Nov 17, 2005 10:55 AM
The UFT’s acclaimed Dial-A-Teacher program may soon have a West Coast replica. Leaders of the Los Angeles teachers’ union spent the day at UFT headquarters on Nov. 1 on a fact-finding mission to learn about the UFT’s after-school homework helpline.
“If we are going to bring it to Los Angeles, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel,” said A.J. Duffy, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents 48,000 teachers and health and human services workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
UTLA used to have a homework helpline years ago, but it ran out of funding, Duffy said. Now the Los Angeles City Council and Antonio Villaraigosa, the city’s new mayor, are interested in re-creating the program in partnership with the union. Daphna Ziman, a Democratic Party fund-raiser and head of the advocacy group Children Uniting Nations, who also made the trip to New York, is lining up corporate sponsors.
UTLA officials plan to first set up a pilot program in South Central Los Angeles schools, which have many foster-care children and others who are at risk.
“Dial-A-Teacher will be invaluable for children who don’t have that guidance and supervision,” said Julie Washington, UTLA’s vice president for elementary schools. “This will help close the achievement gap.”
The visitors quizzed UFT officials about all aspects of the Dial-A-Teacher program, from its budget to its hiring process. The day concluded with a visit to the Dial-A-Teacher operations center, where more than 30 teachers were fielding calls from students.
Dial-A-Teacher Director Amina Rachman, who hosted the visit, said that the program’s success should make UFT members proud.
“It’s very exciting to take something that we created and shaped here 25 years ago and make it available and watch it spread all across the country,” she said. “It says something about the vision and creativity of this union.”