Paul Horton continues to provide a historical context for issues of our time. In this post, he shows how the birth and growth of the black middle class was integrally related to the union movement and public sector employment.
Horton writes:
“The biggest lifeline that middle class blacks could grasp was public sector employment. The last thirty years have seen an increase in the employment of blacks in city, county, and state government. Teachers, firemen, police, water and sanitation workers make up the backbone of the black middle class today. It is not surprising, given the history cited above that blacks are very active in seeking the job protections offered by union membership.
“In fact, in a report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last year (“Union Members Summary”), “black workers were more likely to be union members than white, Asian, or Hispanic workers.” The average weekly earnings for union members was $950 and $750 for non union members.
“Not surprisingly, the two states with the largest union membership are the first two states targeted by Campbell Brown’s group anti-tenure group: California (2.4 million) and New York (2 million).
“The pattern that I am trying to describe is that the attack on teacher tenure is, in part, an attack on the black middle class. In Chicago, for example, several rounds of school reform between 2000 and 2010 decimated black teachers employed by CPS (Chicago Public Schools: 40% 2000, 30% 2010). When I attended an activist parents meeting and gave a talk, the parent on the panel to my left expressed outrage that another public school was being closed and that “the community was losing more black teachers.” (Huffington Post, “CPS Racial Discrimination Lawsuit: Three Teachers, Union Sue District Over Losing Their Jobs”) In a recent Ebony expose’, Rod McCullom reported that 43% of those laid off in the wake of the 2013 school closings were black. (Ebony, September 2013) According to CTU (Chicago Teacher Union) President Karen Lewis, “Entire faculties are fired and must reapply for positions in turnarounds. These situations have been extremely challenging on Black middle-age faculty members who often have advanced degrees or seniority.”
And he adds:
“While there is much evidence to support the targeting of black teachers by anti-tenure lawsuits supported by Ms. Brown, Ms. Gibbs, and now, superstar lawyers David Boies and Laurence Tribe, the impact of the loss of tenure will demoralize teacher’s unions and allow school administrators to hire and fire at will. The immediate objective for education reformers is that a victory in the tenure fight will allow big city school districts to rif out senior teachers who are expensive and replace them with young, less costly teachers recruited from such organizations as Teach for America. TFA teachers are typically just graduated college students who undergo a five-week intensive training course that does not adequately prepare them for the classroom, especially the inner city classroom. Although increasing numbers of TFA teachers are staying on for a third year, they rarely stay in the classroom longer.
“The irony of Ms. Campbell’s anti-tenure campaign is that by making the teacher workplace a less secure place to be, fewer of our brightest young people will want to work in schools where administrators “are forced by their district level bosses “to take the kid gloves off.” An absence of tenure will drive salaries even lower, making the teaching profession even less attractive to most bright young people who might want to buy a house or start a family. Teachers who live in cities where salaries are comparably high often cannot afford to live in neighborhoods that are considered “safe.” Yet another irony is that those states that are the most heavily unionized are, almost without exception, those that have the highest standardized test scores.
“One can certainly understand why Campbell Brown, who is married to a Republican bundler, would support an end to tenure for teachers, but it is more difficult to understand the motivations of Gibbs, Boies, and Tribe who claim to be Democrats.
“The weakening of teacher tenure will create legal precedents for the elimination of due process for all remaining public sector jobs. This would allow cities to hire and fire all of its employees at will and easily jettison expensive pension and health care packages, ala’ the Chicago School of Economics privatization schemes applied to Chile and Argentina by the “Chicago Boys.”
“What is surprising is that people who call themselves Democrats, including the President and his closest advisors, and much of the congressional Progressive Caucus are willing to sit back and watch this happen.”
Why is this surprising? The Democratic Party has changed. Many mainstream Democrats have embraced neoliberal policies.
I think a case could be made that an attack on tenure is also an attack on women. It’s one of the few careers where a woman’s pay is equal and she doesn’t have to go beg men for a raise.
Exactly retired teacher. This republican ideal that females stay home (barefoot and pregnant) hasn’t gone away. When women began attending college, many times they would graduate, marry and become homemakers. I guess that made them “acceptable” wives back in the day.
Republicans love to make laws telling women what to do with our bodies, and would if they could keep us voiceless and powerless. We are 2nd class citizens to them even still, regardless the achievements of their wives, daughters and even mothers.
