Writer and professor Shannon Gibney is on sabbatical this year, so when Minneapolis Public Schools teachers and education staff at her children’s school went on strike Monday, she was able to watch her kids at home.
“My schedule is more flexible than a lot of my friends who are parents,” said Gibney.
On the first day of the strike, as Gibney’s two children settled into the day off at their home in Powderhorn Park, she received a call from friends who asked if their kids could come over for a daycare playdate. Soon came a text from another parent.
“I was like, ‘Yes! The more the merrier,’” said Gibney.
This scene played out across the district as guardians scrambled to find daycare on day one of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals Union’s education staff strike for things like better wages for support staff and more mental health resources for students.
The Minneapolis Public Schools’ position on many of the demands from the union is that the district does not have enough money to fund pay increases or to increase staff.
Gibney was one of many parents who started the day by picketing, bringing her children along to support their teachers and learn more about labor organizing.
Many of those parents took the day off as a show of solidarity for the teachers on the first day of the strike. Those parents aren’t going to take off more days of work as the strike continues, said Gibney – meaning the daycare situation is going to be more widespread and perhaps more dire by day two and beyond.
But, on day one, for families like Gibney’s who support the strike, it was a day of mutual support, with parents helping each other with daycare and supporting the teachers they adore.
“It really does feel like a community thing. Like we’re all tied together in this, for better and worse. We need to support each other and figure it out,” said Gibney.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Craig Lassig[/image_credit][image_caption]Marie Sharkey, a 6th grader from Anderson Middle School, walked with her dad during the first day of the teachers’ strike.[/image_caption]
“When the teachers come back, hopefully, they’ll come back refreshed,” said 12-year-old Boisey Corvah, Gibney’s son who attends Anderson Middle School.
“I think (the strike is) good,” said Marwein Corvah, “(the district) will maybe, probably think that they can do what we want them to do.” She’s seven and attends Bancroft Elementary School.
Shannon Gibney said she supports education staff attempts to gain higher wages, especially education support staff and the union’s push for mental health services for students. She also feels the strike is an opportunity to make diversifying all rungs of education staff a priority.
“Something we don’t talk about enough, there is this like racial caste system in Minneapolis Public Schools where the support staff is mostly BIPOC folks, and they make nothing, and then the teaching staff is mostly white folks who make a decent, upper-class, living wage, which they should,” said Shannon Gibney.
But she acknowledged the challenge the Minneapolis School Board is facing of trying to fit everything under the district’s budget. She said she also talked about this with her kids – acknowledging to them that they might be in for multiple days of a strike.
“For a lot of kids, this is hard and confusing, because they have already dealt with so many disruptions in school,” said Aren Aizura of the disruptions caused by the pandemic. His daughter is a first-grader at Bancroft.
Aizura’s daughter was already scheduled to take off school to have a spring break with her other dad and was out of town on day one of the strike. If the strike continues beyond the trip, Aizura said he and her other dad will likely revert back to their remote-schooling schedule of splitting time with her over the week.
Aizura spent much of strike day one at the picket line where he saw many fellow parents marching with teachers, their students in tow.
“I think there is a real feeling among parents, at Bancroft, anyway, that we support teachers and we want our kids to have the resources and support they need,” said Aizura. “This strike isn’t actually just about paying teachers and support professionals, it’s about having things like a school nurse and a social worker, full time, in every school, and having mental health resources, and making schools safer.”
As for his daughter, Aizura said she was happy to miss school and read books she likes.
One of Jessie Begert’s sons feels differently.
“I can kind of see on my older son’s face he wants to be in school,” said Begert. “He loves to be in school. He was sad about not seeing his friends and not knowing how long it would be.
“It is tough with the uncertainty, but we talked about how we all have been going through a lot of uncertainty,” she said about the pandemic.
Her kids spent the day with their grandparents. “They are retired and able to help out,” said Begert. “I feel fortunate to have that and not be scrambling when I know a lot of families are.”
Begert is not just a MPS parent – her kids attend Sheridan Elementary School – but an employee in the district. She is an intervention specialist at Hall STEM Academy.
