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Big News from the Bluegrass State: Teacher-ESP Unity

NEA's Kentucky affiliate gives education support professionals full membership rights, recognizing that education has become a team effort.

Not very long ago, education support professionals sat--and seethed--together at a table in the back of each Kentucky Education Association delegate assembly. Although they were dues-paying NEA members, these ESPs were denied the right to vote on new KEA officers, resolutions, new business items, or any other piece of assembly business.

Kentucky support professionals, you see, weren't considered professional enough to be full KEA members, even though they were the equal of any teacher in the governance of NEA.

"I always felt like a stepchild sitting in the back, being given handouts," recalls J.D. Jones, a school law enforcement officer in Fayette County. Fortunately for Jones and other Kentucky ESPs, a growing number of teacher leaders shared this discomfort.

"It disturbed me--these people sitting in the back of the room as if this [were the pre-civil rights era in] Selma, Alabama," says Brent McKim, president of the 5,000-member Jefferson County Teachers Association, KEA's largest local affiliate. "Teachers have come to respect the value of ESPs over the course of time and recognize that the challenges today are so much greater. We really need a team approach in education."

The team spirit finally prevailed at KEA's 2002 delegate assembly in April, when elected teacher delegates--including the entire Jefferson County delegation--voted by 71 percent to amend the Association's constitution and bylaws to recognize ESPs as "full, active, voting" KEA members.

By September 1, the old Kentucky ESP Association (KESPA) had dissolved and ESPs had become part of a newly created unit of KEA, District 13.

This "blending" boosted the 29,000-member KEA by 3,200 full new members. Now, watching with great interest from the wings, are more than 45,000 unorganized ESPs across Kentucky.

After a 15-year struggle for full rights, 2002 was a great year for Kentucky support professionals. All five winning teacher candidates for KEA office found one thing to agree on: ESPs must be full Association partners.

New KEA President Frances Steenbergen and Vice President Kenton Cooper, both elected during the 2002 delegate assembly, made ESP inclusion a centerpiece of their campaign platforms. Both proudly note that they hold commercial driver's licenses--handy for class field trips beyond the confines of rural districts.

"I know what it takes to drive a school bus," says Steenbergen, a family and consumer science teacher from Barren County. "And I know what it takes for a support professional to work in the classroom. My sister-in-law is a classroom aide who doesn't make much money--she got a 25-cent raise for ten years of experience."

Steenbergen and Cooper have pledged to turn KEA into a certified/ classified "team," beginning with a district-by-district drive to build membership and make local affiliates more active.

In June, the new KEA leaders chaired membership conferences in both Louisville and Lexington, at which teachers and ESPs alike brushed up on the basics of member recruitment and drew up district organizing plans.

This was the very first time in KEA history that teachers and ESPs had participated as equals in an Association meeting.

J.D. Jones was at the Louisville conference, just soaking it all in. "I once felt like a stepchild. Now I've moved up to the head of the table," Jones says with a grin. "Now I feel accepted as part of the family. It's a great feeling!"

What KEA Brings to Support Professionals

The Kentucky Education Association's full inclusion of education support professionals combines valuable human resources at a time when KEA confronts challenges familiar to many NEA state affiliates, including a state budget shortfall, substandard educator pay, and soaring health insurance rates.

First and foremost, this merger will mean strength in numbers in dealing with lawmakers and school superintendents alike. "Together, we're better," stresses Henderson County head custodian Nancy Toombs, president of KEA's newly formed District 13. "With all the attacks on public education we have to all be on the same team."

"Now, when we go to the state Capitol to lobby, legislators can't divide and conquer teachers and ESPs," adds special education teacher Kenton Cooper, the KEA vice president.

On top of added political clout, ESPs now have the "prestige of being members of the largest education organization in Kentucky," says KEA President Frances Steenbergen. "In everything we do--be it working on a statewide membership plan, applying for KEA grants, or participating in Association conferences, workteams, or committee assignments--support professionals are part of us as full voting members.

"We'll also offer ESPs all of KEA's professional development opportunities," Steenbergen pledges. "If a teachers' local conducts a brain-based research workshop, we expect them to invite classified employees."

Three Things Support Professionals Bring to KEA. . .

What can education support professionals offer the Kentucky Education Association?

