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.
You are correct, but union bosses have been coopted by big money politics and court intrigue. The leadership is flaccid and coddled. They must be replaced.
ReplyDeleteUnion bosses have been coopted by big money politics, but they are also a product of the very structure of trade unions, which accept existing social relations and exploitation and merely beg for crumbs and handouts. They accept the bosses' right to profit off our labor and consider the bosses to be our allies because they "give" us work. They serve as workplace police, ensuring that we continue to work peacefully, discounting rank and file frustrations and undermining their initiative to fight back.
ReplyDeleteEffective resistance to Ed Deform(if it happens at all) will necessarily occur through wildcat actions, not by any initiative from the AFT or NEA.