Politics and Education

"All politics is local." At various times I have agreed with and disagreed with this well worn quote. But now as our local association's president, I am again seeing the truth in it. We are in the midst of contract negotiations. It appears that for the second year in a row that our teachers will take a pay cut in the form of lost days. It will amount to about a 4% cut over two years. Other associations throughout the state of California are doing the same thing.

I consider myself a moderate in union politics. If both sides are talking and try to stay open during negotiations, despite bad times, it is the best that I can expect. I would say that the "new" leadership of this association agrees with me. But I have started to hear more and more rumblings from a more radical side. Their position is to hold on the cuts in negotiations and I think that they have a valid argument.

They reason if the district unilaterally acts over the teachers' union to make cuts, at least the teachers are not cutting their own throats. They think that when the district makes even more radical cuts the public will be outraged. The best case scenario for them is that parents will notice the complete downgrading of education and vote themselves a parcel tax. Strangely this view appears to be the most optimistic because of an overinflated view, in my eyes, of parental outrage.

If the outcome of refusing to negotiate would be enough money eventually coming to schools, then it is obviously a good solution. Yet it would mean completely forfeiting collective bargaining rights. I think that collective bargaining is our strength. Even though the district is making cuts with our consent, we have bargained hard. Also the cuts that we have made are those that should be rescinded once the financial picture improves, if that ever happens.

California has the most dysfunctional system for funding schools in the United States. Well I haven't actually checked for Hawaii, Mississippi and Alabama. For one there are forces here who want to privatize the entire public education system. Yet I am diverging from the main point of this particular entry.