Policy fosters unequal schooling
In New Orleans, lack of experienced teachers is stunting learning

As long as New Orleans continues with its dual and unequal school systems, students in the district of last resort—the state-operated Recovery School District (RSD)—will be shortchanged. Current policies are perpetuating an acute shortage of experienced teachers.

These are the chief conclusions of a report released this summer by the AFT, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) and the AFT-United Teachers of New Orleans (AFT-UTNO).

“No Experience Necessary: How the New Orleans School Takeover Experiment Devalues Experienced Teachers” chronicles the missteps made during the state takeover, including the creation of a Balkanized school system; the firing of virtually all teachers and other school district staff, which prompted a mass exodus of experienced teachers; and the refusal to restore collective bargaining rights.

“By dismissing thousands of school employees, state officials have forced the RSD into a constant recruitment mode that is drawing resources away from programs needed to raise student achievement,” says LFT president Steve Monaghan.

Today, veteran teachers make up less than half of the teaching staff in RSD regular and charter schools. The dearth of experienced teachers is especially disturbing given the research demonstrating the strong connection between experienced teachers and higher student performance.

“The ‘No Experience Necessary’ sign must be taken down. Teachers and school staff can no longer be excluded from the dialogue on reshaping New Orleans public schools,” says AFT-UTNO president Brenda Mitchell. Teacher pay does not  appear to be the most significant factor in the shortage of seasoned teachers; the major issues are respect, working conditions and having a real voice in education decisions.

The report makes several recommendations for attracting and retaining teachers, including making seasoned teachers full partners in the rebuilding effort.

LFT and AFT-UTNO leaders presented the report’s findings and recommendations to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“Although some RSD officials have met with us to discuss our findings, we have yet to see a genuine commitment by the state to work with the union and change their approach to recruitment and retention,” says Mitchell. “Until they address the working conditions inside our schools and give employees a real voice in decisions, their recruitment strategy is likely to fall short.”

For more information on what’s happening in New Orleans, visit:
www.aft.org/topics/neworleans/index.htm.

Short staffing endangers hospital patients, say nurses

Each day I go to work, I know there is a good chance that we will be short-staffed,” said Linda Boly, a registered nurse at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Ore. Boly was one of 11 nurses from the Legacy Health System who testified in late May at a Workers’ Rights Board hearing on safe staffing.

AFT Healthcare has been working to organize the nurses in the Legacy hospital system for two years. In their quest for a union, members of the United Nurses of Legacy reached out to the community to air concerns about staffing in their hospitals. More than 350 labor and community supporters joined the Legacy nurses at the Workers’ Rights Board hearing. The board, which includes representatives of nonprofit organizations and clergy from the Portland area, was organized by Portland Jobs with Justice.

Annie Berger, a medical surgical nurse at Legacy Meridian Park Hospital, believes staffing ratios are absolutely essential to improving the quality of patient care. “It is neither uncommon nor unexpected that day-shift nurses will care for five acutely ill patients at one time,” even though the nursing supervisor knows it’s wrong, said Berger. “Our staffing matrix seems to change with the budget,” not the condition of the patient.

“Inadequate staffing endangers my patients needing one-to-one care and endangers my nursing license,” said Leanne Park, telemetry nurse at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. “I am faced with an impossible decision: Which patient deserves my nursing care?” said Park. “Collective bargaining would offer Legacy nurses the opportunity to be involved in decisions affecting patient care.”

Veteran nurse Toren Brolutti left the Legacy system to work for a unionized Kaiser facility. At Legacy, “benefits eroded every year, wages fell further and further behind the rest of the community, and—hardest of all for the nurses to take—staffing practices continued to erode,” said Brolutti.

Kathleen Sharp, a labor and delivery nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital, said a union can and will make a difference in the practice of safe patient care. “We can protect the patients and the nurses while promoting the best practices as standard,” said Sharp.

David Rohr, a nurse in the intensive care unit at Legacy Emanuel Hospital, asked community members to support the nurses’ organizing efforts to ensure adequate staffing and secure a legal contract with the hospital administration.

As a result of the hearing, board members plan to meet with Legacy CEO Lee Domanico to urge him to adopt safe staffing ratios throughout all Legacy hospitals, with nurse participation and endorsement, and to ensure nurses have the opportunity to seek union representation, with Legacy pledging to remain neutral during the election. The board also will advocate for state legislation in support of safe staffing ratios. The nurses collected more than 1,000 signatures in support of safe-staffing legislation that was recently introduced in the state Legislature.