Teachers

Teachers Deride Fans, Rally Outside Schools

February 9, 2021 Jack Tomczuk, Philly Metro. Resist! COVID-19, Philadelphia, School reopening, Teachers

Andrea McLaughlin, a second grade teacher, is afraid to return to her school, F.S. Edmonds Elementary in Northwest Philadelphia, because she doesn’t know what she will find. She, and many other public school teachers, don’t believe in the promises the School District of Philadelphia has made in its plans to reopen this month. “This is beyond COVID,” McLaughlin said. “This is about trust, and this is about getting us what we need and our kids deserve.” McLaughlin and other staff were supposed to return to school buildings Monday for the first time since March.

Philadelphia Educators To Defy District

February 8, 2021 Douglas Lyons and Samuel Davidson, WSWS. Resist! COVID-19, Philadelphia, School reopening, Teachers

Thousands of Philadelphia public school teachers are set to defy their district’s order to return to classrooms Monday. They will instead work virtually. This week marks the third attempt by the school district of Philadelphia to reopen school buildings in the midst of the pandemic. The district has been remote-only since last March. District officials demanded that approximately 2,000 kindergarten through second-grade teachers prepare classrooms beginning February 8 so that students could return on February 22. Nine thousand students are scheduled to enter buildings first, with further grades phased in later.

Chicago Teachers’ Struggle At A Crossroads

January 31, 2021 Alexander Fangmann, WSWS. Organize! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

The drive to reopen Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest school district in the country, has become a pitched battle between educators and the state apparatus, the latter backed up by the corporate media and the unions. The fight by Chicago educators to prevent the reopening of schools is the focal point of the class struggle in the United States, with every other major district in the country looking to Chicago to set a precedent. In this context, it is of the utmost importance for teachers and other educators to organize independently of the unions and join the Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, as well as attend this Saturday’s national meeting of the Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee...

Victimized Teacher Speaks Out Against Deadly School Reopening

January 30, 2021 Michael Walters, WSWS. Educate! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) ordered 5,800 teachers to return for in-person instruction at the beginning of January. Teachers who refused to return to in-person learning as the deadly COVID-19 virus raged through Chicago were labeled by the district as “absent without leave.” Their pay was docked, and their computer access locked. The World Socialist Web Site recently interviewed Jake, one of nearly 150 locked-out educators. Jake was a physical education (PE) teacher at a CPS elementary school for five and a half years until recently. He quit the profession after being locked out.

Corporate Media Bash Teachers Unions For Resisting School Reopenings

January 29, 2021 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! COVID-19, Media, School reopening, Teachers

The seven-day average COVID death toll hit an all time high yesterday, with over 3,400 Americans expected to die on any given day. Educator cases are on the rise. Studies have shown that children are as likely to contract and pass the coronavirus on as adults, making schools potential super spreading hotspots. As a result, European nations like the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands are shuttering schools, despite, in many cases, having lower infection rates than the U.S. President Biden, however, is pushing forward with a new plan to achieve a near full reopening within his first 100 days in office. And the media are attacking teachers for raising doubts about the program.

Strikes Loom For Public Schools

January 29, 2021 Jaisal Noor, The Real News. Resist! COVID-19, School reopening, Student Activism, Teachers

Across the country, a growing number of students, teachers, and parents are resisting pressure to return to the classroom before all teachers and students are vaccinated—and in Baltimore, students are preparing to strike in support of their teachers’ safety. During a Jan. 26 school board meeting, 18-year-old high school senior Joshua Lynn, a former student school board commissioner, announced plans for a student strike against in-person instruction until teachers are vaccinated. “Reopening … should not be followed through …. unless all teachers are FULLY vaccinated,” Lynn, who recently recovered from COVID-19, told The Real News.

Florida Teachers Face Setback In Fight For Safe Schools

January 28, 2021 Ari Odzer, NBC Miami. Resist! Florida, Labor Union, School reopening, Teachers

The Broward Teachers Union’s fight to secure work-from-home orders for about 1,100 teachers seems to have ended with an arbitrator’s decision. The BTU filed a lawsuit against Broward County Public Schools, demanding those teachers with health concerns be allowed to keep special accommodations which were granted in October. The district said only the most seriously ill teachers, about 600, would be allowed to teach from home as the rest were needed in the classroom. The arbitrator sided with the district. “This is a win for our students,” said Superintendent Robert Runcie. “We recognize the health concerns of our teachers and will continue to balance their needs with the needs of students who are struggling and must be back in a safe and healthy school for face-to-face learning.”

