A teachers’ contract not for teachers
What does it mean for parents to support teachers? Philadelphia school activist and parent Helen Gym tells us in this post, which appeared on the Parents United for Public Education website.By Helen Gym
Like many parents across the city, thepreliminary release of some of the terms of the Philadelphia teachers contract made me heartsick. For months I had watched city and district leaders make promises about mass school closings – they were necessary for financial viability, they would concentrate resources in remaining schools, they would put more students in “high performing seats.” Of course, no such promises had ever been delivered upon by over a decade of studies of hundreds of school closings in cities all across the country.
But nothing brought home the betrayal of such statements more than the news of what Philadelphia school leaders like Paul Kihn, a former McKinsey strategist, were really focused on:
- dramatic wage & benefit concessions – as much as 26% for teachers earning just $55,000 per year;
- eliminating step increases for teachers who get advanced degrees like masters and doctorates;