Tennessee's Teachers Will Not Be Silenced - Tennessee Education ...
Tennessee's Teachers Will Not Be Silenced - Tennessee Education ...
Tennessee's Teachers Will Not Be Silenced - Tennessee Education ...
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teach (USPS 742-450) is published monthly (except<br />
for June, July and December) by the <strong>Tennessee</strong><br />
<strong>Education</strong> Association, 801 Second Avenue North,<br />
Nashville TN 37201-1099. Periodical postage<br />
paid at Nashville, TN. The subscription price of $3.65 is<br />
allocated from annual membership dues of $254.00 for<br />
active members; $127.00 for associate, education<br />
support and staff members; $16.00 for retired members;<br />
and $10.00 for student members. Member of<br />
State <strong>Education</strong> Editors Conference (SEE).<br />
Postmaster: Send address changes to teach,<br />
801 Second Avenue North,<br />
Nashville, TN 37201-1099.<br />
MANAGING EDITOR: Alexei Smirnov<br />
asmirnov@tea.nea.org<br />
PUBLISHER: Alphonso C. Mance<br />
MANAGER OF COMMUNICATIONS: A.L. Hayes<br />
<strong>Tennessee</strong> <strong>Education</strong> Association<br />
801 Second Avenue North<br />
Nashville, TN 37201-1099<br />
Telephone: (615)242-8392,<br />
Toll Free: (800)342-8367, (800)342-8262<br />
Fax: (615)242-7397<br />
Web site: www.teateachers.org<br />
BOARD OF DIRECTORS<br />
PRESIDENT: Gera Summerford* (800)342-8367<br />
VICE PRESIDENT: Barbara Gray* (901)353-8590<br />
SECRETARY-TREASURER: Alphonso C. Mance (615)242-8392<br />
DISTRICT 1 Karen Anderson* (423)610-6030<br />
DISTRICT 2 Melinda Reese (423)587-2120<br />
DISTRICT 3 Patsye Thurmon (865)457-1636<br />
DISTRICT 4 Jessica Holman (865)591-4981<br />
DISTRICT 5 Sandy Smith (423)991-8856<br />
DISTRICT 6 <strong>Be</strong>th Brown (931)779-8016<br />
DISTRICT 7 Patrick Britt (615)668-6042<br />
DISTRICT 8 Cindy Young (931)205-0399<br />
DISTRICT 9 Erick Huth (615)973-5851<br />
DISTRICT 10 Guy Stanley (615)384-2983<br />
DISTRICT 11 Melanie Buchanan (615)305-2214<br />
DISTRICT 12 Debbie D’Angelo (731)247-3152<br />
DISTRICT 13 LoMay Richmond* (901)867-1541<br />
DISTRICT 14 Sarah Kennedy-Harper (901)416-4582<br />
DISTRICT 15 Stephanie Fitzgerald (901)872-4878<br />
ADMINISTRATOR EAST Carmelita Perry (865)594-4471<br />
ADMINISTRATOR MIDDLE Margaret Thompson<br />
(615)643-7823<br />
ADMINISTRATOR WEST Charles Green (901)624-6186<br />
HIGHER EDUCATION Donald Sneed (931) 221-0633<br />
BLACK CLASSROOM TEACHER EAST Tanya T. Coats<br />
(865)594-1330<br />
BLACK CLASSROOM TEACHER MIDDLE Alzenia Walls<br />
(615)230-8144<br />
BLACK CLASSROOM TEACHER WEST LaVerne Dickerson<br />
(901)416-7122<br />
STATE SPECIAL SCHOOLS Joe Gregory (615)896-6927<br />
ESP Christine Denton (931)647-8962<br />
TN NEA DIRECTOR Stephen Henry (615)519-5691<br />
TN NEA DIRECTOR Diccie Smith (901)482-0627<br />
TN NEA DIRECTOR Diane Lillard* (423)478-8827<br />
STEA MEMBER Delvin Woodard (901)596-5706<br />
TN RETIRED Gerald Lillard (423)478-8827<br />
NEW TEACHER Larry Proffitt* (423)608-7855<br />
* Executive Committee<br />
TEA HEADQUARTERS STAFF<br />
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Alphonso C. Mance; ASST. EXECUTIVE<br />
DIRECTOR, AFFILIATE SERVICES: Mitchell Johnson; ASST.<br />
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PROGRAM SERVICES: Carol K. Schmoock;<br />
ASST. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & TEA GENERAL COUNSEL; Bryan<br />
McCarty; MANAGER OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Stephanie Faulkner;<br />
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SYSTEMS MANAGER, Galen<br />
Riggs; MANAGER OF UNISERV: Ronny Clemmons; MANAGER OF<br />
UNISERV & BARGAINING COORDINATOR: Donna Cotner; STAFF<br />
ATTORNEYS: Tina Rose Camba, Katherine Curlee, Virginia A.<br />
McCoy; MANAGER OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS: Jerry Winters;<br />
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS ASSISTANT: Antoinette Lee; MANAGER<br />
OF COMMUNICATIONS & GRAPHICS: A.L. Hayes; WEB MASTER &<br />
COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT: Tanya Ruder; MANAGING EDITOR<br />
& COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT: Alexei Smirnov; MANAGER<br />
OF RESEARCH & INFORMATION: Melissa Brown; RESEARCH & IN-<br />
FORMATION ASSISTANTS: Susan Ogg, Amanda Staggs; MANAGER<br />
FOR INSTRUCTION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Terrance Gibson;<br />
INSTRUCTION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COORDINA-<br />
TORS: Susan Dalton, Nicki Fields; COORDINATOR OF MEMBERSHIP<br />
& AFFILIATE RELATIONS: Duran <strong>Will</strong>iams; PLT—UNISERV FIELD OR-<br />
GANIZERS: Jeff Garrett, Cheryl Richardson, Rhonda Thompson.<br />
UniServ Staff Contact Information<br />
can be found on page 12.<br />
2 March 2011<br />
Speaking Out for You<br />
Gera Summerford, President<br />
Their Goal is to Divide and Conquer<br />
Many members of the 107th General Assembly seem to have a<br />
