We must make our values count

What it means to be trade unionists and educators at a time when labor rights and principles of academic freedom are under assault was the question central to AFT’s annual higher education conference, which took place April 15-17 (just after the May/June issue of AFT On Campus went to press). This year, it was a joint conference with the AFT’s civil and human rights and women’s rights divisions, a combination that drew nearly 500 people who warmed to the theme, “Making Our Values Count: Advancing Equality, Education and Economic Security in Challenging Times.”

“It is important for us as an organization to take back the word ‘values,’” said keynote speaker and AFT president Edward J. McElroy. “In the last election, we allowed people to attach the word ‘values’ to things that were not.”

McElroy strongly urged members to take a proactive stance, not just in fighting takeaways, but in seeking more for the people our unions represent. “We have thought about what we have as if we are the beneficiaries,” he said. “Now we have to be more proactive. We have to engage in forceful advocacy in our statehouses.” He warned that unions “abdicate their responsibility completely” if we don’t explain what’s at stake to our members.

In a rousing, irreverent speech, former Gore 2000 campaign manager Donna Brazile brought her skills of political analysis and knowledge of scripture to the topic of what’s beyond the 2004 elections. “I don’t care who’s going to run for president in 2008. I want to know who will stand up for our values in 2005!” she said to a roar of approval from the crowd. “We want to get a backbone transplant for every elected Democrat.”

Uppermost on the minds of higher education attendees are escalating threats to academic freedom that come in the form of “Academic Bill of Rights” legislation. Plenary speaker William Scheuerman, an AFT vice president, noted that the bill’s proponents want to “take us back to the good old days—as far back as Joseph McCarthy.”

“Once it makes its way into legislatures, you have hearings and the message to faculty is, they’re being watched,” said Scheuerman, who is president of the United University Professions/AFT at the State University of New York. “It has a chilling effect.” Our union, Scheuerman promised, is going to continue the fight to protect our members’ academic freedom.

Norma Cantu, assistant secretary of education for civil rights in the Clinton administration, delivered the Irwin Polishook lecture. She urged unions to reach out to underserved populations, especially Latinos. “My concern is that both political parties will take Latinos for granted and we’ll be disenfranchised and denied access to higher education,” she said.
Save the date! Next year’s higher ed conference will be held jointly with the National Education Association on March 2-5 in Orlando, Fla.

McElroy calls for changes in federal law

The No Child Left Behind Act’s over-reliance on testing and its unfair and inaccurate accountability measures threaten to undermine the standards movement and much of what has been achieved in improving student achievement, says AFT president Edward J. McElroy. He was delivering the keynote speech at the biennial AFT QuEST (Quality Educational Standards in Teaching) conference in Washington, D.C., July 7-10.

McElroy emphasized that while AFT members are overwhelmingly unhappy with NCLB, they don’t want it repealed and support its underlying goals, including raising standards for all students and focusing on helping disadvantaged children. An overarching problem, he added, is that  the law is not receiving adequate federal funding.

McElroy was particularly critical of how the law’s “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) requirements for schools are being implemented. He noted that many schools have been labeled as “failing” even though their students actually have made considerable academic progress, about which educators are gravely concerned. McElroy also called for greater attention to improving teacher salaries, and addressed new teacher compensation proposals now gaining momentum in legislatures and at the bargaining table.

AYP was also on the lips of AFT members drawn to a dialogue between U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and McElroy. Spellings successfully defended some of the Bush administration’s unpopular policies while still convincing the audience of her desire to continue working with the AFT on important issues.

Overall, Spellings and McElroy agreed on the big issues, such as the need for higher standards and highly qualified teachers, but “the devil is in the details,” as McElroy put it, and that’s where the sharpest disagreements arose.

Spellings acknowledged that one of the issues she hears about most is AYP, especially the fact that some schools in which student achievement is rising are still failing to meet AYP goals. “Not meeting AYP is not, in my opinion, a failing school,” Spellings said.

The federal budget also raised a point of contention between the two. While McElroy noted that budget proposals being considered by Congress would cut education funding—and reduce Title I money to about two-thirds of the nation’s school districts—Spellings countered that the Bush administration has increased overall education funding since taking office and also is facing tighter budgets in a time of war. “I don’t think [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld is running any bake sales,” McElroy quipped in response.