This article originally appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 14, 2013: Rather than divert attention and money to vouchers and charter schools, the president of the American Federation of Teachers says the district-teacher collaboration in St. Louis should become a model to help strengthen public school districts nationwide.
Citing grants for innovation and programs that help new teachers and veterans alike, Randi Weingarten told a news conference at Gateway Elementary School Tuesday that the survival of public education is at a pivotal moment.
When the economy went sour, she said, people began pointing fingers at public school teachers as part of the problem. But really, she said, teachers and the work that they do are the answer to making sure that the United States prospers and democracy flourishes.
“Too often in this country,” Weingarten said, “we idolize the John Wayne types rather than the John Dewey types.”
She added:
“This isn’t about blaming. This is about sharing responsibility.”
Weingarten was in St. Louis to help highlight the latest innovation fund grant to the St. Louis Public Schools and AFT Local 420, what she called “bottom-up reform at its best.” The money is being used to develop content for teachers that is being uploaded to ShareMyLesson.com, a website that includes videos and lesson plans that teachers can use to collaborate nationwide.
That kind of working together, she said, is what sets public education apart from the business model that too many people think schools should be following – a model she said is being championed by “the pirateers, the profiteers, the austerity caucus and the deprofessionalizers.”
Education needs strong neighborhood public schools, Weingarten said, ones that listen to parents who want less emphasis on tests and more concentration on a broader-based curriculum that teaches a range of subjects.
“Parents want to help schools and have art and music and physical education,” she said. “They don’t want schools that simply fixate on English English English and math math math.”
Schools that have supported teachers and provide a safe, welcoming environment can teach students best, she said, and that goal is what lawmakers should be concentrating on.
“A lot of people in Jefferson City should be spending five minutes in a classroom rather than dictating to us what we should be doing,” Weingarten said.
She lumped charter schools and vouchers together, even though she acknowledged that there is a place for the kind of collaboration that the St. Louis Public Schools is doing with KIPP and other charters. She noted that the AFT has started charters itself, but when the Imagine charter schools had to shut down in St. Louis, it was the public school system that stepped in to enroll the students who were left stranded.
“Ultimately where I diverge from charter schools is that they are based on competition,” Weingarten said. “They are focusing on winners and losers and taking money away from the public schools, rather than fulfilling their original purpose, to be laboratories for public education.”
That attitude, she added, is the real problem with comparing education to business, as many people tend to do.
“The really, really big difference between business and public schools is that schools are about helping all kids,” Weingarten said. “Business is about winners and losers, not about a way to help more kids succeed.”
That goal, she said, is what makes teachers enter the profession in the first place.
“If someone takes a hammer or a stick to us,” she said, “it doesn’t make us better.”
And, Weingarten added, schools and society must work together to make sure that children have conditions at home and at school to help them learn.
“It’s a matter of does the country or does the state care enough for its children,” she said. “We do not care enough for other people’s children….
“If a kid comes into school hungry, that child is not going to be able to focus on education.”
Finally, she praised the progress made in St. Louis.
“The stuff that happens in St. Louis doesn’t happen by magic,” Weingarten said. “It takes people who want to collaborate, to make that work real.”
Kelvin Adams superintendent of the city schools, called the work the district does with the union “a true partnership,” adding:
“It’s about understanding that we’re all in this together. We’re not in competition. We are better together than we are apart.”
And Local 420 President Mary Armstrong said that city teachers have to spread the word about the good things that are happening in the district.
“The only time you see St. Louis Public Schools in the news is if we have something go wrong,” she said.
She urged teachers in the room who had sat through a demonstration lesson earlier in the afternoon:
“If you tweet, tweet. I don’t. If you use Facebook, do Facebook. I don’t do that either.”
Armstrong said that teachers who were asked about their highest priority said it wasn’t necessarily salary or benefits, it was professional development and the support that teachers need.
Then she added:
“Don’t get me wrong. I like money…. I know we haven’t gotten raises in two years. I know that better than anybody.”
Armstrong said members of the union will be voting Wednesday night on a contract proposal that the city schools say is their last, best offer. It calls for $3.9 million in wages and fringe benefits, with the distribution of the money between certificated and other school personnel yet to be determined.
If the union approves the proposal, it will go to the district's Special Administrative Board at its meeting Thursday night.
According to the proposal, the union agrees that any future pay increases would be tied to a raise in the district's tax levy.
Asked whether she would recommend passage of the proposal, Armstrong noted that she is only one of several members on the union’s executive committee, so she didn’t want to make it sound like she had the final say. Then she added:
“This is the best we’re going to get.”