This is especially sad since the middle class homes generally need the money of the woman, or in the case of a single woman or single mother who must support herself. How teachers can make it these days on $50,000 (east coast) is amazing, considering rent is easily $1,500/month–$18,000 annually. That is a HUGE chunk of one’s salary, if single. Not to mention every other necessary expense.
Definitely, this is an attack on women and blacks. How sad the democrats are in complicity with republicans.
We have teachers in Ohio who are in the teachers ‘union who vote against labor unions. Go figure that. They wouldn’t vote for a Democrat if their lives depended on it.
The current prevalence of bigots and know-nothings who attack and wish to replace our civil service with cronies and mercenaries it is a disgrace. All other advanced countries have (and need) a far larger public service sector than the USA. Ours used to be known for its honesty, efficiency, and friendliness
We have reverted to the days of considering those who serve the community as being “inferior” and worthy of little pay. People demand more, pay less, stomp their privileged feet and walk away. There is a real attitude problem with certain groups of people who chose to adopt rigid stances. It is disguised classism and a sense of superiority that guides their decisions.
This is exactly what I have heard voiced by those who really support ed deform: if you work for the public, you are a worthless dependent. One’s real value is determined by getting what he/she can at the expense of others. We are back to Hobbes.
Deb;
I don’t see that happening. What I do see happening, however, is some disgust on the part of the community directed at those who are SUPPOSED to “serve the community” – and who are paid to do so! – yet are perceived as not providing the service they’re paid for.
It may sound like a subtle difference….but it may help to remember that “the community” today – after seeing teacher strike after teacher strike – doesn’t hold teachers in the same high regard as the teachers hold themselves.
Look at this blog by way of example. Few teachers here are willing to criticize themselves or their “profession”….yet their “product” in terms of what the community is paying for has noticeably declined in quality. Is that all the teachers doing? Of course not…but the community at large sees the actual results, and then the virtually constant denials of teacher that they had anything to do with it, and comes to its own conclusions.
I disagree. There are some with your views. But the fact is that if teachers don’t “deliver” to your expectations, you just might not realize how much time teachers have to devote to the data collecting that is used against them. Instead of teaching, teachers are required to do so much more, on their own time. Are teachers not allowed to be exhausted.
In ant case, I refer to the rude treatment of people who work in restaurants or who clean hotels, or those who perform jobs that some people think should be done by volunteers, for free.
A certain group of elitist people, combined with another group of know-nothing zealots wish to keep some at their beck and call and to pay them paupers wages.
But believe whatever you want. Our school is a high performer but we feel the political will to reduce teachers to paraprofessional wages with false praise from administrators who don’t care if we put in 20 hours per day.
When teachers, scientists, and retired people are under attack, it signals a tremendous leadership crisis — and it stinks from the one percent. Our country is becoming a banana republic/rogue nation. Ferguson, Missouri, case in point.
“. . . who undergo a five-week intensive training course. . .”
Why do we continue to use the edudeformers’ language????
Anyone who thinks that the ATTFA (Attempt to Teach For Awhile) training course is intensive, well to be nice and not just call them dumbshits, I’ve got some great ocean front property for sale cheaply, some with homes others just lots, over at the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri. Operators are standing by to take your money now!!!
Intensive:
“concentrated on a single area or subject or into a short time; very thorough or vigorous.
“she undertook an intensive Arabic course”
synonyms: thorough, thoroughgoing, in-depth, rigorous, exhaustive; (from google)
The summer vacation that is the TFA summer “five week INADEQUATE training course “certainly doesn’t fit the parameters of the definition of “intensive”.
Let’s quit using their propaganda, eh!!!
Good point Duane!
You got me Duane!
Didn’t mean to “get you” Paul (yes, sometimes I do mean to “get someone”, it’s not like I’m not beyond that aspect of my orneryness.). It’s just that sometimes the edudeformers’ language gets so embedded in our discourse that we have a hard time recognizing that we are even using it. But recognize we must and do our best to not use it, which I know you try to do, Paul! As KTA states, keep writing and I’ll keep reading. Thanks for your insights!
Reblogged this on Teacher Talk and commented:
This is important. I was born into white privilege, so the points in this blog post never occurred to me. This gives me even more reason to support unions and teachers.
Paul Horton left out the US Postal Service. Not only a large employer of unionized African-Americans, but also under siege as an organization. Congress has required the USPO to prefund its retirement program by 75 (!) years, and the Post Office is going broke trying to fund that. Plus they lost a lot of business to FedEx and UPS, which cherry-pick the most profitable deliveries — and if it’s not profitable to deliver something, they have the USPO do it. Lots of parallels to what is happening to public education.
