Helen Zivar
In Massachusetts, Newton Public Schools teachers went on strike on January 19th requesting improvements in the school system that would benefit the students and teachers, incurring $625,000 in court fines for striking. The teacher union’s demands were focused on students’ mental health and fair treatment of educators. Public employees’ strike are illegal in Massachusetts and there’s a heavy fine for it, but teachers in five districts have hit the picket line for at least one day since May 2022.
The Newton teacher union has been trying to negotiate their demands for 16 months, but the district authorities have not been attentive to their demands. Teachers see an urgent need for change as the pandemic had a huge negative impact on the students’ learning and social/emotional well-being. The Newton Teacher Association (NTA) demands included hiring one social worker per school to address the mental health needs of students, smaller class size, and increasing the preparation time for elementary teachers by 40 minutes per week to give teachers more time to consult teaching assistants and behavioral therapists regarding lesson plans. The NTA is also requesting livable wages for teaching assistants and behavioral therapists, whose starting salary is currently $27,000, as well as adequate pay for substitute teachers, who are currently paid $97 per day. Students, parents, community members and educators from neighboring school districts supported the NTA’s demands and joined their strike, marching outside the City Hall every day.
The union has incurred a hefty cost for fighting, with a $25,000 fine on the first day and doubling with each subsequent day. As a teacher at a Newton’s high school pointed out “We’re being fined for withholding our labor. And the School Committee hasn’t been negotiating with us. They’re withholding that labor, yet they are not being fined for the negotiations process.”
The teachers ended their 11-day strike when the union signed a new contract with the school district. The contract includes adding social workers, school counselors and psychologists to school staff, reducing class sizes at the high school level, increasing a minimum of 12% cost of living for all union members over the next four years, and increasing parental leave from 10 to 20 days.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Hundreds of Durham teachers and staff organized sick-outs, walk-ins, and picketed over the past couple of weeks to protest against district-wide pay cuts. The protest drew support from community members, students and parents. At the beginning of the year, the district changed how it counted years of experience to calculate pay. That meant cutting the pay for as many as 2,000 classified staff, including bus drivers, custodians, instructional assistants, school nurses, physical and occupational therapists, cafeteria and after school workers.
The reactionary assault on public education has taken a toll on students and teachers. The destructive set of policies, such as privatization, “school reform”, “school voucher programs”, etc, couched under the misleading term “parents rights”, has forced the teachers to leave the classroom and go picketing. According to a report by Economic Policy Institute, teachers pay has suffered a sharp decline compared to the pay of other college-educated workers. On average, teachers made 26.4% less than other similarly educated professionals in 2022—the lowest level since 1960. A school teacher endures a high stress level, and low compensation has lead to increased turnover rate and teacher shortage. As a teacher in Durham said, “How can I go into a classroom fully prepared to teach if I cannot even provide for my family?”
photo: Teachers pose on the picket line in January, Newton Teachers Association Facebook
