Surgeons determine the implements and procedures for operations. Engineers and architects determine the tools and the processes for creating a building. Professionals know their professional needs - obviously. It is inconceivable that their expertise in such matters would be challenged.
But let teachers even suggest that as professionals they know what materials and curriculum are needed in their classrooms, and challenge is a mild term for what follows. Look at what Assembly Bill 2160, the expansion of collective bargaining, was up against.
In that piece of legislation, teachers - the professionals - were asking for the right to negotiate with boards of education and administration in the educational bureaucracy about the textbooks and the courses of study for their classrooms. We were not asking to dictate a particular book or course; we were only requesting that the procedure for selecting textbooks and curriculum be negotiated. And the response was clear: How dare teachers make such an outrageous proposal!
Actually, what is outrageous is the fact that the matter has to come up at all - that it hasn't been part of the way things are done all along. It is a real shocker to see in public print that those in charge of the budgets are contemptuous of the professionals who actually do the work of the schools. And contempt clearly fueled the clamorous opposition to AB 2160. This was no ordinary piece of legislation, their protest said: AB 2160 actually would have allowed teachers to make professional decisions about their profession, something we simply are not capable of doing in the best interest of the children we teach. Such is the opposition's opinion of us.
It is always important to recognize one's opposition, to know who and what it is. In this case, take a closer look at the Business Roundtable. In addition to being generally anti-union and opposed to any expansion of collective bargaining, many in the business community have a very good reason for fearing any change in the status quo. For one thing, California public schools are a multibillion dollar market for testing, curriculum and textbook sales. The companies involved in this highly profitable business often set up cozy deals with school bureaucrats, and they don't want to see teachers butting in and perhaps messing up those comfortable arrangements.
The Business Roundtable was so opposed to AB 2160 that it hired the firm Goddard-Claussen to fight it, putting the same kind of effort into the campaign that they usually put into opposing an initiative. They went to every newspaper editorial board before the bill was even in print and convinced each to write editorials against the bill. (Claussen is the same PR firm that fought, on a nationwide basis, the Clinton health care proposal in 1994. Remember the Harry and Louise TV and radio campaign? It was highly effective in shooting down national health care.)
Hiring such a major player to do public relations against AB 2160 gives an indication of how scared the business community was of the bill and how desperate they were to defeat it. If you've been wondering why so much fuss was being raised about AB 2160, think about the business community allied with the educational bureaucracy.
Of course, politics enters into the picture. Here's the scenario: Governor Gray Davis courts CTA; he meets often with the officers; he invites the CTA Board of Directors to dinner at the Capitol. He has a photo op with every director. He asks for a million dollar contribution to his re-election campaign. It doesn't happen. A few days later, the governor announces his opposition to AB 2160. Coincidence?
With the governor, the Business Roundtable, the school administrators (these control-oriented folks aren't about to give up any of their power without a battle), and the School Boards Association united in opposition to AB 2160, and with Goddard-Claussen leading the fight, this legislation was supposed to be dead on arrival when it hit the Legislature. Surprisingly, it passed the Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee by a 5-4 vote. (The Sacramento Bee called the five Democrats who voted for it the Five Stooges.)
The bill went next to the Education Committee, where again it was predicted to fail. This time it passed 9-7. Still, the future of the bill was in doubt. It then passed the Appropriations Committee. At that point, the Democrats pulled it from a vote on the Assembly floor because several of "our good friends" didn't want to vote for it. They had it pulled so they wouldn't have to vote against it. The net result, this legislative defeat, has taught us some valuable lessons.
We have learned who are our weak supporters and fair-weather friends. We have learned where the governor really stands on our issues. We have learned just what administrators and boards of education think of teachers. And since the PTA actually joined ranks with the opposition, we have learned that the organization which we join and whose membership dues we promote and collect does not truly respect and support teachers. We have learned just how much the business community hates collective bargaining and employee rights, even when those employees are the backbone of the state's most important work, the education of its children.
We have learned that when our members go to Sacramento and lobby legislators, they get results - all three of these Assembly committees were supposed to reject AB 2160. We have learned that when newspapers refer to us as the "powerful California Teachers Association," they are right. We are powerful, because we have 300,000 hard-working professionals in our organization, all dedicated to guaranteeing good schools and good education for all of our kids.
Make no mistake about it: We are going to overcome the forces that oppose us. It won't be easy, but it will happen. We will make the changes in the laws that we need, changes that enhance our profession and bring us ever closer to our goals of better schools for California's children and true professional status for their teachers.
We were correct in fighting for professional control of our classrooms, and we will win this fight!
