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| Speaker Rufina Hernandez guides the group through “Connect the Dots,” a session at the conference, whose theme was “Liberty and Justice for All.” |
Teachers shared many “aha” moments at the CTA Human Rights Conference held in March in Irvine, as they learned of the decades-long agenda that the conservative forces have been trying to implement in recent years. It was one of many workshops held at the conference, which had the theme “Liberty and Justice for All.”
During the eye-opening session aptly named “Connect the Dots,” teachers barely had time to digest the information before being told that they must act quickly to counteract the attacks on public schools and other public entities throughout California.
“We have to move like our hair is on fire,” said Rufina Hernandez, associate director of external partnerships and advocacy for NEA, and facilitator of the workshop. “We need to work for the preservation of our human and civil rights before it all goes to the highest bidder on eBay.”
“Everything that we have worked for is at stake: quality public schools; secure retirement and health benefits; health, safety, consumer and employee protections; and human and civil rights.”
Many of the teachers expressed shock as Hernandez outlined the history of how public schools went from being respected institutions to the present state — under attack.
It began with a scorched earth approach to tax cuts, said Hernandez, inflicted by those with immense wealth who did not want to pay their fair share. With less state revenue, these conservatives could effectively dismantle popular government programs. In addition to public schools, this includes public hospitals, Social Security, Medicare, social services, libraries, public colleges and universities, and worker protections.
Tax cuts in the Bush administration have been touted as the automatic answer to every problem and are praised as the way to get those who are wealthy to “invest” in the economy and grow jobs. But it hasn’t worked that way, said Hernandez. In reality, the drastic tax cuts have resulted in less money for public services and increased public dissatisfaction with these services — paving the way to these services being annihilated with little public outcry.
By cutting taxes — and purposely reducing revenue — the far right can fulfill its plan, described by conservative Grover Norquist in these terms: “We want to starve the beast so it’s small enough to drown in the bathtub.”
Workshop participants learned that the far right network extends far and wide in layers upon layers of organizations working closely together, unbeknownst to most citizens and even news media. The conservative network includes advocacy groups, research groups that release biased reports to the unsuspecting media, and task forces, all of which receive funding from conservative foundations.
Perpetuating the myth
There are also “grassroots” organizations designed to appeal to minorities including the Black Alliance for Educational Options and the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options. Such groups attempt to perpetuate the myth that dismantling public schools will benefit minorities — instead of leveling the playing field so that all children can succeed.
So-called “professional educator” associations make it appear as if teachers support school choice, NCLB and vouchers, while opposing teacher unions. But these are bogus groups that do not represent the vast majority of teachers, said Hernandez.
Most of these organizations are funded by billionaires, even though they try to appear to be grassroots community organizations.
But there isn’t anything innocent about school vouchers.
Terry Moe, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institute, has said publicly, “School choice allows children and money to leave the system, and that means there will be fewer public teacher jobs.”
These groups work in conjunction with political action committees and legal organizations to sponsor legislation that threatens public schools and paves the way for vouchers. And, as teachers know, the biggest success of the right when it comes to destroying public education has been No Child Left Behind (NCLB), since it created an unfunded mandate that set up public schools to fail and opened the door to sanctions that include school takeovers and charter conversions by private companies. It also allows public money to be used for private tutoring companies.
“These names sound so innocent,” murmured members of the CTA audience upon hearing many of the players, including the Walton Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Pacific Research Institute, and Northwest Professional Educators.
The so-called advocacy organizations, along with multi-issue policy organizations at state and national levels, foundations, think tanks and other organizations, have used the latest marketing methods and media to deliver their messages over and over again. These messages are: public schools are failing; children are trapped in failing schools; teacher unions are blocking reforms; and public schools are a monopoly.
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| (Right to left) Phyllis Dinwiddie, Cotati; Mary Means, Pomona; and Edgar Ramirez, Ravenswood, follow the presentation. |
Don’t accept the distortions
While public schools certainly face challenges, they are, in fact, far from failing. A new report from Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) says California’s public school children have managed to hold steady or improve across subjects and grade levels, with graduation rates rising. All of these things are happening despite dwindling resources and increasing classroom diversity, notes the PACE report. Nonetheless, headlines about “failing schools” tend to get most of the media’s attention.
According to the Commonweal Institute’s report, titled “Responding to the Attack on Public Education and Teacher Unions,” public school failure is usually attributed to teacher unions.
In March, the right-wing Center for Union Facts (CUF) launched an unprecedented $1 million advertising assault on teachers unions. The campaign focused on “exposing how these massive unions are damaging America’s public schools by blocking reform and protecting bad teachers” and included ads in USA Today and the New York Times as well as TV ads running on CNN and Fox News. CUF receives upwards of $10 million a year from conservative groups, reports USA Today.
However, studies show that unionized teachers have a positive impact on student learning. A 2006 Harvard Graduate School of Education study showed that collective bargaining for teachers leads to higher salaries, which helps attract and retain high-quality educators, increase professional development and preparatory time for teachers, lower class size, and improve learning conditions for students. A second study released by Stanford University in 2007 shows that union contracts help attract credentialed teachers to lower-performing schools.
“We need to confront these organizations at the national level and at the state level,” said Hernandez. “We have to fight back against those who want to ‘destroy the beast’ because we are the beast. They have targeted us as teachers and they have targeted our students in the classroom. Public schools, the people who work in them and the children who learn in them are part and parcel of the ‘beast.’ And we must be aware of how they see us.”
But increasing awareness through education won’t solve the problem alone, warned Hernandez.
“The 3.2 million NEA members can make a difference,” said Hernandez. “We must connect issues to candidates. We must get involved — no excuses. We must form external partnerships and bring business into the fold to support public education. We must build broad coalitions beyond the usual suspects and include faith-based communities and health and child care programs. We need to mobilize the entire community. And we must move like our hair is on fire.”
