These AFT activists are counting us all in

Jeion ward felt strange about being called a leader back in 1993, even though she’d already chaired the paraprofessional chapter of the Hampton Federation of Teachers in southeastern Virginia for five years.

She did admit to knowing a couple of things, however, and they’ve served her well: “I’m not afraid of challenges,” she said at the time, “or of failing and learning from my mistakes.”

Since those days, Ward has definitely taken on challenges. As local president, she approached her state legislator, Mary Christian, about getting financial help for paraprofessionals who wanted to become teachers. After rallying union members and lobbying lawmakers, she got the Teaching Scholarship Loan Program passed—except there was no money to fund it and no reference in it to paraprofessionals.

Then in 2003, Christian was preparing to leave the legislature and suggested that Ward run for her seat. Ward did, taking on quite a challenge there, too, campaigning against a surgeon and retired two-star general in the Army reserve. Ward won the election in a stunning upset.

Once in the Virginia House, Ward redoubled her efforts to improve the loan program. With Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine behind her, she sponsored a bill, took it through committee this past January and saw it pass unanimously in the House. The Senate approved the legislation without dissent, and Ward proudly arranged a bill signing with the governor in April.

Ward overcame a setback, too. The original bill would have taken out a reference to paraprofessionals, but as its sponsor, she put her foot down. “I said, ‘Nunh-unh. I want paraprofessionals in there.’ We had to get it fixed up.” In short order, it was done.

Ward points to the bill’s passage as proof of the political clout our union members can develop through activities like the AFT’s Count Me In and e-Activist programs. Persistence is the key. “I want PSRPs to know that all this is possible,” she says. “We can get things done.”

The power of teamwork

Other AFT members are in it for the long haul, too. Like Jeion Ward in Virginia, many of them are finding success even in anti-union states.

Take Bruce Banner in Texas. As an outspoken young man, Banner felt betrayed by almost every institution he’d been raised to trust, including his university and his first employer, the Navy. Only the AFT, he says, has always stood by him and never tried to silence him.

Since joining the PSRP unit of Education Austin, Banner has taken a keen interest in local and state politics. His outsized enthusiasm and rabble-rousing helped the joint AFT-NEA affiliate step up its political activism about four years ago. Besides standard campaign work, including phone banking, the Texas local tried other things, like hauling its block walkers around in a rented yellow school bus draped with banners. Its slogan: “Education Austin: Changing education one elected official at a time.”

As a result, Austin voters last fall elected five new, pro-union school board members who have voted down the superintendent time and again
since taking office. The new board approved a two-year pay agreement worth 11.8 percent for both support personnel and teachers.

“So now,” Banner says, “Education Austin is a respected, and even feared, player in local and state politics.” And respected by its peers as well—at this year’s national PSRP conference, the local won the Lorretta Johnson Solidarity in Action award for its awesome teamwork.

You can make a difference

Back in Virginia, Ward also saw the fruits of long-term, intense commitment to a cause. In her unique case, she is both the original proponent of a teacher development program and the legislator who finally got it through. Starting this coming school year, the revised law will dramatically increase funding and boost the number of teacher candidates in shortage areas. It will specifically include paraprofessionals and increase the diversity of teacher candidates. Some may have their loans forgiven.

Ward’s determination shows that even though she’s come a long way, she’s still the same grass-roots activist she was back in 1993. “Sometimes people think they can’t make a difference,” Ward told the PSRP Reporter almost 15 years ago. “No one leader is a magician, and change is not going to come overnight, but with everybody working together and everybody doing a little something—then change will take place.”

It has.