Looming Strike for Teachers in Ramona, CA

Teachers in the Ramona school district in San Diego County have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. CTA officials say that 99% of the teachers participated in the vote, with 75% voting in favor of a strike. The vote does not mean that a strike will necessarily happen, though. Rather, it is a legal requirement before teachers can actually walk off the job, something their union may ask of them in the near future if negotiations with their district fail.

Negotiations are currently stalled, according to the Ramona Patch, in the wake of recent school board decisions to slash teacher pay by 7.8% this year and 9.4% next year. Donna Braye-Romero, president of the Ramona Teachers Association, said “We don’t want to strike. We’ve never wanted to strike. The district is forcing the situation.”

Of course the district is not actually forcing the teachers to strike—they could just shut up and take it. After all, Superintendent Robert Graeff is saying there isn’t enough money and the county Office of Education won’t approve a budget that is in the red. So from their perspective it is perfectly reasonable to “trim the fat” to balance their budget, a claim that is routinely made by bosses in all industries during tough times to justify layoffs and pay cuts. Indeed, this argument is so “reasonable” that the union itself has accepted it, and even conceded pay cuts for the first year of the new contract. Rather than demanding raises, or least maintaining current salaries, with the money coming from the district’s reserves or from slashed administrators’ salaries, the union is merely asking for “restitution” language in the new contract, according to the Voice of San Diego, so that if more money comes in in the future, the extra would go into teachers’ salaries.

California Teachers Association spokesman Bill Guy believes that the Ramona district is intent on breaking the union. This is very likely true. However, that is not a good reason for accepting the bosses’ claims of poverty at face value or for conceding a significant pay cut, something that may very well weaken the union by driving some teachers out of the district. Requesting “restitution” language is itself a significant concession and contributes to the weakening of the union by showing teachers just how weak and conciliatory their union really is.

On the other hand, if the district does not moderate its aggressive stance (17.2% pay cut over the next two years) teachers will almost certainly walk off the job. The struggle would then be the union’s to “win” or lose. If they do walk out, the union will likely end the strike if the district withdraws its demand for a second year of pay cuts, probably even without the “restitution” language. The union will call it a victory, but the teachers will be working for significantly less money than they were before, with little hope of ever making up what they lost.

Presidential Debates and Education

In a nutshell: both presidential contenders want more sticks and fewer carrots. Both want more testing and less thinking for students, more privatization,  and more work and weaker unions for teachers.

Obama wants more Race to the Top (RttT), which he has mischaracterized as a grassroots initiative since states write their own grants, with their own reform proposals. However, the Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that states will not receive a penny unless they adopt the Common Core Standards (CCS), continue using high stakes exams for students and make their scores on these exams a major part of teacher evaluations, and significantly increase charter schools.

Considering that virtually every state has had budget deficits over the past three to four years, while cities have seen continuing depressed housing markets and lower property tax revenues, school districts and state departments of education are all desperate for any handouts they can get. Under these circumstances, RttT is really a stick in carrot’s clothing. The federal government has flatly refused to bail the states out of their fiscal crises while, at the same time, exacerbating them by reducing its own contributions to many programs the states and feds had previously funded jointly. A second Obama presidency is unlikely to change any of this.

Obama claimed that his “reforms” have already resulted in academic gains. However, there is no way to prove that his “reforms” had anything to do with the slight increases in test scores seen in some states. Many were already showing improvements in test scores before he took office. Most are still seeing high numbers of schools failing to meet their Adequate Yearly Progress targets under NCLB. According to the Los Angeles Times, Diane Ravitch said that Obama’s RttT has “thus far improved nothing.”

So how would a Romney presidency differ from an Obama one on education?

For teachers and students there would be little change, except probably even less revenue to keep the schools from sinking further. Romney wants to “simplify” the structure of the Department of Education, which likely means shrinking it, as well as its budget. While the feds contribute only a modicum of support for schools, even this would likely dwindle under Romney.

Romney has also criticized Obama’s stimulus plan, but not because it was too little or too weak, which it was. In fact, Obama’s stimulus plan did provide one-time only money to states that helped reduce the number of teachers that had to be laid off. Yet even with the stimulus, California still had to lay off thousands of teachers and many of those it could keep had to be jettisoned once the stimulus funding ran out.

What Romney didn’t like was that some of the token amount of income tax he actually paid to the feds was spent to pay those selfish, lazy teachers to educate the impoverished inner city rabble instead of subsidizing his business investments. Under a Romney presidency, there is virtually no chance of another stimulus, and certainly not one that would fund teacher salaries.

Teacher Raises in Omaha

As unlikely as it might seem, there are a few people other than CEOs and Wall Street Bankers receiving raises these days. Even more unbelievable is that some of these are teachers.

Members of the Millard Education Association (Omaha, Nebraska), have won a 1.5% raise for the 2012-13 school year and a 3.3% raise for the 2013-14 school year under their new contract, according to Omaha World Herald. The contract also increases stipends for coaches and other extra duties like band directing. Millard Public Schools is the state's third-largest school district with roughly 1,700 teachers.

Under the new contract, head football coaches will receive a $7,500 stipend next year and $8,600 in 2013-14. High school band directors will get a $7,560 stipend for the next two years. Head varsity basketball coaches will earn $7,150 stipends next year and $7,740 the next year. And high school golf, tennis and cross country coaches will get $3,300 stipends next year and $3,870 in 2013-14. Other extra-duty stipends include $1,740 for Academic Decathlon coaches and $580 for club sponsors. For those who also teach, these stipends are in addition to their base salaries.

California’s War on Public Education

California schools cut 15,000 teachers and $1 billion from their budgets last year, according to the Sacramento Bee, which amounts to a 5.5% statewide reduction in the teaching payroll. However, the state teaching payroll was also slashed 3% the previous year, while 40,000 teaching jobs and more than $20 billion have been cut over the past four years.