All unionized public workers in every field are under attack because unionized public employment has been the route for non-whites into the economic ranks — and into the neighborhoods — of the heretofore white Middle Class. The most effective scare tactic used by the anti-public employee racists is that their pensions have huge “unfunded liabilities” that are going to “bankrupt” city, county, and state governments. That’s The Great Unfunded Liability Lie. The way the racists portray an unfunded liability leads voters to think that it’s a huge current debt owed right now, but in fact an unfunded liability is calculated by taking the state, county, or city current small annual payment to a pension plan, then projecting the annual payment for each of the next 30 years increasing each year for factors like inflation, number of retirees, etc. and than adding up those 30 future years of small payments. The total is what’s called the “unfunded liability.” But each of those small annual payments over 30 years is all that a state,county, or city actually pays out in a given year, and it’s typically a very small percentage of the budget and isn’t going to bankrupt any state.county, or city. Educate the public to understand what an “unfunded liability” is, and you will disarm the most potent weapon being used against public employees.
This is not what an “unfunded liability” is. I tried to explain this to you before, at this link.
Thanks Barbara!
Thank goodness for the Post Office! My husband’s father took care of his family through the Great Depression with his job at the Post Office.
Here’s a question that I hope some one can answer for me: Because it is well-established that factors such as parental discord, hidden health issues, household financial problems, and myriad behavioral factors can heavily influence a student’s achievement in school and performance on standardized tests, then in accord with the Due Process rights that teachers have, can a teacher whose job is on the line because of students’ poor test scores request detailed information about students’ home life, parental relations, family finances, and other pertinent information? If so, that would raise such a political backlash against using test scores to evaluate teachers that use of test scores to evaluate teachers would be swiftly dumped.
Education needs to attract and nurture talent and work performance and treat employees with honesty and respect, but that should always be done in support of the primary role of the education institution which is servicing students and the communities. This is how every job is supposed to work. When you start treating jobs as a lifestyle benefit to the workers beyond the value provided, you are talking about artificial government sinecures which may even conflict with the core mission of educating students.
Playing the race card here is outrageous. There is no evidence of any sinister racial motives. Almost every industry has moved away from labor unions and tenure style employment guarantees and the reasons are well documented and supported far beyond some ethnicity bias type motivation.
If government adjusts spending on absolutely anything, that may cut jobs in one area and may create other jobs elsewhere, and those various jobs will have ethnicity profiles, and by the same logic as this post different ethnic groups will lose or gain, and the original move is a “war” on that ethnic group. That is ridiculous.
No one is saying sinister, but it is happening, especially in big cities, and there are lawsuits. There is a larger pattern that is very suspect. There is a disparate impact on minority teachers.
Protection from frivolous dismissal and abuse is not the equivalent of a “lifetime guarantee of a job”. All jobs, but especially civil service jobs that greatly benefit the public, and especially its most vulnerable members, namely children, should include such protection. Nor can any mention of the racism that has plagued our country for centuries, be dismissed, censored, and suppressed as “playing the race card.”
I didn’t say tenure was a “lifetime guarantee”. I also didn’t refer to “any mention” of racism, I referred to this specific mention of racism. You may think all jobs should have tenure protection, but I suspect there is popular opposition. Generally, school districts and communities don’t want to dismiss teachers for frivolous reasons. They want the ability to dismiss teachers for serious reason when the need arises. Even Steve Jobs was quite vocal on this issue.
“Almost every industry. . . ”
Yep, and as my mom used to say when as kids we came up with some cockamamie scheme that we wanted to do “So if everybody jumped off the cliff you would to. Sorry, I can’t let you do that.”
“Laurence Henry Tribe is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. He also works with the firm Massey & Gail LLP on a variety of matters.” Two questions for Mr Tribe: 1- As a professor, are you willing to give up your own tenure? 2-In some states tiered licensure is linked to employment evaluation. Are you willing to have your license to practice law linked to your work at the law firm of Massey & Gail?
Thanks to the wonderfully Wall Street Billionaires who want to abolish unions and job protection we have stories like this: http://gawker.com/woman-working-four-part-time-jobs-dies-in-car-while-try-1627956779
Thanks Bain Capital, Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, et al. Thanks for nothing.
