Susan Ohanian summed up the SOS march pretty well in her commentary Sex, Lies and SOS.
- Low teacher turn out
- Virtually no criticism of Obama
- Half-assed support by NEA and AFT, the former having already endorsed Obama, without asking, let alone demanding. a single thing for schools, teachers or children
- No attempt by the unions to organize or mobilize teachers to attend SOS or to strike
- No movement by unions to resist standardized tests
Bottom line: a million or even a billion teachers marching on Washington will have no effect on policy. If we want to end NCLB, increase funding, halt privatization, lower class sizes, decrease workloads and increase wages, we need to strike. We need to do it early and often. Anything short of this, and the quality of public education will continue its downward slide, along with our wages and working conditions.
