Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for January 14, 2009 THANKS...

...I needed that!

"That" is the article below.

After last night's totally depressing negotiations session, this old CAT needed a union "pick-me-up".

Solidarity forever!

Finally...a chink in the armor of charter schools...and the "holier than thou" educators that supposedly are willing to work for MORE pay for the good of...for the love of...the children!

Don't get me wrong...I am NOT taking a shot at your typical educator who teaches in charter and/or private schools. They walk in our shoes, although theirs tend to be of a name brand. They work hard...we work hard. They love their students...we love our students.

But, voluntarily or involuntarily ripping up union contracts in the name of "FREEDOM from onerous, restricting rules and regs" has finally burned their butts, uh, contributed to "teacher burnout".

Here are teachers making $10,000 more than their unionized colleagues (and probably $50,000 more than you, oh, Cairo teacher), complaining about long hours and stress in the workplace...and the nonresponsiveness of their masters who hold their noses to the grindstone!

So, in the coming years, watch as high-paid, NONunionized employees fight for basic human rights and low-paid, UNIONIZED employees fight for higher salaries.

The circle of life...

Teachers at 2 Charter Schools Plan to Join Union, Despite Notion of Incompatibility

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and JENNIFER MEDINA

The United Federation of Teachers announced on Tuesday that it had organized teachers at two respected New York City charter schools, making inroads in a movement that has long sold itself as an alternative that is not hamstrung by union contracts and work rules.

Union officials said the teachers’ decision was an important step because the schools are part of the Knowledge Is Power Program, known as KIPP, which has 66 schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia and plays an influential role in national education debates. Advocates for charter schools — which are publicly funded but independently operated — expressed concern that unionization could undermine the schools’ effectiveness.

“A union contract is actually at odds with a charter school,” said Jeanne Allen, executive director of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington group that supports charter schools.

“As long as you have nonessential rules that have more to do with job operations than with student achievement,” she said, “you are going to have a hard time with accomplishing your mission.”

Several teachers at the two schools — KIPP Amp, a middle school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and KIPP Infinity, a middle school in Harlem — said the union organizing drive came about because they wanted a stronger voice on the job and because the demands on them were so rigorous. They also said that they wanted to insure a fair discipline and evaluation system.

KIPP’s teachers in New York generally earn at least $10,000 more a year than teachers at the city’s traditional public schools, but also typically work from 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as one or two Saturdays a month. Many teachers also give students their personal phone numbers.

Those who run the schools say the extra hours and increased availability are exactly what are needed to boost student achievement — KIPP Amp and KIPP Infinity both earned A’s on their report cards and students had high scores on standardized tests. But several teachers at the two schools said some KIPP teachers were getting burned out and quitting, hurting the schools and student-teacher relations.

“It’s a matter of sustainability for teachers,” said Luisa Bonifacio, who teaches sixth-grade reading at KIPP Amp. “There’s a heavy workload, and people have to balance their lives with their work.”

David Levin, who co-founded KIPP nearly 15 years ago and is now the superintendent of the KIPP schools in New York, said he would fully cooperate with the union, but had no details of how and when contract negotiations would begin. He pointed out that KIPP Academy, a Bronx middle school, has had a union since its inception, because it grew out of an existing public school.

As for complaints about overwork, Mr. Levin said: “Just because the school is available to kids at all times, that doesn’t mean that each and every staff member has to be available at all times. We’ve been able to successfully work that out.”

Ms. Bonifacio said that 15 of the 22 teachers at KIPP Amp had signed cards saying they wanted a union; charter schools in New York generally must grant union recognition once workers show majority support.

On Tuesday, along with asking the principal of the KIPP Amp school to recognize the union on the basis of the signed cards, union officials asked KIPP Infinity to begin negotiating a contract because teachers there had previously shown majority support for a union.

“We have often said that the charter school movement and unionization are things that can easily be harmonized,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the union, which itself operates two charter schools.

“The teachers who have been there know that as much as they like working at a KIPP school, they want to find ways to make it better and deal with the high turnover rates. They saw that the way they get their voice and have input is through collective bargaining.”

Ms. Allen, the Washington charter school advocate, said she was not surprised by the teachers’ move because the union had been trying to make inroads at charter schools for several years. “Right now it is an ideal time for unions to take root in charter schools,” she said. “People are scared of budget cuts, scared of fiscal austerity, scared of a lot of things.”