distorted view of the relationship between <strong>Tennessee</strong> educators and<br />
the <strong>Tennessee</strong> <strong>Education</strong> Association. They want to drive a wedge<br />
between teachers and their professional organization. They don’t appear<br />
to understand that TEA exists because a large majority of <strong>Tennessee</strong><br />
teachers have chosen membership to make their voices heard at the<br />
local, state and national levels. Some politicians are<br />
of the mind that TEA members stand in the way of<br />
education reform. I ask, “How can they talk of true<br />
reform while demoralizing teachers and degrading<br />
our professional rights?”<br />
For more than 140 years, the TEA has been the<br />
largest organization of professional educators in<br />
this state. We have grown stronger over the years<br />
because teachers, administrators and education<br />
support professionals have made the choice to<br />
unite and participate in a collective effort to<br />
improve public schools and the teaching profession.<br />
In the current legislature, there is a concerted effort to silence the voice<br />
of educators. Let’s imagine for a moment what would happen if they had<br />
their way.<br />
Imagine your professional life in a state that prohibits professional<br />
negotiations. Your local school board could refuse to meet with you or<br />
your representatives to discuss your compensation and your working<br />
conditions. They could immediately cut your health insurance benefit<br />
so that you’d be paying 55 percent of your annual premium, an average<br />
increase of some $3,000 per year. They could require you to work a longer<br />
day, take on extra duties, or give up your planning time. And they could<br />
apply such requirements to some teachers, while sparing others! Most<br />
legislators don’t recognize that your fellow teachers are the ones at the<br />
table representing you, seeking fair and equitable treatment for all. Nor<br />
do they realize that we also have to bargain for basic supplies, teaching<br />
materials and textbooks for our students.<br />
Imagine your professional life if you had to work up to 10 years<br />
without tenure. At any point during that time you could be dismissed<br />
for no reason. Even an exemplary teacher could be let go without cause.<br />
How easy would it be for the school board to create a vacancy and fill it<br />
with someone to whom they had promised a job? As one TEA member said<br />
to me, “Tenure doesn’t mean I can’t be fired. It just means if they want<br />
to fire me, they have to tell me why.” The current tenure law is simply a<br />
requirement of due process. Any board with the will to do so can gather<br />
evidence and dismiss a teacher if there is sufficient cause, so why the<br />
need to extend the probationary period?<br />
Imagine what schools would look like without the requirement of<br />
licensure for teaching. I was trained to be a teacher and just because<br />
I have a master’s degree in math, I don’t assume I could do any job<br />
requiring mathematics. Why would we assume that anyone with a degree<br />
can do the job of teaching children?<br />
When I consider these scenarios, I wonder what the motivation is<br />
for such changes. None of these proposals would improve teaching and<br />
learning in our classrooms. None of them create an environment where<br />
educators feel respected and valued for their contributions and service.<br />
So why have legislators proposed that we can’t elect our representatives<br />
to the retirement board? Why do they want to end our ability to choose<br />
payroll deduction for our dues?<br />
I can imagine only one reason—to divide and conquer. This effort by<br />
legislators is not about school improvement. It is about weakening the<br />
ability of teachers to have a collective voice.<br />
Now, more than ever, <strong>Tennessee</strong>’s teachers will not be silenced.<br />
Al Mance, Executive Director<br />
TEA <strong>Teachers</strong> Must Correct What<br />
Misinformation, Ill <strong>Will</strong> Hath Wrought<br />
On February 16, 2011, the Senate <strong>Education</strong> Committee passed the<br />
first of at least 20 anti-teacher bills that have been filed this year. More<br />
than 400 TEA teachers and supporters came to Nashville to express their<br />
opposition to SB 113, which would make it illegal for school systems to<br />
negotiate with employee organizations.<br />
The bill passed out of the committee on a six-to-three party-line vote.<br />
Sens. Gresham, Woodson, Tracy, Crowe, Kelsey and<br />
Summerville voted for the measure and Sens. Tate,<br />
<strong>Be</strong>rke and Burks voted no.<br />
The bill was presented to the committee by Sen.<br />
Jack Johnson (R-Franklin). Johnson’s presentation<br />
included broad statements filled with mistakes in<br />
describing the law.<br />
Johnson constantly referred to “mandatory<br />
negotiations,” neglecting to mention that teachers<br />
must vote to negotiate and boards of education must<br />
