Resolution in Defense of the Washington Teachers Union
Whereas:
We know that Washington DC teachers are fighting for all of us. Washington schools Chancelor Michelle Rhee closed 26 public schools in her first year after being hired. Now she proposes to impose merit pay on teachers and overturn 100 years of teachers’ union protections on tenure, established in part to protect minority teachers and union leaders from victimization. This union-busting proposal would tie all instruction to standardized test scores, and scripted curriculum. She is trying to establish the Washington DC schools as a national model for the whole right-wing program for education.
Rhee is attempting to force a WTU membership vote on her proposal in order to undercut the independence of the union and to substitute herself for the union leadership. She is trying to get President-Elect Obama to intervene in her favor
This right-wing program for education – charters, privatization, attacks on teachers and students -- has no real popular support except when there is no other choice available. It comes out of the attacks on school integration which were the basis of the whole Republican "silent majority" southern strategy that was roundly rejected by the Obama election.
Therefore be it resolved that:
We (insert your union name here) support the decision of the Washington Teachers Union (WTU) to reject Chancellor Michelle Rhee's reactionary proposal to abolish tenure and impose merit pay on Washington DC teachers and to refuse to bow to her pressure to put it to a membership vote.
We support and will fight for real solutions for public education now– school integration, smaller class sizes and a massive increase in funding for the nation's public schools. We reject this attack on the teachers of Washington DC and all attacks on public education nationally.