Education

Striking Sacramento Teachers Union Slams District For Rejecting Invite

March 28, 2022 Sawsan Morrar, The Sacramento Bee. Resist! California, Education, Sacramento, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Sacramento, California - A day after Sacramento City Unified superintendent rejected State Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s offer to bring district and union officials together to resume negotiations, union leaders sent a scathing email criticizing district officials. Sacramento City Unified teachers and district classified staff have been on strike since Wednesday with no end in sight, leaving more than 40,000 students unable to attend classes. Schools were expected to remain closed Monday. District officials met Saturday with SEIU Local 1021, the union representing classified staff. After the negotiating session, SEIU asked the district to consider additional improvements to the “total overall economic package that meets or exceeds the agreement with SCTA.”

The Minneapolis Teachers’ Strike Isn’t Over Until The Workers Decide It’s Over

March 26, 2022 Tatiana Cozzarelli, Left Voice. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

As Minneapolis teachers are nearing the end of the third week of their strike, a tentative agreement was reached early Friday morning between the union’s negotiating team and the Minneapolis public school district. Before the agreement was even released to the teachers, the district began flooding parents and educators with messages that classes are back on Monday. This is a lie. A tentative agreement does not end a strike. Only the workers on strike (in this case, the teachers and support staff) have the ability to do that — and they need time and space to read the tentative agreement, discuss it among their co-workers, community members and families, and then vote on it.

Students Organize Occupation In Solidarity With Striking Teachers

March 24, 2022 Tatiana Cozzarelli, Left Voice. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs, Youth Activism

Temperatures are below freezing in Minneapolis with rain and snow falling as teachers enter their third week on strike. Negotiations are occurring at the Davis Center, where Minneapolis Public School District has refused to provide a living wage to Educational Support Staff or accept other demands. Outside, hundreds of teachers are dancing, chanting and picketing. “We have decided to organize an occupation of the Davis Center. We are going to have students here 24-7. We are going to be here all the time. And this is to increase awareness of the strike,” said one of the students. Inside, dozens of students announced that they are occupying the building. “As much media as we are getting, we haven’t been making big enough waves, or not enough waves to change MPS’ [Minneapolis Public Schools] mind.”

Howard University Faculty Win Tentative Agreement

March 24, 2022 Maximillian Alvarez, In These Times. Resist! Education, Howard University, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs

Since full-time lecturers at Howard University originally voted to unionize, they have spent nearly four years bargaining with the university administration to get their first contract. On March 23, just hours before lecturers and nearly 200 adjunct professors, who have been fighting for their second contract, were set to strike, the union secured a historic tentative agreement with the university and called it off. Union members will be voting on whether or not to ratify the tentative agreement in the coming weeks. Even though the strike was narrowly averted, Howard has a long way to go to adequately address the long-running systemic problems that brought non-tenure-track faculty to the point of hitting the picket line.

Howard University Faculty Are Ready To Strike

March 23, 2022 Peter Lucas, Jacobin. Resist! Education, HBCUs, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

After more than three years of negotiating their first contract since they unionized, 150 full-time lecturers are expected to strike at Howard University beginning this Wednesday. Unless an agreement is reached in the coming days, they will strike alongside almost two hundred adjunct professors hoping to secure their second contract. Established not long after the end of the Civil War, Howard University is widely regarded as the nation’s top historically black college or university (HBCU). Its rich intellectual history attracts accomplished academics from around the world. Unfortunately, according to strike-ready faculty, Howard also has a history of underpaying and arbitrarily terminating nontenured professors.

District Makes ‘Last, Best And Final Offer’ To Striking Support Staff

March 22, 2022 Melissa Turtinen, Bring Me The News. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Minneapolis Public School district says it has shared its "last, best and final offer" to striking education support professionals (ESPs). But the ESP and teacher chapters of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT 59) say the district can do better, and they'll continue to strike until that happens. Classes were canceled in Minneapolis on Monday, marking the 10th day nearly 30,000 students have missed school since the strike began on March 8. The main sticking point in contract negotiations continues to be pay for ESPs. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT 59) has demanded starting pay for ESPs be increased to $35,000 annually (it's at about $24,000 right now). The district's offer on Sunday would increase starting wages of 85% of current ESPs to $23 per hour or more, "bringing most of our full-time ESPs close to $35,000 annually," the district says.

How A Cincinnati Preschool Became Worker-Owned

March 22, 2022 Cinnamon Janzer, Next City. Create! Education, Worker Cooperatives, Worker Ownership, Worker Rights and Jobs

Mt. Airy, Ohio - Katie McGoron founded Shine Nurture Center — a childcare and preschool in Mt. Airy, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati — in 2015. She envisioned a small, closely knit childcare center where kids would play outside and eat healthy food. That’s exactly what she built over the last seven years. But when she decided to go back to school and start a new phase of her life, she did something unexpected. Rather than sell her business to the highest bidder, she sold it to five of her workers, turning it into a worker cooperative. The transition process concluded last month when ownership was officially transferred from McGoron to Shine workers, thanks in large part to the help of Co-op Cincy.

Returning Bankruptcy Protections Is Critical For Solving Student Debt

March 21, 2022 Alan Collinge, Student Loan Justice. Create! Bankruptcy, Education, Finance and the Economy, Student Loans

During the 1700’s, American colonists- including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris, and others- were being treated horribly under debt- typically to British banks, trading companies, and other investors. In fact, the issue of debt was so concerning to the nation’s Founders, that that in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, they call for uniform bankruptcy laws ahead of the power to raise an army, declare war, and coin currency. Congress, however, began chipping this protection away, uniquely, from student loans beginning in 1976 and continuing through 2005. Today, both federal and private student loans are essentially impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.

