25.01.2013 Views

Tennessee's Teachers Will Not Be Silenced - Tennessee Education ...

Tennessee's Teachers Will Not Be Silenced - Tennessee Education ...

Tennessee's Teachers Will Not Be Silenced - Tennessee Education ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

teach (USPS 742-450) is published monthly (except<br />

for June, July and December) by the <strong>Tennessee</strong><br />

<strong>Education</strong> Association, 801 Second Avenue North,<br />

Nashville TN 37201-1099. Periodical postage<br />

paid at Nashville, TN. The subscription price of $3.65 is<br />

allocated from annual membership dues of $254.00 for<br />

active members; $127.00 for associate, education<br />

support and staff members; $16.00 for retired members;<br />

and $10.00 for student members. Member of<br />

State <strong>Education</strong> Editors Conference (SEE).<br />

Postmaster: Send address changes to teach,<br />

801 Second Avenue North,<br />

Nashville, TN 37201-1099.<br />

MANAGING EDITOR: Alexei Smirnov<br />

asmirnov@tea.nea.org<br />

PUBLISHER: Alphonso C. Mance<br />

MANAGER OF COMMUNICATIONS: A.L. Hayes<br />

<strong>Tennessee</strong> <strong>Education</strong> Association<br />

801 Second Avenue North<br />

Nashville, TN 37201-1099<br />

Telephone: (615)242-8392,<br />

Toll Free: (800)342-8367, (800)342-8262<br />

Fax: (615)242-7397<br />

Web site: www.teateachers.org<br />

BOARD OF DIRECTORS<br />

PRESIDENT: Gera Summerford* (800)342-8367<br />

VICE PRESIDENT: Barbara Gray* (901)353-8590<br />

SECRETARY-TREASURER: Alphonso C. Mance (615)242-8392<br />

DISTRICT 1 Karen Anderson* (423)610-6030<br />

DISTRICT 2 Melinda Reese (423)587-2120<br />

DISTRICT 3 Patsye Thurmon (865)457-1636<br />

DISTRICT 4 Jessica Holman (865)591-4981<br />

DISTRICT 5 Sandy Smith (423)991-8856<br />

DISTRICT 6 <strong>Be</strong>th Brown (931)779-8016<br />

DISTRICT 7 Patrick Britt (615)668-6042<br />

DISTRICT 8 Cindy Young (931)205-0399<br />

DISTRICT 9 Erick Huth (615)973-5851<br />

DISTRICT 10 Guy Stanley (615)384-2983<br />

DISTRICT 11 Melanie Buchanan (615)305-2214<br />

DISTRICT 12 Debbie D’Angelo (731)247-3152<br />

DISTRICT 13 LoMay Richmond* (901)867-1541<br />

DISTRICT 14 Sarah Kennedy-Harper (901)416-4582<br />

DISTRICT 15 Stephanie Fitzgerald (901)872-4878<br />

ADMINISTRATOR EAST Carmelita Perry (865)594-4471<br />

ADMINISTRATOR MIDDLE Margaret Thompson<br />

(615)643-7823<br />

ADMINISTRATOR WEST Charles Green (901)624-6186<br />

HIGHER EDUCATION Donald Sneed (931) 221-0633<br />

BLACK CLASSROOM TEACHER EAST Tanya T. Coats<br />

(865)594-1330<br />

BLACK CLASSROOM TEACHER MIDDLE Alzenia Walls<br />

(615)230-8144<br />

BLACK CLASSROOM TEACHER WEST LaVerne Dickerson<br />

(901)416-7122<br />

STATE SPECIAL SCHOOLS Joe Gregory (615)896-6927<br />

ESP Christine Denton (931)647-8962<br />

TN NEA DIRECTOR Stephen Henry (615)519-5691<br />

TN NEA DIRECTOR Diccie Smith (901)482-0627<br />

TN NEA DIRECTOR Diane Lillard* (423)478-8827<br />

STEA MEMBER Delvin Woodard (901)596-5706<br />

TN RETIRED Gerald Lillard (423)478-8827<br />

NEW TEACHER Larry Proffitt* (423)608-7855<br />

* Executive Committee<br />

TEA HEADQUARTERS STAFF<br />

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Alphonso C. Mance; ASST. EXECUTIVE<br />

DIRECTOR, AFFILIATE SERVICES: Mitchell Johnson; ASST.<br />

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PROGRAM SERVICES: Carol K. Schmoock;<br />

ASST. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & TEA GENERAL COUNSEL; Bryan<br />

McCarty; MANAGER OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Stephanie Faulkner;<br />

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SYSTEMS MANAGER, Galen<br />

Riggs; MANAGER OF UNISERV: Ronny Clemmons; MANAGER OF<br />

UNISERV & BARGAINING COORDINATOR: Donna Cotner; STAFF<br />

ATTORNEYS: Tina Rose Camba, Katherine Curlee, Virginia A.<br />

McCoy; MANAGER OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS: Jerry Winters;<br />

