Tuesday, November 2, 2010

3 Transformations

Colleagues,

It is about time that we create a Movement for 3 Great Transformations in Public Education: Transforming Public Education, Transforming Public School/Public Education Governance, and Transforming our Union.

Transforming Public Education VS Charter Schools

The politicians allied with the billion-dollar corporations, private universities and the corporate-embedded media are selling poor urban school districts charter schools as the only model for reforming Public Education. In reality, the charter-school model is really a backdoor way of forcing poor Black and Latino people to swallow ‘vouchers’ to privatize the Public Education system.

The Federal, State and City governments are gradually relinquishing responsibility for Education to the private sector. They are doing this in the most repugnant and unethical way. They play a psychological con game by lying about the real causes of the problems in our Public Education System.

Primarily, in line with the corporate agenda, they blame the Teachers’ Unions for everything that’s wrong with Public Education in a propaganda blitz that aims to divide Teachers, Parents and Communities. They are blaming Public Educators for a state of affairs we did not create. They are clamoring our sentencing for crimes we didn’t commit.

Historically, the Public Education System evolves with its strength and weaknesses. All along, the strength of Public Education has been Unionized Public Educators. They provided stability and consistency for the development of the Teaching Profession. In most instances, Public Educators spend millions of dollars of their own money to make up for lack of supplies and resources in the schools.

Public Educators have been the backbone of the Public Education System. Its main weaknesses have been all the bureaucracies that were allowed to govern the system and did not allow Public Educators to have a voice in how the schools are run. If given voice, Public Educators allied with Parents and other stakeholders can transform Public Education. We are able to organize instructional content to deliver quality education for every student. The private sector cannot transform Public Education. They are only vying to make a profit on the backs of our children, parents and taxpayers. Whatever they can do, we can do it better with more passion because, by definition, we are Public Servants by choice not to make a profit.

It is unfortunate that President Obama and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, are playing so much in the hands of the private sector to favor privatization of our Public Education System through the establishment of charter schools. Public Educators working together with parents and communities are the direct answer to the challenges facing Public Education today.

Transforming Public School/Public Education Governance vs Bureaucracy

One of the major plagues affecting Public Education has been governance. For the most part, the Public Education System has been governed by rigid bureaucracies. Pubic School Educators rarely have input in decision-making pertaining to the curriculum, formulation of school policies and governance. They are merely treated as second-class citizens who should have no opinions about anything.

Guidelines, Scope and Sequence, Teaching Guides, Standards are usually imposed. Creativity is simply stifled. We are told what to do with no questions asked. The tyranny has been unbearable. Principals are given sole authority over everything and everybody. In such state of affairs, how can we, Public Educators, be blamed for the things that don’t work in Public Education? It is ludicrous to make us the scapegoat of the failings of such a system. In such conditions, using the failings of some Public Schools to clamor in favor of privatization through charter schools is proof of shallow, fuzzy logic or the result of intentional dupery for the true purpose of reaping profits for the private sector.

If the powers-that-be were really honest people, they would naturally look first at the question of school governance as a very essential and important factor in Public Education. Instead of quickly enacting laws favoring closing Public Schools and opening up charter schools, they would create dynamic governance structures that truly represent the Educators, Parents, Administrators, and other stakeholders in Public Education. They prefer to offer lip-service in setting up dysfunctional structures that cause more damages than solve anything only to turn around and blame us for the failings of their very ruses.

We want to transform the Public School/Public Education Governance Structure. We strive to develop more dynamic School Leadership Teams that are truly representative of the Educators, Parents, Administrators, and other stakeholders in the Public Education System. They should not be pliable SLTs at the service of principals. They should be real where all stakeholders will have input in the way the school is run: decisions about curriculum, formulation of school policies, creation of programs etc. The collective governance structure of the school level should be reflected also at the District, Citywide, State and Federal levels.

Transforming our Union vs Union Bureaucracy

Our Union, the United Federation of Teachers, has been taken hostage by a Political Party known as the Unity Caucus for as long as the Union has been in existence. It is the largest Political Party in our Union Federation. Largest Political Party does not translate being in our best interests as Education Workers.

We have to create committees of educators who are committed to the Union Movement, building understandings of why we need dynamic Unions. We want to start conversations about Social Justice Unionism in the various school buildings throughout the city. Our members will be able to develop the Union Spirit. They will less likely be inclined to allow administrators to divide and conquer in their midst. Our members will play a more active, dynamic and pro-active role in their Chapters. They will apply the ethics of Social Justice Unionism in their Chapters, Communities and throughout the Union.

In this process, the members will build democratic Chapters which will allow them to grow into capable, dynamic, and well-rooted Social Justice Unionists. They will work together to build Platforms of Concerns to be addressed in their school buildings. Those concerns should be addressed in all avenues established in the school, namely, the School Leadership Team, the Consultation Committee, the Safety Committee, and other appropriate committees and gatherings organized at the building level.

Throughout this process, the Grassroots Education Movement will provide guidance to the members through committees we have been able to establish at the school level. Those committees are not going to be our committees but will have some level of relationship with the Grassroots Education Movement.

