our conference
calls the explosive potential of a united front of teachers and students
marching with women, grass roots activists from Black Lives Matter, and
environmentalists against the failures of capitalism in solving the problems it
has helped to create.
Will the New Boss be the same as the Old Boss…?
The more class-conscious
members of AEU are not fooled by the political grandstanding of the AEA and its
willingness to continue to support the Democratic Party. In a state which has voted solidly
conservative on national issues over the past seventy years (except in 1996
when Bill Clinton carried the Grand Canyon State), it may be easy to lay blame
on the doorstep of the Republican Party.
Since they hold the lion’s share of the state bureaucracy that might be
a correct assessment, however, Democratic Party lawmakers are not innocent in
helping to create this crisis of the classroom.
During the governorship of Janet Napolitano, the last Democrat to hold
that office, she “signed a law that allowed some parents to receive state
education money to pay tuition at private schools.” Serving as Governor of Arizona from 2003
until 2009, before she was tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security
of the Obama Administration, Napolitano was known as the “Education
Governor.” However, before she took
control of agencies which deported more immigrants than any administration in
history, Napolitano left Arizona “nearly last in the country for K-12 funding,
with a high-school graduation rate of 70 percent and state universities
burdened with students unprepared for college work.” http://archive.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/11/24/20081124education1124.html#ixzz5CJDFa5Cx
Surprisingly,
the years under Republican Governor Jan Brewer did see more money earmarked for
education with nearly $600 million restored to a budget plan after she pressured
the Legislature. I would not presume to
portray Brewer as an ally to working people or the poor, but the details of
education funding in Arizona show a more complex story than just bottom line
cash deposits. Also, that “restored
budget plan” was during Brewer’s first year, so how did we get to where we are
now? What must be said, regardless of
the political party affiliation of elected representatives in Arizona, is that education
funding in this state has been eviscerated over the past decade.
Where are we now…?
Today
is May Day and less than sixty days since I first heard of AEU. Their membership on Facebook has grown to
more than fifty thousand people and the teachers are now in their fourth day of
a walkout which most think will continue at least through the next few
days. On the first day of the walkout tens of thousands of people marched in a sea of red on the state
capital and lawmakers left the building early to avoid the crowd. This morning’s radio interview with one of
the leaders of the AEU revealed that teachers are planning to march on the
state capital until legislators pass a budget to increase funding, which could
take until Thursday.
What
has transpired in the past two months?
Some Republican lawmakers have taken to social media and launched
attacks akin to red-baiting communists in the 1950s. This is occurring at the same time that
members of the state senate are profiting from charter school vouchers. http://azdailysun.com/flaglive/full_frontal/letters_to_ducey/the-problem-with-power-steve-yarbrough-schools-and-the-law/article_85f68414-db43-5328-9c85-1d8b2b4ae7a1.html
There
have also been ideas floated out in the capital about $150 in credits for
educators who have to buy school supplies for their students. Laughable at best, but merely a drop in the
bucket on addressing the needs of an education system on life support.
Conservative
lawmakers and their fundraisers disguised as political “think tanks” are now
crying foul by stating the teachers are in violation of their employment
contracts and that this walkout is “illegal.”
Imagine how those allegations would have been met in West Virginia where
teachers “illegally” walked out against the “better advice” of their labor
leadership. Many of those educators in
Appalachia were direct descendants of miners who took up arms against the state
and coal companies to fight for better wages and working conditions when it was
“illegal” to strike there decades ago. I
am not advocating armed resistance by teachers, however, it must be shown that
the power of workers to organize and mobilize has constantly been undermined by
the labor union officialdom who parrot the bosses about the legality of work
stoppages. When you consider the current
legislative proposals in Colorado to criminalize walkouts, we must ask
ourselves—why… Why are elected
representatives trying to cut off future teacher mobilizations?
What are
national teacher unions doing about it?
Randi Weingarten was in Phoenix yesterday touting support from the
American Federation of Teachers (the parent organization of the AEA). Where have these unions been for the past
decades of education debacles in the United States? How would Weingarten be addressing this issue
if she were the Secretary of Education in a Hillary Clinton administration,
like many political insiders were predicting back in 2016? Arizona educators should beware of the smiling
faces from labor union leaders, especially when one considers the role they
have played in propping up the American Empire’s political agenda. http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=6751
Democratic Party
lawmakers and their supporters are not very inspiring other than blaming the
current governor and the Republican legislature. Ducey is even facing a possible GOP
challenger in the upcoming election based on his latest attempts to “work with”
the teachers. In a politically astute
move, perhaps to foment division within the ranks of teachers or weaken public
support, Ducey proposed a twenty percent pay increase for teachers to be rolled
out in steps over the next few years. But,
given his past promises and failures, the governor is not gaining much traction
in breaking this movement.
What are they fighting for…?
A history of what #RedforEd is up
against:
According to
AEU, seventy-four percent of registered voters in Arizona believe public K-12
schools are underfunded. Tracing this
back over the past two decades, in 2000, voters approved Proposition 301 to
increase state sales taxes by 0.6 percent and direct those funds to public
education. However, in 2008, the state
began funneling that money to other areas of the budget. Arizona schools successfully sued the state
in 2010 for “misappropriating” that sales tax money, but the state refused to
pay. Instead, under then state treasurer
Doug Ducey, the state offered Proposition 123 to take money from the state land
trust and settle for seventy percent of what was due from the lawsuit. A U.S. District Court judge later determined
that Prop. 123 was unconstitutional and Arizona public education never received
its back payments. It is also important
to note that before he began his political career Ducey was the CEO of Cold
Stone Creamery and had ties to Teach for America and the Arizona State Charter
School Board.
