Putting School Reform and Teacher Quality in Perspective
We need to be upfront that in some schools and classrooms students are not being treated respectfully or educated well. Sometimes teachers who work in schools would not want to send their children to the schools in which they teach. We have to find ways to put this on the table so that we maintain credibility with our natural allies—parents and activists in communities that have, historically, not been given equal educational opportunity. Improving educational outcomes for kids whose families are poor and whose neighborhoods are dangerous will take a great deal more than improving teaching. While not all teachers are great (who is, in any occupation?), we need to make the case that the exclusive focus on teacher quality ignores many powerful social factors outside the classroom.6 Consider how little we hear about child hunger, homelessness, and unemployment affecting school achievement, especially in comparison to the horror tales about tenure and union contracts. As experienced teachers know, what occurs in classrooms also depends on how well schools are run, on the quality of the administrators who oversee the school’s operations, set the school’s tone, and supervise teachers.
Still, I cringe when teachers and union officials answer tirades about poor teaching with the argument that schools and teachers are helpless in light of social problems. Worse still is criticism that parents aren’t doing their jobs so teachers can’t do theirs. This stance of denial falls into our enemies’ trap of making us seem uncaring and self-serving. It isolates us from parents, whom we need on our side. Moreover, blaming parents or saying that schools are helpless to do a better job ignores that some schools do better than others. There are ways we can improve schools, and a teachers union’s mantra should be that social and economic facts influence what occurs in classrooms, and, at the same time, schools and teachers will have better results when they are better supported. I’d say that The Schools Chicago Students Deserve, a report published by the Chicago Teachers Union, is a fine model of how to set out what we need to make schools work.7 The report describes the services and rich instructional diet all kids deserve and at the same time explains how race and economic status configure the low-quality education that poor kids of color actually receive.
Education can’t solve the country’s economic problems or create new jobs, and we must say so loudly. By insisting that education is the key to ending poverty, politicians avoid taking on the fight for economic policies the country desperately needs. Labor and progressives need to push hard on the federal government to create jobs that benefit the public and pay enough for families to live decently.8 Schools (and teachers) can help put all students on an equal educational footing for existing jobs. Better schools can democratize the competition for jobs, but they can’t eliminate the “tyranny of the labor market,” the absence of enough well-paying jobs.9 Good teachers unions will join with other labor unions in fighting for full employment, as was done during the Great Depression. But teachers unions have special responsibilities, too.
What Makes a Union of Teachers Different?
What makes a union of teachers different from a union of bus drivers, electricians, or nurses? Describing teaching as a profession is often an opener for arguing that what we need are professional organizations, not labor unions, but we can’t let that deter us from examining this issue because the unique nature of teachers’ work is one of the reasons teachers are experiencing such a vicious political attack.
To start, we should be clear about the ways unions of teachers are, or should be, like other good labor unions. First, all labor unions should be defining their members’ interests broadly, seeing members’ immediate interests as inseparable from what’s best for working people. Second, workers in public service and the unions that represent them have to be especially mindful of championing quality services, especially for people who have traditionally been underserved.
In one respect, teachers are no different from other workers in needing democratic, vibrant unions that stand up for social justice. But a good teachers union has special moral and political responsibilities because of the unique nature of teachers’ work. Teachers are idea workers. We need to be absolutely clear about this aspect of our work because it’s a major reason the banks and corporations aim to control teaching and teachers. A key aim of the neoliberal project, that is, the goal of the educational policy being pushed by the 1 percent and their political allies, is to destroy teachers’ autonomy and the space this creates in schools for critical thought and for ideas of freedom and social justice.
Most teachers don’t think of themselves as “idea workers.” They enter the profession because they love being with children or the subject matter they want to teach. Teachers think about what went on in class today and what they will do tomorrow, next week, and maybe next month. They often don’t consider that in their classrooms they are, in fact, shaping society. Unfortunately, the architects of attacks on teachers understand all too well that regardless of a teacher’s conscious intent, s/he influences how students see themselves and society. Teachers have the potential to affect social arrangements, challenging the authority of elites who have an interest in maintaining their own power and privilege. While all labor unions—all citizens!—have a stake in promoting and protecting teachers’ ability to educate students who can think for themselves, a union of teachers has a particular responsibility to safeguard teachers’ rights to help students think critically. Protecting teachers’ academic freedom is one of the union’s most essential tasks. That means fighting for tenure and the guarantee of due process when complaints are made about teachers’ professional conduct.
However, another aspect of teachers’ work complicates the union’s defense of academic freedom and its members’ performance. Teachers are morally and legally responsible for children’s well-being. Laws requiring children’s compulsory attendance at school make children captive in classrooms. When I say this to teachers, they are startled, and understandably so. They don’t view their students as prisoners. However, it’s critical for union activists to remember that students are indeed captive and if teachers are not doing their jobs well enough, students can be harmed. The union has an allegiance both to its members as workers and to the protection of students’ well-being.
The unions have been pilloried in the media for protecting incompetents. As a result, union officials have tended to downplay the reasons for teachers’ rights to hearings and due process. Given the ferocity of the attacks about bad teachers, union leaders’ wariness is understandable. But it is also wrong and dangerous. What the unions should be saying is that we can’t have a democratic society if we have undemocratic schools. Our society gives those accused of criminal acts the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. People with whom we entrust our children should have the same protection. “Due process” requires only that a teacher accused of wrongdoing has the right to a fair, impartial hearing, based on evidence. There’s no escape from making this case to the public (and union members), and the unions have to do so much more vigorously.
The other reason protection of due process is so important is that teachers must respond to different, often conflicting, rules and demands from supervisors. Often what is first publicized in the press as an open-and-shut case of teacher negligence turns out to be quite different, though the clarification is seldom given as much publicity as the original charge. The media’s obsession with cases of teachers’ malfeasance obscures everything that schools and school districts botch. In defending teachers’ rights to due process, the union insists that schools take responsibility for factors over which teachers have no control.
I acknowledge that in light of the propaganda about the unions defending incompetent teachers, unions will not be popular in making my argument. It takes courage, but the task is inescapable.