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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York City
July 13, 1999

Remarks by Reg Weaver
Vice President National Education Association
To the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 90th Annual Convention, Labor Luncheon

Good afternoon. You know, it's a tall order to speak after a cabinet secretary, Alexis Herman, and to stand before this elite audience of civil rights leaders and high-achievers. I've got to tell you, for a humble fellow like me, from the poor side of Chicago, I feel sort of like the mule at the Kentucky Derby: I don't expect to finish first, but I sure do appreciate the company and the attention.

My friends, the theme of this luncheon -- "Labor and civil rights: two movements, one goal" -- is rich in history, rich in tradition, rich in meaning for all of us.

We all remember that the last public business of our greatest civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., was marching in Memphis with the sanitation workers, AFL-CIO.

We also recall the summer of '63, the great March on Washington. Amidst the throngs assembled on the Mall, banners and placards of NAACP local chapters dominated the scene, to be sure; but there were also many hundreds of banners from union folk -- white and black -- who stood tall for human and civil rights.

Through all the progressive struggles of the last half century, the labor movement and the civil rights movement have stood shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm -- braided together in a conspiracy of conscience. This is truly a partnership to celebrate.

In addition to being a union activist, I am also a teacher -- a teacher who has spent nearly a quarter century in the classroom. So I am quick to add that one of the shining ideals that binds these two movements together is the ideal of public education -- quality public education for all our children...not elite, private education for the privileged few.

It is no coincidence that -- time and again -- public schools have been a battleground in the struggle for civil rights. Yes, Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1956 was about the civil rights of black folk. It was about ending "separate and unequal." But it was also about access to quality public education for all Americans, regardless of color, class, or creed.

I mentioned Dr. King. We all know that he had an almost religious reverence for education. And in this regard, he followed in a rich African-American tradition. Remember Frederick Douglass. In the eyes of his plantation master, young Frederick's sin was that he learned how to read, and that he wanted to teach the other slaves how to read. To the plantation masters, this was the greatest threat. Slave rebellions they could handle. But what scared them most was slaves obtaining an education.

So, as Frederick Douglass knew, and as Martin Luther King knew, there has always been a link between education and human freedom. There has always been a link between education and equality. Likewise, it is no coincidence that teacher unions -- the NEA and AFT -- have been not just outspoken champions of public education, we have also been outspoken champions of human and civil rights.

Public education -- at its best -- is the great equalizer in our society.

Public education -- at its best -- is the engine that moves the poor into the middle class, that equips every child, regardless of color, with the wherewithal to succeed.

Public education -- at its best -- is about integration. It is about upward mobility. It is about economic opportunity.

And this is exactly why the civil rights movement and the labor movement both have a powerful stake in the in the future of America's public schools.

My friends, I will not be coy about my advocacy before you this afternoon: I believe passionately in public education.

In times past, speaking before a largely African-American audience and standing up for public education, I would be preaching to the choir. But I am acutely aware that the choir is not as single-minded and united as it used to be. I am acutely aware that many folks have concerns and questions about the quality of their local public schools.

Let me be frank with you: Compared to white parents, African-American parents express far greater dissatisfaction with their local public schools in virtually every area of performance, from academic standards to discipline to safety. And with good reason!

After all, you folks have been in the forefront of the fight for civil rights. You have won a glittering array of formal civil rights -- rights now guaranteed by the Constitution, by acts of Congress, and by the Court. But what do any of these rights mean to an African-American child or young adult who has been denied a decent education, who is functionally illiterate, who lacks even elementary math skills?

I would argue that the most basic civil right is the right to a quality public education. Because this is the essential enabling right. It is the key to all the others. And the harsh fact is that the right to a quality public education that is being denied to millions of young African-Americans.

So we -- you and I, parents and citizens across America -- have reached a crossroads. Today, we are forced to choose. Tuition voucher legislation has been signed into law in the State of Florida. Vouchers are being pushed hot and heavy by Republicans in Congress, as well as by one of our own brothers, former Congressman Floyd Flake of New York.

We face a tough, historic choice: Will we go down the path of vouchers, siphoning the best students and the most motivated parents away from inner-city public school systems? Or will we rededicate ourselves -- redouble our commitment -- to making public education work for all our children?

Let me put it differently. This is our choice: to abandon public schools, or to redeem them.

My choice is clear: I argue for redemption. I argue that America's central cities have had enough of abandonment. They have been abandoned by big business, abandoned by the middle class, abandoned by high-paying jobs, abandoned by major supermarket chains, and on and on. Only two institutions remain to anchor inner-city communities: the churches and the public schools.

It would be ironic and tragic if we now choose to abandon one of those two anchors, the public schools.

I am reminded of the story of Esau in Genesis. You know the story well. Esau returns from the hunt, tired and hungry, and he sells his birthright to Jacob for a mess of pottage. Likewise today, inner-city parents are tired of too many schools that are underperforming; hungry for something better for their children. And a growing number are willing to sell their birthright, public schools, for a fistful of vouchers being offered by right-wing politicians.