I was going to write “wonderfully philanthropic” .. but just couldn’t, even ironically. They have been the cause of so much suffering — or “disruption” as they love to call it while sipping cocktails and eating hors d’oeuvres. There is nothing wonderful about these monsters.
You can’t blame the ills of the world on the few who have achieved success simply for being successful. Well, you are doing that, but you can’t reasonably do so.
The ills of the world have many causes, depending on which ill you are talking about. One of the ills of our society is deepening inequality of wealth and income. I blame that ill on the 1%, who pay lobbyists and make campaign contributions to make sure that they pay less taxes and that budget cuts worsen inequality.
Ms. Ravitch, you are dropping any pretense of a politically neutral discussion of education policy and engaging in completely partisan advocacy. Citing income/wealth inequality as a primary ill of society is the primary issue of today’s left, while the right would cite lack of freedom. You know this.
Massimo, I am not politically neutral. I have a point of view. I believe in provide a great education to all children. I believe that the growing inequality of wealth and income makes that impossible. If we do not address poverty and segregation, we cannot provide a great education to all. The US has a higher proportion of children living in poverty than any other advanced society. Why don’t you read “Reign of Error” and you will understand my view of the problems and ne essay solutions.
I will read “Reign of Error”. I have read your previous “Death and Life of the Great American School System” and was fully convinced of your main arguments. My wife is a K-12 administrator, former teacher, and we’ve recommended your writings to many other K-12 colleagues. (This is an anonymous alias, btw).
Any time a school, parent, or student above the mean does anything positive, it increases inequality. Society __should__ encourage that type of positive inequality. It horrifies me to hear people oppose this inequality or suggest that positive behaviors should be muted or subdued in favor of whoever is at the bottom of the distribution. The wealthy should be encouraged to invest in their children’s education and try to provide better opportunities that other children don’t have access to which will increase inequality but also pave the way and set a great example.
I will read the full book before making further comments here.
Massimo,
A better education for all does not mean equal outcomes for all. It means a better education for all.
Some have become so entrenched in the “best for me and mine” philosophy that they have no real concern for those who may be stepped on along the way. If all we care to push is “survival of the fittest” then we lose sight of democracy. Some detest democracy because a majority of uninformed votes can result in terrible decisions. Nothing is perfect, but when we, as a society shrug and turn away from those who are victims of unfair manipulation, we have no moral compass and right to act as if we are a country of “liberty and justice for all”. I am so tired of the people who defend selfishness as if it is a virtue.
Ironic and sad that we are facing these attacks on the working class, regardless of race, as the nation gets ready to “celebrate” Labor Day . . .
I am sorry – I read this article three times to make sure I understood the contents. Is the author saying we need to keep teacher tenure so that black people keep jobs that they may not be qualified to keep for the sake of the economy? I was under the impression that this blog was in support of quality education of CHILDREN. I must have been mistaken – shame on me.
Florida Mom,
I think you missed Horton’s point. Teacher evaluation based on student test scores unfairly penalizes those who teach low-scoring children, who are likely to be English learners, students with disabilities, and students of color. Teachers in affluent districts are likely to get high ratings because of who they teach. So if the evaluation system based on test scores is put in place, it will have a disparate impact on those who teach the neediest students, many of whom are black teachers. The National Academy of Education and AERA said that such an evaluation system–as pushed by Duncan–will be an incentive to avoid teaching the neediest students.
Florida Mom:
Here is your writing: “…we need to keep teacher tenure so that BLACK people keep jobs that they may NOT be QUALIFIED to keep for the sake of the economy?”
I hope that you patiently read WHITE teachers who have Master ED degree, plus award winning from Harvard University, and who have been framed into category of incompetency. Here are the links for you to read and think about “America Lawless in Education in early 21st century”
1) Susan Lee Schwartz
We need some real investigative journalism. I have provided all the names. The time was 1995-7. I have all the letters and documents. For goodness sakes, the LRDC paid for postage for 2 years, so I could mail all my curricula materials and the kids work. They interviewed the students. They paid me to purchase my Yearling unit. which they used int their seminars where they taught the nation’s staff developers what learning looked like in different classrooms… with teachers who had unique curricula.
Sometimes, I think I imagined it all, and the prestigious NYS English Council’s Educator of Excellence award in 1998, and the book offer from Phillipa Stratton at Stenhouse… and the charges of incompetence and corporal punishment.
WHO WILL FIND THE TRUTH…contact Pew, or the LRDC, or Resnick, or Stephanie or Vicki?
