The legacy of our work is the fulfilled dreams of our students. Their innovative thinking and brilliant ways of navigating problems are truly inspiring to experience every day. Their education, in many ways, is dependent on the work we do.
We’re homework help, hallway staff, mentors, before and after school support, and so much more. Often we hear our students, parents, teachers, and administrators tell us they don’t know what they’d do without us, but many of us can’t afford to stay in these vital positions.
As we have led our team through this bargaining process, representing more than 1,200 education support professionals, or ESP, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) leaders are offering more of the same.
The average special education assistants (SEA) starts at $24,000 a year. Our ESP members are paying the same for health insurance as our administrators that make four times more than us. We know from our member survey that about two-thirds of our members work another job just to make ends meet. These poverty wages have led to high turnover and record vacancies across MPS.
The reality is that educators like us who ensure students have what they need to succeed can’t afford to work in MPS even though our schools desperately need us.
High vacancies mean students receive less support because of significant staffing shortages, this includes services that we are legally required to provide. We provide physical, emotional and mental support to our most vulnerable students, many of whom are still struggling from learning disruption caused by the pandemic and the police brutality that affects our communities. When critical staff are missing our students suffer and this is unacceptable.
The district’s leadership team has a decision to make. They can continue business as usual, or they can transform our district and communities by using its new money to raise the compensation of its lowest-paid educators faster than the pay of higher employees. Many ESP live in Minneapolis, our children attend Minneapolis Public Schools and often we are the educators of color our students connect to. The relationships we have with our students are essential to their educational experience.
[image_caption]Ma-Riah Roberson-Moody[/image_caption]
This, and a multitude of other factors, is why our members voted to authorize a strike.
A strike is always a last resort, but many of our members have said that they simply can’t afford to continue with the status quo.
[image_caption]Katrinka Zachery[/image_caption]
Ma-Riah Roberson Moody and Katrinka Zachery are education support professionals in the Minneapolis Public Schools. They are also lead negotiators for the bargaining team of the ESP chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59.
The problem with our schools is that we underpay new teachers and support staff at the low end of the pay scale and overpay teachers with advanced degrees and lengthy seniority who may not be the most effective teachers. In addition, we put way too much money into pension programs, that encourage teachers to stay on the job after they have burned out and should switch careers. And that doesn’t even start to address the imbalance in how much money is going into administration vs teachers.
If all of this doesn’t get fixed fast, the student exodus will continue and the school’s financial condition with deteriorate even faster, particularly if the schools shutdown because of a strike.
Mike, It’s good to see that there are a few individuals who understand how the increase is distributed among the membership. When a settlement of 2% is announced that does NOT mean an across the board increase of 2% instead it is an average. Those on the lower end/ new hires/non tenured, receive less than .5% because they are eligible for a step increase and remember that is .5% is of their low pay scale. Those individuals at the top of the pay scale, highest step and maximum lanes are not eligible for further steps or lane changes so they receive a rise of 4-5% of the highest salary to compensate for the lack of steps or lanes. Also those who negotiate for the local union are the old guard, not the new blood and they, the old guard, take care of their own first and what is left is for the lower caste individuals.
Having been an educator myself, secondary, post secondary and graduate level teaching experience, I question first and foremost the status of teachers as union members. When I taught, we were members of a professional organization, an education association, not a union. One of the main reasons I left the field was because of the increased activity of the union agitators and demands that you must join the union. Minnesota was not and is not now a right to work state. I support real unions, guilds, professional skilled workers, but I can in no way support the alleged memberships of the likes of the teachers union. I have belonged to several unions and have worked hand in hand with a number of unions and in ALL cases the true strength of the unions have been diluted by the inclusion of any individual who can draw a breath and have their dues deducted from the payroll is allowed to join and become a voting member of the union. Everyone has the right to organize, join and participate in a union is a given. However that unskilled laborer, or temp hire have the same vote as the highly trained, skilled individual. But the union gets a dues paying member, ( in MN it’s called money laundering for the DFL) and as stated in the article, all pay levels receive the same expense for things like insurance, uniforms, and any other products or services as the higher paid skilled individuals. I heard the cry “strength in numbers” but was not reminded of the devaluation of each skilled individuals vote, and who, other than the DFL, benefits from these members? Purify your union or form your own union, and if you choose not to, expect to be treated at the level of the lowest common denominator, not as true professionals.
This was one of many reasons I chose to leave public education and instead pursue a career in the real world where individuals are rewarded for excellence and held accountable for their own performance. It was the best decision I ever made and encourage the good teachers, which there are many of, to fix your union or leave for a real job. Education is a big business, and it needs to be run as a big business by people who understand businesses.
But how do you measure excellence? Having kids in a classroom with barriers to learning should not mean it is solely the teacher responsibility to get them to state standards. Many workplaces have the step raise system and in some of the counties, they even made it harder to progress by lowering that increase. So often those in power decision roles are making big bucks, distort what they offer workers and then preach about disparities which is ironic. Not all older teachers are burned out and not effective, there is a lot to be said for experience. And I am not so sure it is overpaying as much as it is paying them a fair wage.
We already know there will never be enough money to satisfy the trickle down, entrenched education establishment.