GOVERNMENT RELATIONS ASSISTANT: Antoinette Lee; MANAGER<br />

OF COMMUNICATIONS & GRAPHICS: A.L. Hayes; WEB MASTER &<br />

COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT: Tanya Ruder; MANAGING EDITOR<br />

& COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT: Alexei Smirnov; MANAGER<br />

OF RESEARCH & INFORMATION: Melissa Brown; RESEARCH & IN-<br />

FORMATION ASSISTANTS: Susan Ogg, Amanda Staggs; MANAGER<br />

FOR INSTRUCTION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Terrance Gibson;<br />

INSTRUCTION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COORDINA-<br />

TORS: Susan Dalton, Nicki Fields; COORDINATOR OF MEMBERSHIP<br />

& AFFILIATE RELATIONS: Duran <strong>Will</strong>iams; PLT—UNISERV FIELD OR-<br />

GANIZERS: Jeff Garrett, Cheryl Richardson, Rhonda Thompson.<br />

UniServ Staff Contact Information<br />

can be found on page 12.<br />

2 March 2011<br />

Speaking Out for You<br />

Gera Summerford, President<br />

Their Goal is to Divide and Conquer<br />

Many members of the 107th General Assembly seem to have a<br />

distorted view of the relationship between <strong>Tennessee</strong> educators and<br />

the <strong>Tennessee</strong> <strong>Education</strong> Association. They want to drive a wedge<br />

between teachers and their professional organization. They don’t appear<br />

to understand that TEA exists because a large majority of <strong>Tennessee</strong><br />

teachers have chosen membership to make their voices heard at the<br />

local, state and national levels. Some politicians are<br />

of the mind that TEA members stand in the way of<br />

education reform. I ask, “How can they talk of true<br />

reform while demoralizing teachers and degrading<br />

our professional rights?”<br />

For more than 140 years, the TEA has been the<br />

largest organization of professional educators in<br />

this state. We have grown stronger over the years<br />

because teachers, administrators and education<br />

support professionals have made the choice to<br />

unite and participate in a collective effort to<br />

improve public schools and the teaching profession.<br />

In the current legislature, there is a concerted effort to silence the voice<br />

of educators. Let’s imagine for a moment what would happen if they had<br />

their way.<br />

Imagine your professional life in a state that prohibits professional<br />

negotiations. Your local school board could refuse to meet with you or<br />

your representatives to discuss your compensation and your working<br />

conditions. They could immediately cut your health insurance benefit<br />

so that you’d be paying 55 percent of your annual premium, an average<br />

increase of some $3,000 per year. They could require you to work a longer<br />

day, take on extra duties, or give up your planning time. And they could<br />

apply such requirements to some teachers, while sparing others! Most<br />

legislators don’t recognize that your fellow teachers are the ones at the<br />

table representing you, seeking fair and equitable treatment for all. Nor<br />

do they realize that we also have to bargain for basic supplies, teaching<br />

materials and textbooks for our students.<br />

Imagine your professional life if you had to work up to 10 years<br />

without tenure. At any point during that time you could be dismissed<br />

for no reason. Even an exemplary teacher could be let go without cause.<br />

How easy would it be for the school board to create a vacancy and fill it<br />

with someone to whom they had promised a job? As one TEA member said<br />

to me, “Tenure doesn’t mean I can’t be fired. It just means if they want<br />

to fire me, they have to tell me why.” The current tenure law is simply a<br />

requirement of due process. Any board with the will to do so can gather<br />

evidence and dismiss a teacher if there is sufficient cause, so why the<br />

need to extend the probationary period?<br />

Imagine what schools would look like without the requirement of<br />

licensure for teaching. I was trained to be a teacher and just because<br />

I have a master’s degree in math, I don’t assume I could do any job<br />

requiring mathematics. Why would we assume that anyone with a degree<br />

can do the job of teaching children?<br />

When I consider these scenarios, I wonder what the motivation is<br />

for such changes. None of these proposals would improve teaching and<br />

learning in our classrooms. None of them create an environment where<br />

educators feel respected and valued for their contributions and service.<br />

So why have legislators proposed that we can’t elect our representatives<br />

to the retirement board? Why do they want to end our ability to choose<br />

payroll deduction for our dues?<br />

I can imagine only one reason—to divide and conquer. This effort by<br />

legislators is not about school improvement. It is about weakening the<br />

ability of teachers to have a collective voice.<br />

Now, more than ever, <strong>Tennessee</strong>’s teachers will not be silenced.<br />

