August 10, 2011
Guest Blog Post: Washington Teachers Have a Voice
By Christopher Eide, Seattle Public School Teacher & Founder of Teachers United
Washington is among the bluest of the blue states. We feel that everyone should be heard, that politics are local, and that corporate interests have no place in public education. We have largely resisted education reform, and suspect that it is simply a fad forwarded by billionaires. Some, however, think differently.
Stung deeply by losing the referendum that reversed our charter school law in 2004,the reform community in Washington State went nearly silent.The Washington Education Association (WEA) (our National Education Association (NEA) affiliate) was arguably more powerful than ever after engineering the reversal of this law, and our legislators were forced to pay attention to the voices of teachers and their unions. Clearly, teachers joined together and spoke out for what they believed to be the best for schools, which at that time was not charter schools.
While it is impossible to say how many teachers were actually opposed to charter schools back in 2004, we do know that in Seattle, participation in union votes tends to be low. (According to Seattle Education Association (SEA), 22.2% participated in the 2010 officer elections and 35.8% participated in the vote to ratify our 2011 collective bargaining agreement.) So, how many teachers actually support the largely anti-reform agenda set by the teachers union, and why would the majority of teachers opt out of their right to participate in their union's voting and decision-making process?
One reason we have found is that many teachers are not aligned with the prevailing union stance on certain issues and are often disenfranchised. And unfortunately, these teachers did not have a collective voice to effectively express their ideas on how to improve educational outcomes for all students. Until now.
This past year, a small group of like-minded teachers in Seattle and Tacoma banded together to figure out how to give often-disenfranchised teachers a voice. The result is Teachers United, a virally expanding organization of teachers, governed by teachers who believe that students and student achievement (not adult interests) should be the primary focus of all education policy.
The group, myself included, has carefully grown to almost 100 members. We hope to have over 300 affiliated teachers by the end of the upcoming school year, as well as a dynamic, efficient platform for advocacy. Our best teachers can teach us all about how to make public schools great, but not until they are allowed to speak and be heard. We believe that this increased democracy is one part of the solution to empowering teachers, influencing policy and ultimately creating better schools.