I understand the frustration. But make no mistake about it: For urban public schools, vouchers are not the cure; they would be one more cancer.

Vouchers are a fundamentally dishonest scheme.

Advocates say that vouchers will give "choice" to inner-city parents. But parents have no choice when a voucher is worth several thousand dollars, and private school tuition is five to fifteen thousand dollars.

Parents have no choice when the private school admissions committee says, "Sorry, your child would not be appropriate for our school."

Parents have no choice when private and parochial schools already have long waiting lists, or when there is no transportation to voucher schools across town or in the suburbs.

What's more, it is a profoundly bad choice when several thousand children are given vouchers, but tens of thousands remain behind in public schools -- schools that are left with fewer resources, fewer high-performing students, and fewer involved parents.

And what about the right-wing ideologues who are offering us this mess of pottage called vouchers? Heretofore, these same folks have been hell-bent to slash the school lunch program...hell-bent to kill Title 1...hell-bent to shred the safety net...hell-bent to end affirmative action.

Since when did these folks give a damn about poor black children?

Forgive me if I suspect that their real agenda with vouchers has nothing to do with helping inner-city parents and kids...and everything to do with destroying the quote-unquote "government schools" that they hate with a passion.

So I urge all of us in this room to beware of those increasingly powerful voices attacking public education today. They want to voucherize us, privatize us, and commercialize us.

Right now, a new plan called Exodus 2000 is being promoted by the religious right. Exodus 2000 is an attempt to pull some 12 million conservative Christians -- presumably white -- out of public schools by the year 2000. It is the brainchild of a fellow named E. Ray Moore, Jr., who bills himself as a Bible teacher and campaign consultant for Pat Robertson and Dan Quayle.

Not surprisingly, Exodus 2000 is being promoted not just by the religious right, according to the Exodus 2000 website, but also by "businessmen" as well. Why?

Because there's a second reason why powerful forces in this country want to dismantle our public school system. Public education today is a $600 billion business. $600 billion dollars! One businessman recently noted that, if someone could corner just one percent of the public education "market," he or she would automatically catapult into the Fortune 500. And there are plenty of business people right now just aching to do that catapulting.

Now, these businessmen say they want vouchers in order to give quote-unquote "choice" to poor children. They say that vouchers are not about money and profits. Well, my mother taught me long ago: When somebody says, "It's not about money," you can be sure: it's about money!

But for profiteers and ideologues to really seize control of the public school system, they have to convince the rest of America that public education has failed -- that public schools are beyond repair -- and that teachers are incompetent and opposed to any type of reform.

And this sickens me. Because our opponents' goal is not to do the right thing for children; it's to make money and score political points.

I was a biology teacher, but I also consider myself a student of American society and politics. And if there is one thing I know for a fact, it is this: If most minority children, children of color, children of disadvantage and poverty, are going to have any chance at a quality education, they aren't going to get it from big business, they aren't going to get it from the tender mercies of the free market, and they sure aren't going to get it from the scheme cooked up by the far right.

They can, however, get it from a reformed and revitalized -- a redeemed -- public education system.

My brothers and sisters, we owe it to our kids to create something lasting and enduring for them -- something that will treat them all equally, with nurturing and respect. Something that will endow them with hope, and inspiration, and guidance, and the tools for a better future.

We have thousands of terrific public schools in this country. By any measure, these public schools -- most of them in affluent suburbs -- are performing at world-class levels. Take Chicago as an example. Recently, a consortium of 20 school districts in suburban Chicago participated in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. If those 20 districts had been a separate country, they would have ranked second in the world in science...and among the top five nations in math.

Our challenge is to create those same kinds of schools in downtown Chicago. Our challenge is to ensure that kids in inner-city Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles will be challenged and enabled to achieve at the same high level as their best suburban counterparts.

I can tell you honestly that this is already beginning to happen. You've probably read about it in the papers. In Chicago, in Washington, D.C., in Boston, in Los Angeles, and in other big cities, courageous school superintendents -- in partnership with local teacher unions -- are shaking up failing schools, raising academic standards, ending social promotion, and making summer school mandatory for kids who don't master the basics.

This is a beginning. We have by no means reached the mountaintop, much less the Promised Land. But important changes are happening. Not bogus pseudo-reforms like vouchers. But research-based reforms -- things that we know really work... things like smaller class sizes in the early grades, tougher standards for student achievement and student behavior, and -- first and foremost -- teacher quality.

Let me tell you, this is hard work. It is work that will take years to complete. And it is work that teachers and other public educators cannot do alone.

I know that you support public education. But it is not enough to support public schools in the abstract. We need engagement. We need you local unions and your local NAACP branches directly, personally involved in assisting teachers, reaching out to inner-city students, and lifting up struggling schools.