Class Struggles: The UFT Story
Feb 3, 2005 12:11 PM
Teaching’s no ‘bargain’ in Texas
So you’re a new or maybe not-so-new teacher. You ask yourself: What’s all the hullabaloo about collective bargaining anyway? Would my job really be all that different if collective bargaining disappeared tomorrow?
Just ask John Cole, the president of the 25,000-member, AFT-affiliated Texas Federation of Teachers. “Teachers up your way take so many things for granted,” he said. “In my part of the world, we’re still fighting for basic human dignity. I’m always telling teachers here that they don’t sign contracts but a bond of indenture.”
Hyperbole? Judge for yourself:
Texas specifically outlaws collective bargaining for teachers. In the Lone Star state, Cole said, the local school boards — there are some 1,100 scattered throughout the state — are pretty much a law unto themselves. Teachers are given individual contracts for one year that are renewed each spring at the sole discretion of the school board.
The school board is under no obligation to inform you why your contract isn’t being renewed. Said Cole: “They can fire you for good reason, bad reason or no reason at all.” Wait — it gets worse.
In Texas, a school board can unilaterally decide to reduce your salary and you’re still bound to serve out the year-long contract. Resign and you risk losing your state certification.
Contract protections? There are none. “A contract in Texas is typically one page,” Cole said. “You can be required to do anything the school district tells you to do at whatever salary they say.” He pointed to a recent case in which a teacher protested having to collect football tickets for an after-school game. Lost cause.
Cole cited another case of a teacher who had been evaluated as excellent in her subject matter. Exemplary or not, a new principal had someone else in mind for her job, so she was assigned to teach Spanish — a language of which the teacher spoke nary a word. Well, after a few months the teacher was observed and — surprise — her performance wasn’t up to standard. She was terminated. The Texas Federation of Teachers lost her case, too. Said Cole: “In Texas, you will teach what they tell you.”
As for salaries, Texas is near the bottom. The $19,500 starting pay isn’t so much the problem; it’s a top salary of $35,500 that discourages teachers from making the classroom a career. “The districts like turnover — it’s a cost-saver,” Cole explained. Besides, he said, as far as the school boards are concerned, “experienced teachers frequently are trouble.”
Then again, Texas teachers aren’t entitled to Social Security coverage and face their retirement years with no Medicare. As for pensions, teachers underwrite a substantial portion of their pensions with the school districts contributing nada.
So, such conditions must make it pretty easy to organize a union, right?
This is Texas, son.
“When new teachers ask me: ‘If I join the union, could I get fired?’ I always say: ‘Yes.’”
