Embracing a vision of what we can do together

From the state of the union speech delivered on August 21 at the UTLA Leadership Conference.

August 2009: What a year we've had. I am happy to see all of you here tonight, but we know that this is not a trouble-free time for our union and our profession.

This year we were hit hard by the worldwide economic crisis. Too many of our colleagues are gone. Class sizes are going up dramatically, and there will be far fewer resources for your classrooms and school sites. Although our jobs have been made much more difficult, it is our students who will feel the most pain.

We faced these threats with a year of unprecedented actions. We took over Pershing Square on January 29 to fight for health care in the single largest action in UTLA history. That rally helped secure our health care, but a few months later, 6,000 of our members were hit with pink slips.

We unleashed months of actions with parents and community members. We protested at the School Board, lobbied legislators, and held town hall meetings. We boycotted faculty meetings and periodic assessments, engaged in civil disobedience, and 36 of our activists and three officers were arrested. Rank-and-file members stepped up and planned their own creative actions, giving rise to a new generation of UTLA activists. Some of our members went on hunger strikes. Our students-the reason we are fighting so hard-held sit-ins, protests, and walkouts of their own.

Our fight got results. 4,000 UTLA members' jobs were saved by June. You forced LAUSD to use more of the federal stimulus money this year. You forced LAUSD to finally begin significantly cutting the bureaucratic fat, but we know there is more to cut. You secured a contract that gives us new rights and protections and that was ratified by more than 80 percent of our members. And let's not forget that 92 percent of our members said yes to the health care package we put before you. With the periodic assessment boycott, you put the issue of overtesting front and center and now we have a joint UTLA-LAUSD committee to bring sanity to the testing mania.

However, it is hard to tally those successes up against the terrible increase in class sizes and the loss of jobs for so many of our newest colleagues. To be out of work-especially in this economy-is devastating. That is why all summer long, we have engaged in intense negotiations with LAUSD to stop the class size increases and save jobs.

Several times we were so close to a deal to put before you for a vote, but then the shifting sands of the state budget wiped it out. Right now talks are on hold while we pursue clarity about the current state of the budget.

The specter of more budget cuts

Every day that goes by, we get a steady stream of information from the legislature and the governor: cuts, cuts, cuts, and more cuts.

Because of that, California will finally fall to the bottom of the pack in school funding. Our state-one of the largest economies in the world-will be 50th-50th!-in per-pupil spending. From Alaska to Florida, from Maine to Hawaii, every state in the nation will be paying more per student. Shame on our state legislators and the governor.

Business and industry want us to produce an educated workforce, ready for the challenges of the 21st century, yet they are not willing to commit to a proper funding source. Shame on business and industry too.

The only way out of this mess is to fix the Byzantine way our schools are funded. As it stands now, the budget is built like a house of cards that blows away at the slightest ill wind. That formula has proven to be a disaster for California. Shame on us and our allies if we do nothing about it.

Even a system this dysfunctional can be fixed, but it will take political will and public might.

UTLA is working with other forces around the state to promote progressive taxation and to reduce the two-thirds vote required to pass budgets. Given the state of the economy, if we don't throw our resources fully behind these efforts, our students will see class sizes grow even larger, more programs eliminated, and more jobs lost.

In the 2010-11 school year, the District estimates it will have a $240 million deficit. To help close that huge gap, UTLA is considering  working with the District and other partners to put a parcel tax on the ballot in the spring of 2010. That could raise hundreds of millions of dollars, earmarked for specific purposes, such as class size reduction and teacher salaries.

The budget disaster clearly points to a new enemy when it comes to school funding. That enemy is a dysfunctional governor and state legislature. We will take the fight upstate.

Call for change in the air

The world of education is changing. I feel it, and I know you feel it too. The call for change is in the air, and the chorus of voices is growing louder and more united.

To have our voices heard, to stand up against bad ideas, like merit pay, and support the good ideas, we must have a seat at the table. And to have a seat at the table, we may have to step out of our comfort zone. We cannot let others dictate change to us. Any change that does not involve teachers, health and human service professionals, and UTLA as full partners is not acceptable.

