Thousands of Teachers Rally at City Hall
• Working Conditions for Teachers are Learning Conditions for Students — Improve them Now!
Thousands of Teachers Rally at City Hall
Working Conditions for Teachers are Learning Conditions for Students — Improve them Now!
On September 28 thousands of Buffalo teachers, along with parents and students demonstrated to demand a new contract with improved working conditions for teachers. The area from the statue in Niagara Square clear up the steps of City Hall, including the street, was packed. The action represented the united demand of teachers and parents alike that the quality of public schools must be raised and improving teaching conditions is necessary to do so. The spirit was one of holding the street for discussion on concerns and how to achieve better conditions for teachers and students. The need for funding now to provide smaller classes, music and physical education for all — vital ways to raise the quality of education for students — were among issues discussed. So too was the length of time teachers have been waiting for a contract and that the time to sign one is now!
At the overflow School Board meeting that followed, with more than 50 people forced to remain outside the room, the superintendent made public current contract proposals. The information was presented in a manner to make it look like teachers are only concerned about themselves and more money, and already have conditions that are better than most in the county. This is not accurate and is an effort to divide parents and teachers, which does not serve students. Anyone serious about making comparisons needs to include issues like conditions of work, such as large class sizes and insufficient resources, and the impact on pensions over the pas twelve years given wage freezes and no raises. It is not a myth that Buffalo conditions are considerably worse than others in the county.
An effort was also made to say Buffalo teachers should accept concessions in healthcare, for current and retired teachers, because other districts have done so. This is the notion of lowering the level to the average, instead of working to raise the level to the best. Buffalo teachers have far more difficult teaching conditions than elsewhere in the county, including contending with poverty, hunger, lead poisoning, the impact of government racism and police violence and brutality in the communities, and more.
The superintendent needs to fight to provide a contract that mirrors the best in the county, not the average. And he and the whole board need to be frontline fighters for the state funding required to do so.
What kind of example is being set when the state has been mandated by the court to provide funding yet has refused to do so for ten years? $85 million is owed, now. The law is being broken, students and teachers pay the price, and action is needed to now by the superintendent and school board to hold the state accountable.
Let the union and board together provide buses to Albany — we parents, students and teachers will fill them and together demand that the $85 million owed Buffalo by law be provided now. And that it be used, not for more testing, not for more outside consultants, but for smaller classes, music and physical education for all, and the improved working conditions teachers require to raise the quality of learning for students.
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