Pushing kids and teachers to the bottom

TEACHERS ACROSS the country returned from a much-needed winter break to find their school districts lining up to apply for the Obama administration's competitive education grant, Race to the Top (RTTT). First round applications for the $4.3 billion pot of money were due January 19.

Many state legislatures rushed to pass laws that would help make states more competitive for RTTT money. On January 15, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, signed a new law requiring districts to count student test scores as at least 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation. Kentucky also cleared the path to merit pay--states with laws that prevent the linking of teacher information to student test scores are automatically ineligible for RTTT funds.

California, with a budget deficit of $19.9 billion, was no exception to the legislative frenzy. In early January, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new package of laws sponsored by Los Angeles Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero.

As in other states, so-called education reformers like Romero, a candidate for state Superintendent of Education, are using Race to the Top as a crowbar to force through legislation that is far more sweeping than what RTTT requires.

Tennessee's Republican Gov. Phil Bredesen called the state legislature back into session to pass a law linking student test scores to teacher evaluations. "When the planets line up is when you jump for it," he said. Tennessee already increased its charter school student pool in late summer.

THE NEW California laws are both a gift to charter operators and an opportunistic scapegoating of teachers that pits families against schools. Parents and teachers should be given the resources and flexibility to work collaboratively to create quality schools.

However, the new laws stipulate that schools that have not met improvement guidelines under No Child Left Behind could, at the request of half the school parents, either be closed, have the principal and half the staff replaced, or the school turned over to charter operators. Teachers have no say in this process. In addition, the law allows for parents at the 1,000 lowest performing schools in the state to enroll in any other higher-performing school.

Certainly, families should have access to quality education in all schools. But allowing some parents with time and resources to research other schools and move their students there only leaves so-called failing schools to continue to decline. Somehow, school "reform" crusaders never acknowledge that budget cuts are only exacerbating the problems faced by urban schools.

Progressive educators recognize RTTT for what it is: an attack on teachers' unions. Jessica Hobbs, a Spanish bilingiual teacher in San Francisco and member of United Educators of San Francisco and American Federation of Teachers Local 61, says:

Everyone here is pretending like RTTT is no big deal because we have a progressive school board and a friendly superintendent. But unions across the state have already signed away rights and opened themselves up to bargain concessions. These fake reform laws have already been passed that are going to have an impact on the way our schools look, and our unions are just falling in line behind [AFT president Randi] Weingarten, and not calling this out for what it is--union-busting disguised as education reform.

The U.S. Department of Education has asked unions to be complicit in their own destruction by urging school districts to gather signatures on Memoranda of Understanding with local education unions prior to submitting their applications for RTTT money. These MoUs state that collective bargaining agreements will not be violated and that districts will enter into bargaining with unions over any changes in working conditions, teacher evaluations or changes in pay structure.

Sounds nice. But California Teachers Association President David Sanchez rightly urged local unions not to sign on the Race to the Top applications at this time.

Oakland Education Association (OEA) President Betty Olson-Jones agreed. She explained why the OEA didn't sign on to the MoU in a recent San Francisco Chronicle article: "The lure of a minuscule amount of money is not justification for further decimating a compromised program in Oakland schools, especially when that money comes with serious strings attached." In fact, many unions around the country, including United Educators of San Francisco, signed on to the MoU before the state even finished the grant application.

If a state wins a RTTT grant, and the money is in hand, local teachers unions, weakened by 30 years of one-sided labor-management "cooperation," will be hard pressed to stand firm at the bargaining table when merit pay, charter schools and reconstitution are on the agenda. In fact, in California, districts must implement all parts of the state application in order to receive RTTT funds.

We are experiencing just the beginning of what Naomi Klein calls the "shock doctrine" in public education. With nearly all of the states facing devastating budget deficits this year because of the ongoing financial crisis, the federal government has finally decided to go after teachers' unions, the largest organized workforce in the U.S.

The central "reforms" of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan certainly aren't geared toward giving teachers and school communities the tools and funding needed to create relevant, engaging curriculum and equitable schools. On the contrary, the aim is to reduce the number of veteran teachers in the ranks while increasing the number of nonunion educators.

In May, Duncan made this clear when he said this was a "moment of opportunity and a moment of crisis...Despite how tough things are financially, it's often at times of crisis we get the reforms we need."

But for Obama and Duncan, "we" is not the students and teachers of U.S. schools, but charter school operators. Tellingly, Los Angeles Superintendent Ramon Cortines wants to both force furloughs and a 12 percent pay cuts on the teachers, even as he works with the school board to hand over scores of schools to charters and other outside operators.

THESE KINDS of attacks won't end when the Race to the Top competition is over. Nor will they cease when and if the U.S. economy bounces back. RTTT is just the opening salvo in what the Obama administration hopes will be a fundamental restructuring of schools and education in the United States.

In fact, Obama announced January 19 that he would request funding for a second Race to the Top competition in next year's federal budget. This time, RTTT would allow school districts to bypass state legislatures that aren't applying for the funds and compete directly with other districts across the U.S.

What's more, RTTT has been designed as a test run for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA--better known in its current form as No Child Left Behind). Congress will begin reauthorization of ESEA this year, and the groundwork has been laid in the states to funnel even more money to charter school operators.

Already, RTTT undermines the due process protections that teachers have achieved under union contracts, which makes it easier for principals to get rid of teachers they don't like for any reason. What's more, RTTT ties teacher pay to student performance on tests. So even if test scores in a given school are under par because of overcrowded classrooms, poverty and a large number of English language learners, it's the teachers who'll have to pay.

Carmel Martin, the U.S. Department of Education assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development, said in a recent interview with Education Week, "I think some of our big-picture goals are, first, to carry through the reform agenda that we see in Race to the Top and other [recovery act] programs, to carry that forward through ESEA."

The $700 million that California could win from RTTT is peanuts compared to the 2009 state education budget of $44.6 billion. It will do nothing to solve the long-term problems in the state or provide adequate funding for pre-K through 12th grade education. The corporations and the oil companies in California have gotten away with paying essentially no taxes for too many years.

Democrats in the state legislature and assembly have been complicit in the starvation of California schools, while the insane two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget or raise taxes must be changed, California Democrats can no longer be allowed to hide behind this argument as cover for their political cowardice.

There are two possible scenarios for future of education in the U.S. We hear the Duncan plan loud and clear: Unions, shut up and sign on to merit pay, reconstitution and teaching to a test that will determine pay.

If this isn't the future we want--if we want to see strong community schools that challenge racism and poverty with quality relevant teaching--we have to reject fake reform, and fight to tax the rich and win teacher, student and family control of our schools.