A few weeks back, the California State Democratic Convention came to Sacramento, and I was there. Although I was not able to win a seat as a delegate, I helped out at the CTA (California Teachers Association) booth and got a non-voting pass. During my booth time, I talked to a political consultant from the Southland. He bemoaned the unwillingness of teachers to engage in direct political campaigning (phoning, going door-to-door, etc.), because teachers are “gold” in a campaign as we have a high level of trust with the public. I opined that there are many reasons why teachers shy away from political involvement, but often it’s a desire to stay out of partisanship, or above the fray. I got involved in politics because I realized that politics was going to get involved with me, and my profession, and my staying out of that fight would not keep it from coming to me. In this piece, I’m going to share why I got involved (and why other teachers should take an active role in politics), and what happened at the convention that supports my thinking on this. The views expressed are my own, and do not reflect the opinion of the many organizations I’m affiliated with (Sacramento City Teachers Association, California Teachers Association) except where explicitly stated.
Politics has been a part of education since before Mark Twain made  jokes about school boards. Teachers in those times had to keep a low-profile for fear of dismissal, but unions like CTA eventually gave a platform for teachers to express their concerns without fear of being singled out. Since the profession has been dominated by women, who did not have equal worker rights, or even rights of citizenship/suffrage, this was no small thing.

Sitting on the sidelines in recent years has allowed so-called education reformers to set the agenda on the discussion about our profession in a way that demeans us  by focusing on the made-up figures of “sub-standard” teachers, and takes away any of our professional judgement and autonomy. Waiting for sense to return is like Moshe asking God why he doesn’t win the lottery, when he’s not buying a ticket. You’re kids don’t learn by spontaneous generation, neither will law-makers, they need to learn both the facts, and that you mean what you say and can back it up with political influence. It might be nice to live in a world where you could just write a letter explaining the facts (tests are for assessing students –rather crudely– not teachers, poverty matters, etc.) and your local elected would smack their forehead and exclaim, “What was I thinking of!” Until that day, you need to speak up early and often, and work to get folks elected that are likely to give a hoo-ha about you and your students.

Why get involved in party politics? Because that where policy starts. This was not a “partisan” issue, since the implementation of  NCLB happened with the help of Democratic leadership in Congress, and at the state level California’s “model” Parent Trigger law was pushed and is still proudly claimed by former State Senator Gloria Romero (and failed candidate for State Superintendent of Instruction). When I was trying to turn the tide on Ed Tech funding not so long ago, the entire legislative staff was “infected” with a desire to do ANYTHING (and I mean anything) to get their hands on RttT funding. There were similar “corporatists” dynamics at play in the GOP when this rolled out, but I’m going to focus on the Democrats since that’s where I’ve hung my hat.

We’ve changed governors, and the State Superintendent, and it’s become clear to the rank-and-file members of CTA that all this “reform” is a bad idea. This is a true “blue” state with ALL state-level positions held by Democrats and Democratic super-majorities in both houses of the legislature. Still this is the home of Michelle Rhee (and headquarters of Students First), and Gloria Romero (who now heads DfER California, that’s Democrats for Education Reform). Not to mention a number of big reform contributors (Reed Hastings, Eli Broad), and Mayors (Kevin Johnson in Sacramento) who are Democrats but espouse a reform agenda that is hostile to unions, teachers, parents, students, and the communities they live in.

Many of us who have been watching this roll-out have been concerned about having folks like DfER claim to be Democrats while pushing policies to hand over public schools to private charter operators, or like Michelle Rhee/Students First claiming to be “bi-partisan” while largely bank-rolling GOP candidates. We felt it was time to make clear what the party stands for (and what it doesn’t) and the time was ripe. When Students First opened it’s doors in town, there was a fear that folks would be seduced by the enormous war chest that Michelle Rhee had, but elected officials seemed to have noticed that most of her money was going to GOP candidates, and that getting her money was going to cause more problems than it would solve. The strong showing by unions, including some strong work by CTA, in getting much needed revenue in the last election cycle bought credibility with politicians as well.  Superintendent Torlakson has not been shy about supporting teachers (he put in an appearance at last year’s visit by Diane Ravitch), but today at the State Democratic Party Convention, he didn’t mince words. Telling DfER that undermining public education wasn’t a Democratic policy and they were doing the job of the Republican Congress with their policies.

Then came the resolution to take a stand on this issue. California Teachers Association has a caucus that is it’s PAC called ABC. They submitted a resolution titled, Supporting California’s Public Schools and Dispelling the Corporate “Reform” Agenda. I’ll admit, it’s a bit wordy, but it specifically calls out Students First and Democrats for Education Reform. This makes it party policy that you can’t take Republican money (and give money to Republican candidates) and call yourself a “Democrat”. Most importantly, you can’t give away public education, and you can’t undermine unions and collective bargaining rights and claim it’s for civil rights or the children. When you do that you can’t even claim to be democratic with a small “d”.

Will this change everything? No, but it’s a needed first step to call-out folks who are wolves wearing the mantle of sheep. It also sends a signal to folks running for office that taking money from these folks aligns you with them, and tells everyone whose side you are on. It’s not the beginning of the end, but is more likely the beginning of the end in this fight. I’m proud to have participated, and I urge others to do the same.