Just for starters, they bring:

1. Tenacity. "Kentucky ESPs never give up," says District 13 Executive Director Betty Watson. "They show tenacity in the face of all odds, which is why they're so successful in activities like lobbying."
   "We do have staying power," agrees Fayette County law enforcement officer J.D. Jones. "ESPs tend to stay on the job a long time. After 20, 25 years, they still want to drive that bus or clean that building. You seldom hear grumbling, except about pay--that's the number one issue." Stand clear when they talk about that one.
   "Health insurance costs are a big issue in our county--people can't afford to live!" points out Hardin County District 6 bus driver Wilma Hawkins. "We have drivers leaving for new jobs with better pay and benefits, leaving behind new drivers at greater risk for accidents. We're hoping and expecting to work alongside teachers in the next legislative session for better health benefits."
2. Grassroots lobbying skills. Kentucky ESPs are rooted in the communities where they work and often enjoy a first-name relationship with legislators--who frequently ask for endorsements and invitations to ESP meetings.
   In lobbying, support professionals are quick to deliver troops where needed, strong communicators, research-savvy, and, says teacher lobbyist Brent McKim, "honest, straight-shooting people."
   Starting with absolutely nothing, members of the old Kentucky ESP Association (KESPA) successfully lobbied from 1993 to 2000 for legislation guaranteeing ESPs important new rights and benefits--including due process in termination, permanent status after four years of continuous employment in a district, 12-month retirement credit and expanded sick leave benefits, and coverage (with professional development dollars) under Kentucky's Safe School Act.
   And in the 2001-02 legislative session, KESPA and KEA members joined forces to successfully lobby for a mail-order pharmaceutical plan that saves school employees money on maintenance drugs and saves the state treasury $6 million over two years.
   "We're teaching teachers how to share their message with lawmakers," says KEA District 13 President Nancy Toombs. "At the same time, we're holding politicians accountable, especially the ones who forget why they're there. We ESPs have a perch in the Capitol building--we catch legislators right at the top of the stairs!"
3. Devotion to kids--and excellence. To see more of her daughter, Bridgette Hollingsworth recently left a position as a skilled surgical assistant to become a Hardin County District 6 driver.
   This new ESP questions why she makes $9.06 an hour--for a five-hour day--to transport society's "most precious cargo, children," while local sanitation truck drivers earn up to $15 an hour. Children "are worth more than garbage," she says. "We're carrying our future on those roads."
   Hollingsworth, who plans to become more active in KEA, sees Association involvement as a way to fight for the future of children and public education. "We can organize to make teachers better teachers, custodians better custodians, and everybody's school safe and protected," she argues.
   That's the kind of drive that earned ESPs a place in the Kentucky Education Association.
   "Professionalism has more to do with attitudes than degrees," concludes Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association. "Excellence is about knowing what you can do and taking pride in your work. KEA and NEA's focus on improving the quality of our members' work sets us apart from other labor organizations."

Kudos To ...

. . . the New Jersey Education Association, which now includes 44,000 ESP members--13 percent of its total membership and the highest percentage of any NEA state affiliate.

Speaking at this year's state ESP conference, NJEA President Edithe Fulton said: "I tell people from other states that for the past 23 years, ESP members have been welcomed into NJEA as organizational equals with their K-12 and higher ed colleagues, and I'm enormously proud of that fact."

. . . members of the Ithaca (New York) Paraprofessionals Association, who have won a 21 percent wage increase for the year beginning July 1. The lowest paid IPA members will see their wages rise by $2.40 per hour this coming year, and by almost 50 percent over the next three years.

A teacher's aide receiving $6.72 per hour went to $9.36 on July 1 and will go to $10.05 in 2004. A teaching assistant who started at $7.46 goes to $9.98 in this new school year and to $10.69 in 2004. In three years, the median wage for an aide will rise to $11.65 and for an assistant to $13.15.

For 18 months, IPA campaigned for this increase alongside other affiliates of the Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition, composed of 31 community, religious, and labor organizations. But this would not have been possible, say IPA leaders, if these workers were not unionized and absolutely determined to win a living wage.

"These negotiations have been about dignity, respect, and hope," says IPA President Debbie Minnick. "We have held out for a contract that would give us all of these. We have bargained starting pay that increases by approximately 50 percent over the next three years, and raises for current paras that are far more than what they would have received in normal negotiations."

. . . members of the Florida Education Association, who have persuaded legislators to shelve a bill mandating that school districts "review" food service, transportation, and maintenance/operations services; request proposals from private firms; and complete written analyses comparing the private bids to current in-house costs.

Bill HB 217, FEA members pointed out, created unfunded mandates and falsely assumed that current support services are fully funded. Moreover, this legislation did not require review of currently privatized services, consider the hidden costs of privatization, or provide for transparency in contractor cost accounting and decision making.

Privatization: Look before legislating!