CAN WE TALK HONESTLY?
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Neoliberalism
22 min read
The article references 'neoliberal push' against teachers unions and public education. Understanding neoliberalism's economic philosophy—privatization, deregulation, and market-based reforms—provides essential context for why public education has faced decades of reform pressure and how these policies connect to charter schools and voucher programs.
“IT’S BEEN HELL...IT’S JUST EVERYTHING AND ALL OF IT. EVERY TIME WE TURN AROUND.”
This is what I’m hearing from many informed, committed, experienced preK-12 teacher union activists.
If we don’t talk honestly now when we face an authoritarian onslaught destroying our rights as citizens, residents, human beings, when will we?
A generally unspoken and highly uncomfortable truth for many activists committed to transforming teachers unions to make them fight hard and smart is the reality that we’re often in the minority when we see the need for our unions to be allies in the fight for social justice, even now, even in school systems that are under-resourced, ones in which working conditions are brutal. What seems a national malaise is challenged by important exceptions, almost always under the radar of national media, like the strike wave in Massachusetts, encouraged by a democratized NEA affiliate that’s led by reformers. Still, talking honestly demands we acknowledge persuading our colleagues to be more active in the union is an uphill slog. The reasons are not likely to evaporate soon. They’re ingrained in how schools organize our work and the way teaching is viewed in the society, as well as how unions function in our economic system - topics that go well beyond this article.
Examining reasons many education workers ignore their unions explains much of the problem, and for many experienced activists, a frustration. Teaching is far more than a 9-5 job even if you try to set boundaries. We have more to accomplish during school hours than is possible. The hierarchy in schools, our lack of voice, can be enervating, and finding ways to assert our knowledge and judgment, do what we know is needed, makes our work even more stressful. Union activity comes on top of school work. And if we want better unions, union reform is yet another demand on our time and mental real estate. Many teachers also feel we must be politically active, supporting our students to thrive or survive, through community organizations or social movements. Given our need, our right to have personal lives, these demands made on educators’ time and energy, let’s flip the script and consider an expectation of union activism in this moment as the exception, not the norm. Those who do it are remarkable. You’re first-responders. Thanks and kudos. We can’t clone you but we can build the movement so others
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