ratify all contracts before they become effective.<br />
He said that a negotiating local only had to maintain a 30 percent<br />
share of eligible members to avoid losing negotiating rights. In fact, the<br />
representative organization must maintain a membership of at least 50<br />
percent of eligible employees. If membership drops below that number,<br />
the local board of education may challenge recognition of the local and it<br />
could lose its ability to negotiate.<br />
Those wanting to repeal the <strong>Education</strong> Professional Negotiations<br />
Act (EPNA) seek to split the voice of teachers so it is effectively silenced.<br />
If successful, teachers will have no say in establishing their working<br />
conditions, education policy and practices and no orderly process for<br />
addressing education-related problems. When the anti-teacher bills are<br />
considered together, it becomes clear that they have nothing to do with<br />
students and education reform.<br />
The attackers suggest that if the law is repealed, each teacher<br />
can negotiate his/her own contract with the director of schools. They<br />
suggest that teachers can negotiate higher salaries individually. Further,<br />
they claim, this will attract better teachers to the school system and<br />
relationships between teachers and school administrators would be much<br />
smoother.<br />
How will a system of 300 teachers negotiate separate contracts with<br />
individual teachers? What about a system with 8,000 teachers? Imagine<br />
trying to manage the chaos that would result. Imagine teacher morale<br />
under these conditions.<br />
Sen. Kelsey (R-Germantown) said that students in Shelby County<br />
perform better than students in Memphis because Shelby County teachers<br />
do not have a negotiated contract and Memphis teachers do. He should<br />
have been ashamed to make such a statement when he hadn’t done his<br />
homework. If he had, he would have known that Shelby County teachers<br />
have essentially the same conditions in board policy that Memphis City<br />
Schools teachers have in a contract. That parity exists primarily because<br />
the Memphis <strong>Education</strong> Association negotiates. He also chose not to<br />
mention the differences in the size and demographics of the two school<br />
systems.<br />
While these legislators may continue the assault against teachers, you<br />
need to see them doing it and they need to see you watching. We need two<br />
to three hundred teachers to attend education committee meetings every<br />
Tuesday and Wednesday for the duration of the legislative session.<br />
We also need you, your family, friends and every supporter of public<br />
education that you know to join us in a rally beginning at the Bicentennial<br />
Park and Legislative Plaza in Nashville on Saturday, March 5, 2011, at<br />
12:00 p.m. We will send a clear message that <strong>Teachers</strong> <strong>Will</strong> <strong>Not</strong> <strong>Be</strong> <strong>Silenced</strong>.<br />
You count.<br />
A Call to Action to attend a TEA Teacher Rally<br />
“<strong>Tennessee</strong>’s <strong>Teachers</strong> <strong>Will</strong> <strong>Not</strong> <strong>Be</strong> <strong>Silenced</strong>”<br />
Saturday, March 5, 2011<br />
Nashville, <strong>Tennessee</strong><br />
Why: Several bills have been introduced to the 107th <strong>Tennessee</strong> General Assembly that attack<br />
public school educators and the <strong>Tennessee</strong> <strong>Education</strong> Association. It’s obvious these bills<br />
have nothing to do with “education reform” in <strong>Tennessee</strong>. To assist in the effort to defeat<br />
these punitive bills, it is essential that we let our legislators know we strongly oppose<br />
these bills. Your help is needed. Please attend the TEA Teacher Rally and wear RED!<br />
When: Saturday, March 5, 2011<br />
12 Noon – 3:00 p.m.<br />
Where: Park and assemble at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park<br />
600 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville, <strong>Tennessee</strong>, 37243-3081<br />
HB 159 / SB 136<br />
Prohibits Prohibits Payroll Payroll<br />
Deduction Deduction<br />
HB 130 / SB 113<br />
Negotiations<br />
Law<br />
March to Legislative Plaza<br />
Downtown Nashville<br />
Join Us!<br />
The careers of <strong>Tennessee</strong>’s <strong>Teachers</strong> are at stake!<br />
HB 367<br />
Changes to<br />
Tenure<br />
(Transportation available for physically challenged persons)<br />
Call TEA Communications for more information<br />
615.242.8392 | 1.800.342.8367 Ext. 121<br />
www.teateachers.org<br />
SB SB SB 102 102 102 / / / HB HB HB 565 565 565<br />
Elected Elected Elected TCRS TCRS TCRS<br />
Representatives<br />
Representatives<br />
Representatives<br />
HB 160 / SB 139<br />
Political<br />
Contributions<br />
HB 179 / SB 294<br />
Prof. Organization<br />
Access<br />
www.teateachers.org<br />
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