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'Keep the Commitment!'

The recession may be battering school finances, but Washington state NEA members stress the need to invest fully in children's future.

These aren't the best of times for Nikki Andres, a third-year elementary teacher in Vancouver, Washington. When she ponders the rigors imparted by her state's "accountability microscope," her $30,000 salary, and her governor's pledge to close a $2.4 billion budget deficit by "suspending" funding for ballot initiatives on class-size reduction and school employee annual COLA--both overwhelmingly passed by voters--she has but one slim consolation. She doesn't teach across the Columbia River in neighboring Oregon.

In these, the worst fiscal times to hit states since World War II, hard-pressed Oregon districts are closing or consolidating schools, boosting class sizes, cutting programs, laying off staff, and gearing up to slash calendars anywhere from two days up to a month.

And farther down the West Coast, California districts are feeling the heat of their state's fiscal inferno, a projected $34 billion deficit over the remainder of this fiscal year and into FY 2004.

Sadly, Nikki Andres will see fiscal pain most places she looks--maybe even your district.

Two-thirds of states reported declining revenues, and more than half faced expenditures that exceeded levels projected in their FY 2003 budgets, in the most recent survey conducted by the National Conference of State Legislatures. For public employees, these numbers translate into everything from "across-the-board" cuts in South Carolina and Virginia to teacher/ESP layoffs in Idaho, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.

But Andres, like many of NEA's 2.7 million members, is asking hard questions about politicians' recession-driven fiscal decisions, such as severely underfunding rigid education mandates while widening corporate tax loopholes at a time when voters support public education more than ever and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting a national shortage of 10 million well-trained, skilled workers by 2010.

Andres, who teaches first grade at Vancouver's Sarah J. Anderson Elementary, sympathizes deeply with the plight of Washington state's many unemployed workers, but knows that her work with young minds is a vital investment in future employment.

Andres notes that the Washington State Constitution--not slated to be "suspended" like class size and COLA initiatives--clearly states: "It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders."

Even during times of fiscal duress, "we need to keep that commitment" to children, Andres stresses. "Teachers and ESPs need to stand up for kids and the future--if we don't do it now, when?"

That's why this third-year teacher joined with thousands of Washington Education Association (WEA) members from more than 100 districts, parents, and community members to march and rally on January 14 in Spokane, Kennewick, and Olympia. They called on the state to "keep the commitment" to public education--by funding class size reduction and COLA initiatives, providing competitive compensation to keep the best teachers and ESPs, and continuing to invest in public schools.

"Students deserve it, voters expect it, and the Constitution requires it," WEA President Charles Hasse told more than 25,000 ralliers in Olympia.

"We have a powerful vision," added NEA President Reg Weaver, one of three NEA national officers to speak at the day's rallies. "It's a vision that goes to the very heart of the American Dream: a vision of every child having a quality education."

WEA's next step: a continuing "citizen's campaign" for school funding that involves extensive media and community outreach and one-on-one sessions with legislators.

--Dave Winans

For more on WEA's "citizen's campaign" to win state investment in quality public schools, go to www.wa.nea.org.

Four Ways To Push For Better School Funding

No one state can immediately extricate itself from a funding crisis, but here are some getting-started ideas from NEA and two state affiliates:

1. Make the tax system fair. In the short term, NEA recommends closing corporate tax loopholes, adding a temporary upper income tax bracket, and "decoupling" state laws from the federal estate tax and accelerated depreciation provisions--which reduces state revenues by billions. And the long-term solution: create state tax structures that capture enough revenue from economic growth to fund services at adequate levels.
2. Plan for the real costs of education. Step 1: Perform an "adequacy" study of the true cost of implementing state educational standards. Step 2: Think ahead. The California Education Coalition (CEC) calls for a "comprehensive, multi-year plan" to resolve the state's fiscal crisis and to address the immediate and future needs of students and schools, while the California Teachers Association--a CEC affiliate--pledges ongoing work to "achieve a funding base for public education that is adequate, ongoing, and dependable."
3. Build coalitions. Every state needs an alliance of education stakeholders such as the CEC or the Oklahoma Education Coalition (OEC). "Organize active pro-public education coalitions at the local level where possible, and with school boards wherever you can," Oklahoma Education Association President Carolyn Crowder advises local affiliate leaders. "School board meetings can be an excellent forum to educate the public about the effects of budget cuts. You may not agree with your school board at the bargaining table, but you can agree on the need for adequate funding."
4. Get the federal government to fully fund its education mandates. Requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) add huge financial burdens to states and districts--at the same time the Bush administration is proposing $670 billion in tax giveaways over 10 years.