Let me now mention some issues tied to the change that's in the air-teacher quality, school reform, and the proliferation of charter schools.

Strengthening the teaching profession

The first thing that must be said whenever we talk about teacher quality is that the vast, the vast majority of educators are doing a great job. Because of your hard work, there are now 292 LAUSD schools with API scores above 750. We have 70 schools on the California Distinguished Schools list. LAUSD schools have won the National Academic Decathlon six times since 1998. High school dropout rates have gone down by an amazing 17 percent this year, while graduation rates are up by almost 8 percent, and more students are passing the CAHSEE sooner than ever. We must, working together, keep this momentum going.

You and your members never cease to amaze me. With all that's going on, you still do your jobs to the highest level-day after day, week after week, month after month. Bravo. Job well done.

But, we should talk about improving teacher quality. Are there better ways to attain that goal-ways that truly help struggling teachers get better? And teachers should begin to participate in administrator evaluations. Hasn't that time come?

And we need to talk about how we deal, as a union, with members who are involved in immoral acts with students. We must begin that conversation internally now.

Working to strengthen the teaching profession is not new for us. We've been the driving force behind the Peer Assistance and Review program, but it needs more funding.

We initiated the mentor teacher program-a hugely successful idea that needs to be reinstated and refunded. We need to create more school-site support systems, which must include teachers helping teachers in a nonevaluative way without the specter of punishment. By addressing these issues in our own house, we can continue to take charge of our profession.

Taking the lead on school reform

Taking control of our profession also means taking the lead on school reform. Our bottom line on school reform: It must involve local control and school site teachers, and other stakeholders at the center of decision making.

UTLA has just formed a school reform committee we now call the School Change Committee.

The School Change Committee will explore how to bring teacher-initiated reforms to our schools. We have an aggressive agenda of meetings and we will report out to all of our representative assemblies.

Other reform efforts are underway.

iDesign schools are moving along, some at a better pace than others.

The key at all the iDesign schools is that the teachers and health and human services professionals remain willing to speak up and push the boundaries of teacher participation in decision making. We will stick by our colleagues no matter what.

On the other hand, the pilot schools, which UTLA was a partner in forming, and the ESBMM schools (Expanded School Based Management Model) schools, which UTLA created, are growing in numbers. We want to push for more of these models all over the city.

Next year, seven more pilot schools and three more ESBMM schools will be coming online. One of these ESBMM schools may be Taft High School, which we hope will eventually, along with Woodland Hills Academy and its feeder schools, form a family of schools, a UTLA concept that will create a shared vision for curriculum and professional development and the potential for pooled funding.

Once again, when it comes to school reform, we are on the move. By creating our own reform, we create the strongest argument against the privatizers and the charter operators. We disprove the lie that teacher unions are not capable of school reform.

But even with this good news about our reforms, there is a dark cloud hanging over us and the future of public education.

On August 25, the School Board will consider a motion by Yolie Flores Aguilar that could lead to the giving away of 50 of our newest schools to charter operators and other outside entities. Several parts of this ill-conceived, loosely written motion are troubling, but I'll mention only one right now.

It says that schools would be up for bid-up for bid-to charter operators and "others." We have no idea what "others" means.

Is it possible, for instance, that we would have the Dole Pineapple Learning Center or perhaps the Nabisco Shredded Wheat Zone of Choice? Of course, what I'm saying is in jest, but a serious issue is at the core of this motion: If it passes, it could be the beginning of privatizing public education.

In the leadup to the Board vote, we have been working with our traditional allies and some new ones to try to recraft the motion to take out the worst parts but leave the door open to school reform led by teachers and health and human service professionals, working with parents and the community.

We've been lobbying board members, and working with the County Federation of Labor. We are also researching the legality of this motion.

We will also be fighting the good fight in Sacramento.

Have you seen the latest L.A. Times? Our governor and mayor are jumping on the Arne Duncan bandwagon. They want to destroy public education. Not fix it, but to destroy it.