2) Lorna Stremcha’s book “BRAVERY, BULLIES AND BLOWHARDS” on how this malicious process affected her
http://www.endteacherabuse.org,
Please remember that all minority professionals need to obtain higher degree in order to be able to obtain a decent job in any society. Mark my words. Additionally, these minority professionals must do a dirty work in order to have a good pay or bonus from the “RICH BOY CLUBs.
If you are interested in reading more, here are a few of posts, so that you will have a better picture of how intimidated BLACK professionals endure if they might NOT be QUALIFIED as per your suggestion. Back2basic
Susan Lee Schwartz
August 29, 2014 at 10:13 am
Cross posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Paul-Horton-Why-is-the-Ob-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Decision_Diane-Ravitch_Obama-Administration_Poverty-140829-676.html#comment508927
with this comment:
I was a celebrated teacher
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.htmlwhen the war on teachers was hidden, in 1998
.
The lawless behavior of administration that took me out even as I was the cohort chosen by Pew and Harvard for the real National Standards research which no one hears about.
My story is the story of a hundred thousand wonderful educators. I read the Ravitch Blog daily, where teachers and parents tell the tale of the end of public education, and the other day I read one story of a dedicated teacher whose principal told him, “Do you low how lucky you are to have a job.” Can you imagine a hospital administrator telling this to a doctor? The disrespect is legend, as media joins in the ‘bad teacher’ rant. Who will want to teach if this goes on. Children are not children for long, they are the future Americans who will run things, and their shared knowledge will make our democracy work.
DEPENDS ON shared knowledge.
Click to access hirsch.pdf
Susan Lee Schwartz
August 30, 2014 at 12:20 am
I have been saying that for years. The cabals that are running America have a pal that includes impoverishing the middle class, stressing them to the point that they have no time or energy to reflect on the lies and propaganda that the media is pushing. The 3 branches of government –created to balance each other, have been subverted. The legislature is useless, except to enable the 1%, and to allow the 1/10 of this wealthy class to possess the wealth once possessed by nations.
Democracy is being suborned by the destruction of the INSTITUTION of public education. 15,880 school districts in 50 states make it impossible for the average person to grasp what is happening.
Television, the greatest propaganda vehicle in history, bombards our ignorant citizens with the narrative that this cabal puts out. The real story of what is happening is nowhere to be heard. Climate change is quickening, if one reads the scientist’s latest predictions, and the arctic ocean, where so many species breed and feed is about to become the fiefdom of the oil companies.
Presently, they are leading us into war, keeping fear alive. The police are being militarized and surveillance is everywhere. Orwell is turning over in his grave.
Susan Lee Schwartz
August 29, 2014 at 9:35 pm
There is no accountability for the banksters who stole the national wealth. There is no accountability for those who polluted the gulf with oil… and thus they are eyeing the arctic, where so much of out wildlife feeds and spawns. The principals in the schools, and the superintendents are free to do what they wish because DUE PROCESS –which is the very path to accountability– does not apply.
Lorna Stremcha’s book “Bravery, Bullies and Blowhards” is about to be published. The lawlessness she encountered defines the lawlessness that occurs when there is no accountability. Her principal set her up to be assaulted in the classroom… and she was.
Here she testifies about her experience:
There are thousands of stories like this one. Go to
http://www.endteacherabuse.org,
and read a few, or look at the data collected by the site administrator Karen Horwitz for her book “White Chalk Crime.”… and criminal it is when no jail time or punishment of any kind follows the most immoral, unethical and illegal behavior.
Your definition of ‘accountability’ is immaterial. It is the only way to ensure that teachers are supported by administration, and not turned into victims and serfs. I read here, on this blog, one teacher whose principal told him that ‘he was lucky to have a job.’ That kind of arrogance comes with a total lack of accountability.
The schools need many things… smaller classes, books, and materials, and some technology, but if the administrators supported the teachers, as the real National Standards said was the criteria for LEARNING. Principals must support teachers, this 3rd level research out of Harvard “The 8 Principles of Learning”, proved. This research DISAPPEARED! IT WAS PART OF THE CLINTON 2000 FOR EDUCATION, funded by the Pew center…. and it is GONE!
DUE PROCESS RIGHT is to honor and to respect the DIGNITY of any profession in blue and white collar whether you are factory workers or nurses, teachers or doctors, consumers or manufacturers… No genders and no races should suffer any harassment from personal bias in the hand of authority.