It’s our time to show the world what democracy looks like
Lily’s remarks on July 4th, 2019 to the delegates of the 98th NEA Representative Assembly, in Houston, Texas.
(As prepared for delivery)
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! BIENVENIDOS!
Welcome to the biggest family reunion EVER! This is Red/White and Blue joy! You all look so wonderful and so weird… but as much fun as we’re having, you know the serious business that brings us here. On this 4th of July, you know we are here to stand up for something we’ve taken for granted.
Well, at least I’ll own it. I’ve taken it for granted that in an open, democratic society the moral arc of the universe would always bend towards justice; that our country would keep finding ways to be more inclusive of folks who had been excluded; that we’d be looking for ways to give opportunities to folks who had so little; that we’d see more ways to appreciate our diversity of cultures and languages and races and our LGBTQ communities.
I don’t take anything for granted anymore. I know it doesn’t just happen on its own. The moral arc of the universe needs people to put their backs into pushing that sucker towards justice.
Because there are folks out there who are determined to take us back to when people knew their places: Women got the coffee; people of color sat at the back of the bus; LGBTQ people trembled in fear in dark closets where they didn’t bother anybody.
Public schools and educators and the students and families who rely on them were supposed to accept year after year more funding cuts; program cuts; class sizes exploding; the family of educators to support that whole student being laid off, and being told that told the solution is not more funding, it’s to learn how to Do More With Less – or so say the people who have never done our jobs.
The moral arc of the universe needs us now to put our backs into Education Justice.
Who here has ever heard of a little thing called Red for Ed? (I told my mom on Tuesday we’re all wearing Red for Ed on Thursday. She said, “Who’s Ed?”)
Stand up and shout if you have personally marched, rallied, held a picket sign and been visible standing up for your students and your profession this year! You showed up, and it’s made a difference. You’ve changed the narrative.
Reporters began asking different questions all of a sudden. They’d ask me if it’s true that teachers and support staff have to pay for their own supplies sometimes? (Who knew?)
Are there really classrooms with 35 or 40 kids in them? (Oh Yeah)
They ask me if it’s getting harder to convince young people to aspire to become teachers when they won’t be able to pay off their student loans on a new teacher’s salary.
They ask me about the growing inequality of service and support for students who live in our poorest communities which are still – and not coincidentally – overwhelmingly our black and brown communities; our immigrant communities.
They’re finally asking the right questions.
That’s because of your collective voice lifting up the truth and that truth is getting results.
In February 2018, West Virginia became a Verb: We can all now say – Don’t make me go all West Virginia on you… and folks know what you’re talking about.
And you know what happened next, of course: Oklahoma and Arizona and North Carolina and Kentucky and Colorado. We celebrated all of them this time last summer.
And then in the fall, came an election. Every Congressional House seat was up; important governor’s races, state legislators, mayors and school boards… all over the country in places that had Red for Ed action and a lot of places that didn’t.
All over this country, politicians ran on being the best candidate for… (wait for it)…better public schools! And some of them were telling the truth. And some of them were big fat liars.
Does it just make you smile that Scott Walker had to clean out his desk because he was beaten by an educator? Good times.
Does it just make you smile that the first African American woman to represent Connecticut in Congress was up on this stage as the National Teacher of the Year and NEA member Jahana Hayes!?
Does it make you smile that in Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, and Idaho we elected pro-education governors. (And let me say this again – In Idaho we elected a pro-education REPUBLICAN governor.)
And with the assistance of NEA training of our own members, I’m proud to report that over 1,000 educators were elected to local, state and federal offices across the country.
The Red for Ed movement in 2019 has continued in locals like Los Angeles and Denver and Oakland and Sacramento and in states like Texas, Virginia, Oregon, South Carolina and Michigan.
And in other states – even without a march – this movement will open up surprising doors. Politicians who usually said, “Talk to the hand,” reached out to our leaders and said, “Let’s talk. We would so rather you not go All West Virginia on us.”
This movement has created something better for millions of students and educators – but it’s bigger than that. We’ve created something better for communities. For this country that we love.
And that scares the DeVos family and the Walton Family and the Koch Brothers. I’ve noticed billionaires who have plans to privatize our public schools, hardly ever paint a picket sign and rally on the capitol steps (‘cause there’d be like four of them and their limo drivers.)
Oh, no no. They’re so much more civilized. They plan their Education Industry takeover where no one can see them. They sit and sip at the country club and decide the fate of students they will never see.
I want you to know, I have never taken a politician to a country club. I take them to a school cafeteria for corn dogs. I want governors and senators and mayors to meet you – and see the love and the professionalism in YOU. I want them to listen to the people who know what they’re talking about.
Because the people who THINK they know EVERYTHING are so annoying to those of us who actually do.
The Koch Brothers will never take their case to the public because the public’s not stupid. They have to hide their agenda. Because their agenda is profoundly un-democratic; and un-American.
They want a permanent and institutionalized system where mega-wealth and mega-corporations rule. Donald Trump was not their favorite candidate four years ago, but he is now. He’s delivered their tax cuts; he’s accepted their preferred list of corporate-friendly judges; and he’s placed their cronies in key government positions expressly to sabotage agencies that were set up to protect consumers, the environment, health care, workers, and, of course, education.
We try very hard to find Democratic friends and Republican friends and independent friends. We believe that support for public education and public services should never be partisan.
I am not being partisan when I tell you that Donald Trump disqualified himself for our consideration many times and in many ways, but most particularly on education issues, he disqualified himself with two words: Betsy DeVos.
He put the least qualified person to ever hold a cabinet position in charge of protecting children’s access to quality, equitable public education. To protect the rights of girls to have the same opportunity as boys; to protect immigrant students and English language learners; to protect LGBTQ students and poor students and students with disabilities and students everywhere against racism and discrimination. So, it won’t surprise you that just the other day she CONTINUE READING: It's our time to show the world what democracy looks like - Lily's Blackboard