The 'Gold Standard' of NEA Members

Recently, 77 teachers and education support professionals in southern Ohio's consolidated Eastern Local School/Pike County waged a grueling 107-day strike against health care takebacks and for basic respect. By the time they ratified new three-year contracts in January--improving health care provisions, guaranteeing new teacher and ESP rights, and providing annual raises of 3 percent for teachers and 60 cents, 45 cents, and 35 cents per hour for ESPs--members of the Eastern Local Classroom Teachers Association (ELCTA) and Eastern Local School Support Personnel Association (ELSSPA) wrote a new chapter in education labor history. Here's the short version of a very long-- 107-day--story:

The Background . . . This rural Ohio district, which enjoys extensive state aid and large annual budget surpluses, could find cash last year to build a new $25 million consolidated school--with four principals--but bargained for across-the-board takebacks in employee health care. Superintendent Treva Harmon told mediators her take-it-or-leave it bargaining stance was based not on finances, but "philosophical differences," and promised to keep strikers out until Christmas. The district engaged high-priced security guards from the International Management Assistance Corporation, a provider of "total strike services," to guard the school and the superintendent on a 24-hour basis--despite a total absence of threats from strikers.

Unified Action. . . Before the walkout, teachers and ESPs resolved to "marry" until they won new contracts. During the strike, they bargained and picketed together, shared strike duties, and supported one another through every crisis. ESPs even covered for striking teachers on the line while they tutored students at a makeshift "school" on Tuesdays and Thursdays--an activity upheld by the courts.

Community Support. . . Local residents helped feed the strikers, held fund-raisers, walked the picket line, sued in court to remove three anti-union school board members, and submitted an 800-signature petition to the parties that urged binding arbitration of the dispute. The union agreed to arbitration; the board simply ignored the petition.

Union Backing. . . ELCTA and ELSSPA members received strong support from the rest of the Ohio Education Association (OEA)--including loans, staff expertise, and picketing assistance from other OEA locals--as well as more than $50,000 in cash donations from NEA state affiliates from Oregon to New Jersey. Every area union from the Carpenters to the Steelworkers also offered their support.

Just the Right Attitude. . .Veteran bus driver Ralph Atkins, president of ELSSPA, counsels other NEA members facing the same struggle: "Make sure that you are prepared for hardships, that the community knows the issues, and that you always, always tell the truth. If you don't know, say you don't know. This served us well."

An eye on the Future. . . OEA Labor Relations Consultant Don Dalton says Eastern Local members have "ratified, but aren't satisfied" completely with their new contract. The next step: mobilize now for November elections, when two of the five school board slots are up for grabs. If anybody can make an impact on those races, Dalton says, it's these educators. "They're the gold standard" of NEA members, he concludes.

--D.W.

Adjusting Calendars to Adjust School Funding

As the funding crisis grows, you'll see more education stakeholders in more states coordinating calendar dates to lobby lawmakers on the continued need to invest in children and public education. Just two such projects in the works:

• On January 14, more than 100 Washington state school districts "adjusted" their calendars to permit teachers and educa- tion support professionals to attend mass school funding rallies (story above).
• On that same day, Oklahoma Education Association members joined with other members of the broad-based Oklahoma Education Coalition--including parents, school board members, and superintendents--for a "Save Our Schools Summit" with action workshops and a mobilization planning session.
  Summit participants finalized plans to build local coalitions to "spread the word" about the state's $250 million education budget cuts, which by spring could generate at least 5,000 educator pink slips and cause at least 100 districts to run out of cash. The goal: win legislative support for a temporary penny sales tax boost to aid schools, meet a constitutional mandate to keep schools open, and head off a property tax hike.
  The depth of Oklahoma's educational crisis--involving everything from class size increases to a severe shortage of classroom supplies--prompted many district coalition partners to adjust school calendars to turn out teachers, ESPs, and administrators for a huge February 12 rally on the state Capitol steps, followed by a day of mass lobbying.
• Kentucky NEA members also worked with district superintendents to adjust calendars on February 12, organizing a mass rally that would completely--and legally--block the state Capitol from traffic. After that event, educators were to deliver sacks of member postcards, calling for adequate education funding, to the governor and each legislator.

In this year's 30-day legislative session, the Kentucky Education Association was to lobby for a hike in the state's low tobacco tax to aid schools in the face of a $500 million state deficit, while engaging in an ongoing campaign to fund the mandates of the historic, far-reaching Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990--which requires adequately compensated, insured, and trained teachers and manageable class sizes to sustain dramatic gains in student achievement.

--D.W.