Baltimore Teachers Defy Bosses, Union, Obama Plan; Reject Contract

BALTIMORE, MD, October 16 — In the largest turnout of teachers in memory for a contract ratification vote, Baltimore teachers voted 1,540 to 1,107, on Wednesday and Thursday last week, to reject the proposed union contract.

These teachers in Baltimore handed a small but significant defeat to the education plans of the ruling class, which includes Obama and his secretary. of Education Duncan, the national leadership of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the leadership of the Baltimore Teachers’ Union, Alonso (CEO of public schools in Baltimore), the local school board and the main Baltimore newspaper, The Sun. They had all hailed the proposed contract as a ground-breaking, progressive step forward.

On the morning before the main voting, a comrade was able to get an article published in The Sun. That Op-Ed piece criticized the anti-working class aspects of the contract. In particular, the contract includes a merit pay system which pits teachers against each other, encouraging them not to work collectively since only a small percentage can receive the rewards built into the contract.

The contract includes provisions which would lead to larger class sizes and a greater focus on test scores, which harm students’ ability to learn. The article also pointed out that the new contract gives principals a lot of power to fire teachers, reduces the union’s ability to protect teachers and, most importantly, helps the ruling class control what ideas are taught in the schools. The article seems to have played a helpful role — along with lots of other grassroots opposition — in contributing to a widespread understanding of the contract’s true nature.

But editors at The Sun newspaper decided to cut out nearly all of the main political points concerning ramifications of a national curriculum from the original Op-Ed piece. Here is some of that section:

Two wars are currently raging because of this, and more war is on the horizon, including the threat of a world war. . .ExxonMobil, along with the other major oil and gas giants — and the big banks who provide them with financing — are key players, behind the scenes, in running the United States. The continued and expanding profits of these institutions require war. They need millions of young people who are willing to fight and die for them. To accomplish this, the ruling class needs public schools to teach a particular set of beliefs and “facts.”

The new high-stakes tests are likely to require — for students to score well — that particular answers favorable to the world-view of ExxonMobil be given. And any teacher whose students haven’t been duly habituated to giving those responses will be evaluated poorly, and denied raises, because his or her students didn’t make the appropriate “progress.” This sort of scenario is where Obama’s Race-to-the-Top is headed. And this is another reason why we should not support the proposed contract which is inextricably tied up with Race-to-the-Top.

However, a significant portion of the opposition to the contract was based not on this political disagreement or even on reformist disagreements with the substance of the contract, but on the fact that it is quite vague, leaving many new details to be worked out by new union/management committees, after its adoption. The CEO, school board, and local union leaders are now taking advantage of this, planning a second vote soon, with few if any changes to the proposed contract. Instead, they are focusing on efforts to just “clarify” the proposed contract to teachers. 

About a dozen AFT staffers were brought to Baltimore for several weeks, traveling from school to school to help sell the contract. In opposition to both versions, activist teachers have organized meetings, distributed flyers, hosted a city-wide spaghetti dinner and created a button: “DEFEND STUDENTS — VOTE NO.”

During this and future struggles, PLP members need to do much better at distributing CHALLENGE as widely as possible. And a strong effort must also be made to expand the opposition movement within the union so that it’s truly inclusive. In the past, teacher groups that have politically challenged the union leadership here have been predominately white. In a city where the vast majority of students and teachers are black, this must change!

The bosses use racism in the schools to divide teachers, parents and students. Communists reject the racist ideas built into capitalism, so teachers must build multi-racial unity as we fight to make the world better for our students, the future workers of the world. No matter what the outcome of the second vote on November 17th, the victory for the Party and the working class will be that multi-racial unity.