The lasting
effects of this underfunding has resulted in Arizona schools having more than
$1.1 billion less than 2008 funding levels.
The state is now ranked 49th in the U.S. for teacher pay with
no significant raises in the last ten years.
Teachers have fled the state creating more than two thousand vacancies
and leaving more than sixty thousand students in some 3,400 classrooms without
a permanent “certified” teacher. Arizona
also spends less on administrative costs, $780 per student, versus the national
average of $1,173. Per pupil classroom
funding is ranked 48th in the nation at less than $3,300 per
child. In the sixth largest city in the
United States, and a region that accounts for three quarters of the state
population, public schools receive nearly fifteen percent less funding than
they did ten years ago. Money is no
longer available for facility repairs, building maintenance, and
construction. Some public schools have
ceiling tiles falling, leaking pipes, roach and rat infestations, and
malfunctioning plumbing as a result of the $2 billion cut from “capital
funding” since 2009.
Teachers are asking
for these issues to be addressed and funded properly before they return to
classrooms. The members of AEU voted nearly
3 to 1 to walkout and make the following demands:
· Restore Education Funding to 2008 levels
· No new tax cuts until Arizona pupil funding moves to the national average of $11,392
· Twenty percent salary increases
· Competitive pay for ALL EDUCATION SUPPORT STAFF, this includes cooks, custodians, librarians, bus drivers, and paraprofessionals
· Permanent salary including annual raises
· Restore Education Funding to 2008 levels
· No new tax cuts until Arizona pupil funding moves to the national average of $11,392
· Twenty percent salary increases
· Competitive pay for ALL EDUCATION SUPPORT STAFF, this includes cooks, custodians, librarians, bus drivers, and paraprofessionals
· Permanent salary including annual raises
Now, one may ask
where this funding will come from and many of the members of AEU are divided on
this very issue. It's where the
details get tricky. Local radio stations
are running interviews with pundits and some members of AEU where they are
discussing the possibility of legislating a sales tax increase through a
November ballot measure. Some say it could be as
high as one percent, but most are settling on a half a percent hike in taxes. This may sound appealing at first, however,
why should citizens of this state settle for voting on a ballot issue to raise
their taxes to fund schools when tax cuts for the wealthy and large
corporations is what got us here to begin with?
That sounds pretty regressive, even for those Democrats who are claiming
to be “progressive.” What’s next? Another school bond where future tax revenues
are given away to pay for loans with interest to Wall Street banks and private investors? Just look at what happened in
Puerto Rico and their current financial mess dealing with municipal bonds to
figure out where things can get worse for public education in the Grand Canyon
State. https://www.npr.org/about-npr/606033768/frontline-and-npr-investigate-the-recovery-from-hurricane-maria-in-puerto-rico
The bottom line
is there is no quick fix for the mess that public education in the U.S. has
found itself in. Yes, it’s good to see
so much teacher resistance to President Trump and his education secretary,
Betsy DeVos, but performance pay tied to teacher growth, standardized testing, unequal education based on property values and income, and cuts to public education funding have been around for
decades. In the case of Arizona, cuts made to state budgets
during the Great Recession because of decreased tax revenues were compounded by
additional tax breaks for the wealthy.
Once the economy “recovered” (if anyone who works for a living can even
consider their circumstances to be better) the taxes were never restored and
the top tenth of one percent of the wealthiest Americans kept their money while
the overwhelming majority are worse off than they were in 2008. Some states, like Arizona and Oklahoma (whose
own teachers walked out last month) continued to lower taxes with no concerns
about funding education.
Speaking of
Oklahoma educators, mistakes made by their
leadership in ending their walkout after nine days must be addressed. With a pay increase of $1,250 per teacher
passed off as a victory, the Oklahoma Education Association stated it will turn
its focus on supporting Democrats in the upcoming elections. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/oklahoma-teachers-strike.html
Is this not how
the labor bureaucracy always suppresses movements from the rank and file? And aren’t Democrats just as much to blame as
Republicans? Just look at what former
President Obama’s first chief of staff, Rohm Emanuel, has done to teacher
unions in Chicago if you need to be reminded of what to expect from the two
political cartels of power and money.
Will teachers in Arizona fall for the same divide and rule tactics? Only time will tell, but what remains to be
seen is what will Democrats offer teachers in exchange for their concessions to
the bosses?
I will leave you
with a lesson I have learned about politics in the United States. I came to Phoenix from California, where I
lived for more than twenty years in San Diego and the Bay Area. Over the past decade I have become more
politically active, first through my former union and then by unwittingly
supporting liberal candidates for elected office. I grew up in a conservative community in
South Texas, but I have moved further left and passed the liberal capitalists because of the things I have learned from the events of my own life and the changing of my class
consciousness. It has been a fast-paced and educating experience, but an invaluable one which has taught me to look both
ways before crossing the street. In this
case, watch out for those who you know are against you as well as the actions,
or inaction, of those who claim to be your allies.
Teachers in
Arizona have accomplished many things in a short period of time and their
success must be recognized. However, it
is the responsibility of workers everywhere, whether organized or not, to help
them see the possible errors made by previous direct actions and how to avoid
them as this movement continues to grow stronger. Employers and workers have nothing in common and our interests are contradictory to one another. The sooner we all realize this the better.
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