They are using this economic meltdown to tell us that we must prostitute ourselves for the 30 pieces of silver that represents the Race to the Top money. They want us to accept terrible ideas like merit pay and tying evaluations to test scores even though there is no credible evidence that these ideas improve student outcomes.

We've been down this road before.

I say what I always say-show me the proof. Where's the data, Arne?

So what is this about? This is about destroying teacher unions-the real progressive force in public education-while the powers that be continue to ignore the desperate underfunding of our schools.

We are going to fight this. We are going to Sacramento. We will not leave this threat unmet.

Addressing the charter school threat

The forces that want to destroy public education and teacher unions have made it clear that they will not stop.

Not long ago, we patted ourselves on the back and high fived because we beat back vouchers, but the forces of privatization were nimble. They changed course and created charter schools. Every hour that goes by, the charter school movement gains momentum, and it's not because they are better at educating our children. They aren't. All of the studies prove it. We need to continue to let the public know that.

I believe we have to approach the issue of charter schools in two ways.

First, as I said earlier, we have to press forward with union-supported models of reform that outperform the best charters.

Second, we have to renew our efforts to bring oversight and accountability to charter schools.

Even charter school advocates admit that there are far too many underperforming charters that should be closed, and the high teacher turnover rate in charters threatens to deprofessionalize our profession.

Many charter school teachers are waking up to the realities of working without a union contract. This year, teachers at the world-renowned Accelerated School reached out to UTLA, and we brought them into the fold. They are now UTLA members. Soon after, another charter-Global Education Academy- gave us a call, and now we are representing them too.

We need to remember that we are not against charter school teachers; we are against charter school operators who abuse their authority because of the lack of a decent contract.

Unionizing charters will not only help the charter school teachers, their students, and their schools-it will also provide a source for revitalizing our union. If our union is to grow in the future, in the face of the surge of charters, why would we not want to unionize teachers at these schools?

Fighting for our vision of public education

Much of what I have said tonight is my way of expanding on conversations that have already been happening throughout the union. These may not be easy conversations to have, but I believe they are the right conversations to have.

As we consider new ways of doing business, we will also be strengthening our union, building our capacity, and reinforcing our connections with parents, community members, and our labor partners. Change should never be imposed, and it's our united strength that is our best weapon against top-down control of our profession.

In summing up the last four years, it seems that we have been in a constant state of war while at the same time building internally and externally.

Our members are weary, but they are also determined. We struggle not just for ourselves but for our students.

We have a tremendous weight on our shoulders. What we do today in our classrooms and our schools will affect a thousand tomorrows.

We fight now for our vision of the future for public education and teaching as an honorable profession.

I challenge myself and all of us to find common ground in the struggles ahead. Never before in our history have we needed unity more.

We must together choose our battlegrounds in a more efficient, focused way because we can no longer afford to let others set the education agenda. That is our job, and together we will take up that challenge.

In 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his second inaugural address, as the country pulled out of one great struggle but was about to enter an even greater one.

What he said then resonates for us today. Shall we pause now and turn our back upon the road that lies ahead? Many voices are heard as we face a great decision. Comfort says, "Tarry a while." Opportunism says, "This is a good spot." Timidity asks, "How difficult is the road ahead?"

To this I would add:

Fear of change says, "Don't step forward." But opportunity says, "This is the place to be and the time to explore and stretch our boundaries." Confidence asks, "Are we ready for the challenges we face?" Shall we call this the moment to act?

We dare not turn our backs on what lies ahead.

It's a road filled with uncertainty, yet paved with great promise.

We are UTLA, and we have never been afraid of a challenge.

We must take all that is good from our past and meet the future with the conviction that together we can craft a new age for our schools. We must define ourselves not by what we are against, but by what we are for. We must define ourselves not simply by acknowledging the difficulties we face but by embracing a vision of what we can do together.

Let us now, firm in our resolve, face the challenges ahead, take them on, and recraft public education the way we know it should be.

That is a fight worth taking on.