The Chapter should have an internal Newsletter for the dissemination of pertinent information for the members. The Chapter structure should allow for networking with other Chapters in the surrounding areas and other Educator groups around the City. It is important to take our conversation beyond the walls of our Chapters and internalize conversations from other Chapters and other groups.

With that process, we will be able to think together, work together and act together on small and big issues at both the local and citywide levels. Chapters alone or in collaboration with other Chapters will work to frame and develop Resolutions about issues of concern for our members in the Union or the social justice struggles in the City or the world. Those resolutions will be presented in the Delegate Assembly by the delegates of those Chapters framing the resolutions.

Our members at the grassroots don’t usually know what goes on at the Delegate Assemblies or how to frame resolutions to be presented at those meetings. The Union bureaucracy does not encourage such initiatives either. Most resolutions are drafted by the bureaucracy behind our backs. We must change this practice. Our members should know it is their right to be able to send resolutions to the Delegate Assembly to be considered for a vote of the delegates. Most likely the Unity loyalists will shoot them down. However, it is no less important and essential that our Chapters exercise this right within our own Union.

Our members will seek ways to organize and work collectively on various issues of concern to them at the building level, the community, the city, and the world. That is the essence of Social Justice Unionism. It means that we are not only concerned about our own well-being but also about the well-being of our Fellow Human Beings here and abroad. We practice Solidarity, Compassion, Love and Fellowship.

Our goal is to transform the United Federation of Teachers into a dynamic, agitating, and democratic Social Justice Union.

By Tony Da Fighter

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to say that in all the years I have raised my eight children, the educational system is now at it's worst. Now, I sit back and clearly see the legalize segration that is happening right before our eyes. I have five High Schools located in one building right across the street from where I live. I would never send my son to any of the high schools that are located in that one school building. Why, being that live there I see the police camping out most of the time there. Children being stab or attacked in one way or another. The police throwing our children against the wall to search them for whatever they might have that could hurt themselves or others. I would search the internet for the incident report to what happen. I can't find anything. I just could not understand why? I now know why who would send thier children there if they knew this, I wouldn't.
It is now three A.M. and I am posting a comment because I'm scared what is going to happen to my son future. How am I going to help him get through this system that has cheated my other children. Point me somewhere, tell me where to go because taking the money putting it in an area where it is not going to work for our children it is just a waste of time in the blame game.

Anonymous said...

Ananymous,
All of the experiences your 8 children have gone through exist by the design of the DOE historically. The segregation is built in. Some districts are richer than others and so the students are better off with better technology, better-equipped classrooms, smaller class sizes etc. Most public schools are doing their best to educate our students with close to nothing. Teachers are spending their own money to buy instructional supplies without complaining or excuses. Those that failed our children are blaming teachers when things go wrong. Those who are pushing charter schools are making the segregation worse and are dividing parents, teachers and communities. Charter schools are not the solution. They are not Public schools. They are in fact undermining Public Schools by robbing them of money. After October 31, the cut-off date when they can keep the student's share of the money, charter schools are allowed to counsel students they cannot handle back to the Public Schools. Public school parents and teachers must come together in a united front to fight for quality public schools by forcing the hand of the bureaucrats of the DOE to provide the same adequate instructional resources in rich districts, smaller class sizes, quality Professional Development for Educators, better democratic school governance with parents, teachers and administrators. You can make a difference. Join the struggle now.
Tony Da Fighter

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree with you more. I've noticed that the more we put in into volunteering the stuff that is being shove over to us as parents is ridicules. I have been a parent that is very involve. I even went as far as joining the CEC for district 75. I can't begin to tell you the horror that I had to encounter because most of the Latino and Black children are being classified as emotionally disturb, when most of the time most of our children just maybe dyslexics or just have problems with focusing. I wont even begin with class size which is where most of the problems in our schools stem from. Today I look at the whole picture of what is happening to our children, I could say that politically the ball is being drop just so that we can grab another without shooting it into basket in the first place.
SLTs ball one, UFT ball two, CECs ball three, class size ball four and so on...I am just so sick of all of these changes and nothing is being resolved. Yet and still I am still willing to stand up for the cause our children. just show me an effective way that I can make a difference. I will be there at first light if I have to.

Anonymous said...

How many of your children are still in Public Schools? Are you still involved with the Public Schools and in what capacity?

Tony Da Fighter

Anonymous said...

I have two but one has special needs and is in a private school on Long Island. I serve as a parent member any chance I get on my own dime. I am tire of our children not recieving the services that belong to them in first place. Mothers crying because they don't know where or how to get what our children need. To tell you the truth I am looking to get involved from a diffrent angle because these CECs,SLTs and Parent Cordinators that end being an assistant to principals our not working at all. I want get involve.
Do you know that most of the children that end up on Rikers Island have had or have an IEP, if I could just get to those mothers before they lose their children to a system that does not cares anymore,wow, I think I could help make a diffence. I have to remind folks, if we don't take care of our children educational needs now they end up mugging us in the future. A different angle to get involve because I am not pleased with what is going on now.

Anonymous said...

If you are a Long Island resident, it would be hard for you to get involved in the work in New York City. Is it possible for you to come to a GEM event on December
7th? Look at the GEM homepage for more information about it.

Tony Da Fighter

Anonymous said...

Thank You, I do live in the city. I will try my best to.