Chicago Schools Chief Threatens To Lock Out Teachers Who Don’t Return

January 24, 2021 George Gallanis, WSWS. Resist! Chicago, COVID-19, School reopening, Teachers

As Chicago educators continue to vote on a Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) resolution in support of teaching remotely, and to strike only in the event of retaliation from the school district, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Janice Jackson reiterated at a Friday news conference that such an action “would constitute a strike.” Although Jackson insisted, “We’re not locking teachers out,” indications are that CPS officials will cut educators off from their district-provided Google accounts, preventing them from teaching remotely. This has already been done to dozens of teachers in the district, to which the CTU has responded with no collective actions as at least 87 teachers remain locked out.

Training Bias Out Of Teachers

November 19, 2020 Sarah D. Sparks, Education Week. Educate! Education, Implicit Bias, Racism, Teachers

This summer, the Des Moines, Iowa, public schools held a series of anti-racist town hall meetings in the wake of the police-led killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on people of color in their community. But the conversation rapidly turned to inequalities within in the school system. “I would describe it as a harsh look into the current realities of what our students and our families are saying to us around anti-racism in our schools,” said Goodrell Middle School Principal Peter LeBlanc, who noted the conversations are part of the district’s ongoing equity audit.

Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net

November 14, 2020 Emily James, Nation of Change. Educate! COVID-19, Education, Teachers, Worker Rights and Jobs

After more than a month into New York City’s experiment with reopening schools in a hybrid format that has students alternating between classrooms and their homes, teacher Sapphira Hendrix still finds herself working until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning, planning lessons and responding to students. One night, in particular, she recounts, when finishing up a lesson plan for one of her classes, she glanced at the clock and noticed it was 4:30 a.m. “I realized I had just finished my work for the night at about the same time I normally would be getting up to start my day.”

Voters Pass A Tax On The Rich To Pay Teachers More

November 9, 2020 Austin Walker, KVOA. Create! Public schools, Taxes, Teachers, Wealth Tax

Marana, AZ - Prop 208, Invest in Ed, passed. A 3.5 percent tax increase will be applied to any individual making more than $250,000 a year or if a household makes more than $500,000 a year. That money will go towards public education. Meagan Brown, a special education teacher at Twin Peaks School in Marana said this additional funding is needed for the state. "Long story short, I just don't want teachers leaving," Brown said. It takes a special person to be a teacher. Brown said she's been doing it for a while.

Bad Leadership Is Plunging Public Schools Into A Crisis

November 3, 2020 Jeff Bryant, The Progressive. Educate! COVID-19, Public Education, School reopening, Teachers

Michael Barbour, a professor at Touro University California and an expert on K-12 online learning, believes that more than half of the nation’s school superintendents “should be fired.” His blistering criticism stems from the fact that, deep into the 2020-2021 school year, many schools are still struggling with virtual learning during the pandemic. Stories of school districts’ online learning systems crashing are widespread. Teachers complain about not being included in decisions about online curriculum and pedagogy. Alarming numbers of students are not engaged or not showing up, especially in low-income areas and among communities of color.

Teacher’s Viral Arrest Helped Stop Evictions

November 1, 2020 Keith Schnabel, Midwest Socialist. Resist! Chicago, Evictions, Occupation, Teachers

Sophia Lukatya is a Chicago Public Schools teacher. She organizes with the Chicago Teachers Union and is a member of Democratic Socialists of America. During the Lift The Ban Coalition’s protests in Daley Plaza this August, Lukatya was one of a dozen housing activists who were arrested in the week-long occupation. Positive press from the event—including a viral video of Lukatya and fellow DSA member Shannon Pilz—contributed to Governor Pritzker’s decision to extend the eviction moratorium.

What Does A “Safe Return” To School Look Like?

September 21, 2020 Lois Weiner and Jackson Potter, In These Times. Create! COVID-19, Education, School reopening, Teachers

Demands for students and educators to return to in-person schooling during the pandemic are coming from Democrats and Republicans, both claiming the return is necessary not just to provide high-quality education, but to save the economy and get parents back to work. The narrative consciously exploits the needs of parents who may not have healthcare and who rely on public schools to care for and educate their children while they work. It pits parents, students, teachers and community members against one another, using (or ignoring) scientific data to suit the political purpose of moneyed interests — the bipartisan project of destroying public schools.

‘Broken Windows’ Approach To Teaching Is Breaking Our Schools

August 27, 2020 Victoria Theisen-Homer, Independent Media Institute. Educate! Education, Public schools, Teachers, White Supremacy

In the fight for racial justice, teachers have a heavy job, for schools are both microcosms of, and preparation for, society. Because teachers serve as significant adult figures in children’s lives, their interactions with students can shape students’ sense of self and the world around them, as well as their engagement in school, personal efficacy, and academic achievement. Complex and difficult racial dynamics impact these relationships, and as calls for justice grow, it’s time to recognize this. Systemic racism is sometimes blatant in our schools.

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