By the Northeast Ohio Industrial Workers of the World - March 13, 2012
On behalf of the Northeast Ohio Industrial Workers of the World, we salute the Cleveland Teachers Union and the students and families of Cleveland, Ohio in their stand against Mayor Frank Jackson’s school reform initiative simply referred to as the “Cleveland Plan.” This plan, if one can call it such, has no data or research showing how any of the “reforms” would increase student learning or make the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) any better. Scapegoating teachers is a failed tactic, especially in a district such as Cleveland where teachers have lowered their own pay by $25 million and pushed for innovative reforms in teacher evaluation and collaborative work environments. The problem in the CMSD is not the staff, it is poverty. It is not only economic poverty destroying so many communities, but also the craven poverty of spirit that seeks simple answers to difficult questions and uses Cleveland’s children as pawns yet again in another untested reform package.
The CMSD is under mayoral control, and has been for the better part of two decades. Somehow, this mayor seems to believe that ceding more control to himself and allowing less collaboration with the professionals who teach our children is going to solve the urban erosion in the city. If mayoral control was the answer, this district would have been performing at high levels years ago. The wealthy philanthropists and corporate foundations behind this plan could greatly alleviate this decay, yet they instead choose to assume the problems of the city are centered on the few remaining dedicated professionals who work hard to educate our children and build our communities. This is unacceptable.
Attacking teachers will not fix the city. This is a distraction from the real problems Cleveland faces, and it puts the targets on the backs of some of the city’s most important infrastructure - the teachers and students of the CMSD. This plan would void the current collectively bargained contract with the district, force teachers to enter each negotiation with a blank sheet of paper as their starting point (negating all compromises and negotiated benefits to this point), create arbitrary staffing assignment rationales, eliminate due process protections for teachers, create job insecurity and financial insecurity for highly qualified professionals, allow more tax funds to be siphoned off to for profit charter schools and creates a new “Transformation Alliance” to oversee the schools that will be exempt from sunshine laws or public records requests. The plan negates the voice of teachers, who are often the strongest advocates for the city’s children. This program is highly anti-democratic and is aggressively undermining the collaborative working environment the Cleveland teachers have established.
Ohio recently endured an attack on collective bargaining rights and on public servants in Senate Bill 5. Mayor Frank Jackson claimed he opposed that bad attempt at legislation. Yet in Cleveland, he is passing something much worse that is ideologically driven by the business community and will once again use Cleveland’s children as cover for failing to innovate and rebuild this once-great city. Perhaps if the mayor would put people first instead of following the business community’s lead, Cleveland could be great once again.
In Solidarity,
Northeast Ohio Industrial Workers of the World