Minneapolis Strikers Demand A Living Wage For The Lowest-Paid Educators

March 19, 2022 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Labor is on fire in the Twin Cities. Educators in Minneapolis are wrapping up their second week on strike, and cafeteria workers are poised to join them. St. Paul educators came close to walking out as well; the unions fed off one another as they built their contract campaigns. “St. Paul has the experience,” said St. Paul special ed teacher Jeff Garcia. “Minneapolis has the energy. They are really fired up.” The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and the St. Paul Federation of Educators both announced February 18 that their members had voted to authorize strikes. MFT members walked out March 8. The strikers are in two bargaining units: 3,000 teachers and 1,000 education support professionals (ESPs), such as teacher’s aides.

A School Created A Homeless Shelter In The Gym And It Paid Off In The Classroom

March 18, 2022 Gail Cornwall, Hechinger Report. Create! California, Community services, Education, Homelessness, Housing, San Francisco

San Francisco, California - On a Friday evening in the fall of 2019, Maria Flores stood waiting with her “crazy heavy” duffel bag and her teenage son outside the office of a man whose home she cleans. A friend of hers had told him that Flores had been evicted from the apartment she had lived in for 16 years. There, the single mom had paid $700 a month in rent ever since she’d moved in eight-months pregnant. Now, one night at a motel cost as much as $250. “Every single day I was looking for a place to live,” Flores said. He’d offered two air mattresses, keys to his office, and permission to sleep there on weekends. For the better part of a year, Flores, who asked to use only one of her two surnames, lived that way: Back and forth, spend and scrimp.

‘We Got Your Back’: Student Protest In Solidarity With Teachers’ Strike

March 17, 2022 Tatiana Cozzarelli, Left Voice. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Strike, Teachers, Worker Rights and Jobs

Dozens of Minneapolis public school students organized a march and a sit-in to stand in solidarity with public school educators who entered their second week on strike. The students gathered at North High School and many held homemade signs, as well as some of the union signs speaking about the need for smaller class sizes, hiring more BIPOC teachers, and more. The action had been called the night before — a rally called at 5 p.m. for an action at 11:30 a.m. A student walkout in solidarity with teachers had been called and then canceled before the strike began. “We just had to do something for our teachers,” one student explained. After a crowd of a few dozen gathered, they took to the streets, walking on the road, crossing puddles of melted snow, and chanting into megaphones as a sound car followed.

Student Journalists’ Fight Against Censorship Leads To Protection Bill

March 17, 2022 Stephen Wentzell, Rabble.ca. Resist! Canada, Censorship, Education, Journalism

The recent occupation of Canada’s capital by the “Freedom Convoy” has highlighted a growing trend of vitriol, harassment and violence facing reporters both off-screen and online. Now, as newsrooms across the country grapple with the need for increased security and safety for journalists, two high school students are working to protect the rights of student journalists. The Student Press Freedom Act was created by Vancouver-based high school student journalists, Spencer Izen and Jessica Kim, after experiencing backlash on their coverage from an unexpected source: their school’s administration. Their school’s newspaper, The Griffin’s Nest, launched in 2012. Kim, who has served as managing editor of the publication since September 2020, joined the team in grade 10.

Schools Will Stop Serving Free Lunch To All Students

March 17, 2022 Marlene B. Schwartz, The Conversation. Create! Congress, Education, Food Access, Food and Agriculture, School Lunch

In March 2020, nearly all U.S. K-12 school buildings closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the federal government’s National School Lunch Program, quickly granted waivers to increase program flexibility and accommodate the challenges of the pandemic. These waivers, which have been renewed several times, were critically important for school food service programs as the programs abruptly shifted away from serving meals in cafeterias and designed new distribution models to continue to feed students. Many school meal staff across the country created grab-and-go meals that families could pick up, which was particularly important in the spring of 2020 and the following school year.

For The First Time In 50 Years, Minneapolis Teachers Are Out On Strike

March 16, 2022 Kip Hedges , In These Times. Resist! Education, Minneapolis, Strike, Teachers

On March 8, around 3,500 Minneapolis teachers and educational support professionals went out on strike, effectively shutting down a system of 35,000 students. The action, led by Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) Local 59, is the first walkout the city has seen in over 50 years. Educators are demanding caps to class sizes, higher wages and more mental health support for students. While the school district is claiming a budget shortfall, union advocates have pointed to the state’s record $9.3 billion surplus as a potential untapped resource. We sat down with Beth Dill, a 5th grade teacher at Whittier International Elementary School and an active union member, to talk about the strike, which is entering its second week.

500 Students Walk Out Of Florida School In Protest Against ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

March 16, 2022 Chris Walker, Truthout. Resist! Education, LGBTQ Rights, Protests

On Monday, hundreds of students staged a walkout at a high school in Orange County, Florida, demonstrating against a bill that would limit discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools throughout the state. More than 500 students participated in a protest at Winter Park High School, organized to oppose legislation — colloquially known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — that was being debated in the state Senate at the time. The legislation would ban discussion of LGBTQ issues in primary school classrooms and severely curtail what can be discussed in older grades, and could have disastrous repercussions beyond lesson plans. On Tuesday, that legislation passed in the state Senate. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) desk, who has signaled he will sign it into law.

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