Arizona teachers prepare for
mass statewide demonstrations
By
Trévon Austin
27 March 2018
Thousands of Arizona teachers demanding improved wages and
conditions are expected to converge on the state Capitol in Phoenix tomorrow.
Despite the efforts of the teacher unions to block the spread of strikes and
protests after their betrayal of the nine-day strike in West Virginia,
educators throughout the US and internationally are pressing ahead with their
opposition to austerity and attacks on public education.
Teachers in the Phoenix area will be holding what they call a
“teach-in” in front of the Capitol building as teachers continue protests in
other parts of the state. Arizona Educators United, the Facebook group teachers
are using to organize, told local news station KTAR News, “We’re going to do
what we do best, we’re going to teach.”
Teachers are scheduled to march on the Capitol at 4 p.m. to bring
attention to unsustainable salaries. According to the Arizona State University
Morrison Institute for Public Policy, the median pay for elementary teachers
was $42,724 in 2016, ranking last in the country.
The protest follows almost a month of activity by Arizona
teachers, bolstered by the West Virginia strike, which temporarily broke free
from the control of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National
Education Association (NEA), as well as rank-and-file agitation, primarily
through social media, for an April 2 statewide strike in Oklahoma.
On March 7, the #RedForEd movement began when teachers wore red to
bring attention to the issues they face. The Arizona Education Association
(AEA) has sought to hijack this movement and subordinate it to maneuvers with
state Democrats and impotent appeals to pressure Republican Governor Doug
Ducey. Earlier this month, about 300 teachers gathered outside KTAR News 92.3
FM to call for higher wages while Ducey was being interviewed inside.
On March 21, teachers in the Pendergast Elementary District
organized a sickout, largely outside of the control of the AEA and AFT state
affiliate, causing nine schools to cancel classes for the day. Only three of
the district’s 12 schools had enough teachers to remain open as teachers
descended on the state Capitol to protest.
In Arizona, 24 percent of children live in high-poverty areas. The
state’s per student spending is just over $4,000, one of the lowest in the
country. A 2016 report by the US Department of Education found that Arizona
spends $20,000 more annually on each inmate than it does on a student in its
school system. From 1989-2013, spending for public education virtually remained
flat while funding for prisons skyrocketed by 90 percent.
“My focus for this movement is my students. They don't have fully
funded classrooms, highly qualified teachers are leaving them, their class
sizes are too large, and they don’t have resources,” organizer Kara Nakamura
said on Facebook.
Many school districts have sought to make up for the teacher
shortage by hiring largely inexperienced instructors from temporary labor and
staffing agencies. According to the Arizona
Republic, the Murphy Elementary School District in Phoenix sought
to slash $2.2 million from its budget deficit by canceling contracts for
temporary teachers leading to class sizes of 40 plus. Only 55 percent of
long-term substitute teachers in the district had full teaching credentials in
the 2016-17 school year.
While Arizona teachers protest Wednesday, the Oklahoma Education
Association and AFT affiliate are trying to stop a scheduled April 2 statewide
strike by backing a Democratic-sponsored bill that would fund a wage increase for
Oklahoma teachers through imposing a series of regressive consumption taxes on
economically struggling working-class families. The multi-billion-dollar oil
and gas industry, which has benefited from huge tax cuts granted by the state’s
Republican governor, Mary Fallin, would see a minuscule tax increase, from 2 to
5 percent, solely on new oil and gas wells.
The union-backed deal, which would raise wages—near the bottom in
the US—by a one-time $6,000 instead of the $10,000 Oklahoma teachers are
demanding does next to nothing to raise wages for school personnel and other
public employees. It also does not address per pupil school funding, which has
seen among the biggest cuts in the nation since the 2008 crash and led last
year to 20 percent of the state’s districts reducing classes to four days a
week.
The bill passed the state House of Representatives last night,
with the backing of 51 of 73 Republicans and all 28 Democrats, and was hailed
as a “step in the right direction” by Oklahoma Education Association (OEA)
President Alicia Priest.
Rank-and-file teachers have largely responded to the proposal with
contempt. On the Oklahoma Teachers United Facebook page, which has publicly
criticized the OEA-backed deal, teachers expressed their determination to
strike, along with public employees, on April 2. They also denounced the
efforts by the unions to divide educators, with one teacher, Kasey Rachelle
Holman, noting if the union shut down the strike on the basis of this rotten
deal, “The OEA will just have more angry members leaving!!”
Teacher Sala Wood said: “That raise would be about, what...$375 a
month after taxes? That’s not even the point...there’s no mention of education
funding. HUGE fail!”
Gail Thompson commented: “Our kids are worth more. Stop making
excuses and stand up for our future! We walk for them!”
Christen Nicole Rowland added: “You tried to put a band-aid on a
severed artery. It’s not going to help schools get to where they need. This
deal isn’t going to shut us down, do more!!”
Others commented on the impact of chronic underfunding in the
classroom. Irene Casey posted: “I have students ask me daily- “why can’t
we....” how many creative ways can a teacher tell her science students ‘we
don’t have the supplies to do the same simple experiments I did in school...
many years ago!!!!’ FUND OUR FUTURE!!!”
Robin Gillean Davis added: “Fully fund our schools again! If your
children were in our schools would you be okay with just a class set of old
books instead of a book for each student? Would you be okay with stained carpet
duct taped together? Would you be okay with buckets sitting under leaks when it
rains? Would you be okay with choir, drama and other electives being
eliminated? Of course, you would not be okay with any of this if it was your
children. Our students are your constituent’s children and they are our state’s
future and are worth so much more than you have been giving. Step up and show
Oklahoma students and teachers that they are valued!!”
Cynthia Davis Jones said: “Fund the schools and give teachers
$10,000 raise. Give retirees a pay increase. Give state employees a raise. Stop
making excuses. Restore the GPT [Gross Production Tax on the oil and gas
industry] to 7% and do whatever it takes to generate enough income to bring our
state to a TOP 5 state,” while Terry Pace added, “Yes 10-12% GPT seems by far
the most fair and effective.”
The struggle of teachers, which is erupting worldwide with strikes
in Brazil, France and northern Iraq over the last week alone, has thrown
educators into a political clash with all the political parties, including the
Democrats and Republicans in the US, which are slashing education and other
essential services to pay for corporate tax cuts and war.
In Arizona, Oklahoma, Kentucky and other states, teachers must
take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the unions, which are
inseparably tied to the two big-business parties and their austerity program.
This means electing rank-and-file committees in the schools and communities to
fight for the broadest mobilization of the working class to defend the right to
high-quality public education, which will only be funded through a frontal
assault on the entrenched wealth of the corporate and financial elite.
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