Al Mance, Executive Director<br />

TEA <strong>Teachers</strong> Must Correct What<br />

Misinformation, Ill <strong>Will</strong> Hath Wrought<br />

On February 16, 2011, the Senate <strong>Education</strong> Committee passed the<br />

first of at least 20 anti-teacher bills that have been filed this year. More<br />

than 400 TEA teachers and supporters came to Nashville to express their<br />

opposition to SB 113, which would make it illegal for school systems to<br />

negotiate with employee organizations.<br />

The bill passed out of the committee on a six-to-three party-line vote.<br />

Sens. Gresham, Woodson, Tracy, Crowe, Kelsey and<br />

Summerville voted for the measure and Sens. Tate,<br />

<strong>Be</strong>rke and Burks voted no.<br />

The bill was presented to the committee by Sen.<br />

Jack Johnson (R-Franklin). Johnson’s presentation<br />

included broad statements filled with mistakes in<br />

describing the law.<br />

Johnson constantly referred to “mandatory<br />

negotiations,” neglecting to mention that teachers<br />

must vote to negotiate and boards of education must<br />

ratify all contracts before they become effective.<br />

He said that a negotiating local only had to maintain a 30 percent<br />

share of eligible members to avoid losing negotiating rights. In fact, the<br />

representative organization must maintain a membership of at least 50<br />

percent of eligible employees. If membership drops below that number,<br />

the local board of education may challenge recognition of the local and it<br />

could lose its ability to negotiate.<br />

Those wanting to repeal the <strong>Education</strong> Professional Negotiations<br />

Act (EPNA) seek to split the voice of teachers so it is effectively silenced.<br />

If successful, teachers will have no say in establishing their working<br />

conditions, education policy and practices and no orderly process for<br />

addressing education-related problems. When the anti-teacher bills are<br />

considered together, it becomes clear that they have nothing to do with<br />

students and education reform.<br />

The attackers suggest that if the law is repealed, each teacher<br />

can negotiate his/her own contract with the director of schools. They<br />

suggest that teachers can negotiate higher salaries individually. Further,<br />

they claim, this will attract better teachers to the school system and<br />

relationships between teachers and school administrators would be much<br />

smoother.<br />

How will a system of 300 teachers negotiate separate contracts with<br />

individual teachers? What about a system with 8,000 teachers? Imagine<br />

trying to manage the chaos that would result. Imagine teacher morale<br />

under these conditions.<br />

Sen. Kelsey (R-Germantown) said that students in Shelby County<br />

perform better than students in Memphis because Shelby County teachers<br />

do not have a negotiated contract and Memphis teachers do. He should<br />

have been ashamed to make such a statement when he hadn’t done his<br />

homework. If he had, he would have known that Shelby County teachers<br />

have essentially the same conditions in board policy that Memphis City<br />

Schools teachers have in a contract. That parity exists primarily because<br />

the Memphis <strong>Education</strong> Association negotiates. He also chose not to<br />

mention the differences in the size and demographics of the two school<br />

systems.<br />

While these legislators may continue the assault against teachers, you<br />

need to see them doing it and they need to see you watching. We need two<br />

to three hundred teachers to attend education committee meetings every<br />

Tuesday and Wednesday for the duration of the legislative session.<br />

We also need you, your family, friends and every supporter of public<br />

education that you know to join us in a rally beginning at the Bicentennial<br />

Park and Legislative Plaza in Nashville on Saturday, March 5, 2011, at<br />

12:00 p.m. We will send a clear message that <strong>Teachers</strong> <strong>Will</strong> <strong>Not</strong> <strong>Be</strong> <strong>Silenced</strong>.<br />

You count.<br />

A Call to Action to attend a TEA Teacher Rally<br />

“<strong>Tennessee</strong>’s <strong>Teachers</strong> <strong>Will</strong> <strong>Not</strong> <strong>Be</strong> <strong>Silenced</strong>”<br />

Saturday, March 5, 2011<br />

Nashville, <strong>Tennessee</strong><br />

Why: Several bills have been introduced to the 107th <strong>Tennessee</strong> General Assembly that attack<br />

public school educators and the <strong>Tennessee</strong> <strong>Education</strong> Association. It’s obvious these bills<br />

have nothing to do with “education reform” in <strong>Tennessee</strong>. To assist in the effort to defeat<br />

these punitive bills, it is essential that we let our legislators know we strongly oppose<br />

these bills. Your help is needed. Please attend the TEA Teacher Rally and wear RED!<br />

When: Saturday, March 5, 2011<br />

12 Noon – 3:00 p.m.<br />

Where: Park and assemble at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park<br />

600 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville, <strong>Tennessee</strong>, 37243-3081<br />

HB 159 / SB 136<br />

Prohibits Prohibits Payroll Payroll<br />

Deduction Deduction<br />

HB 130 / SB 113<br />

Negotiations<br />

Law<br />

March to Legislative Plaza<br />

Downtown Nashville<br />

Join Us!<br />

The careers of <strong>Tennessee</strong>’s <strong>Teachers</strong> are at stake!<br />

HB 367<br />

Changes to<br />

Tenure<br />

(Transportation available for physically challenged persons)<br />

Call TEA Communications for more information<br />

615.242.8392 | 1.800.342.8367 Ext. 121<br />

www.teateachers.org<br />

SB SB SB 102 102 102 / / / HB HB HB 565 565 565<br />

Elected Elected Elected TCRS TCRS TCRS<br />

Representatives<br />

Representatives<br />

Representatives<br />

HB 160 / SB 139<br />

Political<br />

Contributions<br />

HB 179 / SB 294<br />

Prof. Organization<br />

Access<br />

www.teateachers.org<br />

3

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!