As other teachers and support staff began informally talking about striking in January, Begert was still a dues-paying member of the teachers union. Not long after that, she said, it became clear that a strike was imminent and so Begert decided to stop paying dues. She wrote a letter to the union explaining her departure. She also explained herself to her kids.
“A big part of it was that I don’t agree with taking strike action and I think it would be incredibly difficult for families and not fair for students to be outside of school when it’s our duty to provide instruction,” said Begert, who is still on the teacher contract.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Craig Lassig[/image_credit][image_caption]Teachers and staff from Jefferson Elementary School marched around their school on Tuesday.[/image_caption]
“I wasn’t sure if people would be like trying to block my way or anything like that. They weren’t, there was no issue,” said Begert. Once inside, she worked on cleaning classrooms and lesson planning.
“It does feel strange in a building that’s meant to have kids and it doesn’t, on a day I think that school should be in session,” said Begert. “But I felt supported by my leadership, the principal and assistant principal.
“I became a teacher because I love education and I love working with students. Everyone wants more money. I don’t require more money to do my job,” said Begert. “I never felt used or abused by MPS. I find joy and I see it as a privilege to serve students.”
Begert said support staff does deserve more money for the work they do. But she said a strike is “overblown.”
“When we look at the union demanding more money in the pockets of teachers when our students can’t even read at grade level, like, what are we even … it’s a blatant disregard for the academic outcomes of especially Black and brown students, while white women walk away with more cash. And I am a white woman. But I think we need to interrupt that kind of status quo.”
If the strike continues or not, Begert said her plan is to continue going to work.
“When the teachers come back, hopefully, they’ll come back refreshed,” said 12-year-old Boisey Corvah, Gibney’s son who attends Anderson Middle School.
When having become use to not working and collecting full pay it is doubtful they will be refreshed if they might have to go back to work. A two year break is hard to overcome.
On the first day of the strike, Begert went to work. She said she was in communication with her school’s principal, who told her only one door was being used as an entrance while strikers and protesters were outside the building.
“I wasn’t sure if people would be like trying to block my way or anything like that. They weren’t, there was no issue,” said Begert. Once inside, she worked on cleaning classrooms and lesson planning.
This appears to be a true professional. Maybe more professionals should stop paying dues, and make MN a right to work state. When offered the choice 40% of current teachers and 90% of new hires chose to not join the union. This along with elimination of the tenure system would do wonders to improve the quality of education.
“When we look at the union demanding more money in the pockets of teachers when our students can’t even read at grade level, like, what are we even … it’s a blatant disregard for the academic outcomes of especially Black and brown students, while white women walk away with more cash. And I am a white woman. But I think we need to interrupt that kind of status quo.”
Teachers are NOT held accountable for outcomes of their students. Each semester the new batch of students arrive and at the end of the semester they walk out and if they pass or fail, learned a lot or nothing at all, it makes no difference because the next semester a new class will arrive and it is as if the previous semester never happened. This happens year after year and the results are the current status of the classes leaving our schools.
If the strike continues or not, Begert said her plan is to continue going to work.
This a true professional, and we more like her.
I have taught in seconday schools, Vocational schools, Post secondary school and graduate level post secondary education. There are good teachers out there, but most teachers are not good teachers and I would suggest the good teachers leave and go to work in the real world. You will be valued and appreciated given advancements and monetary rewards. That’s what I found to be the case.
The thing is, Ed, we don’t even have to imagine what a horrible educational dystopia like you long for would look like. No due process protection. Treated as interchangeable cogs instead of professionals. Not valued for their work or their education. Right to Work.
All of these things you long for are found in places like Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas etc. All of these places have the worst educational outcomes in the nation. You can live the educational dystopia you dream of Ed. Just move.
Professionals??? Then start acting like professionals. I have been there and done the job, and by the way that was when we were still the leaders in the field of education.
You need to educate your self on what “right to work” is. It’s apparent you lack any understanding of the process. Again, my experience is that I was the union negotiator for our local union and I support a true union. Right to work gives individuals the RIGHT/CHOICE to join the union and not be forced to join a union, or pay for union activities you may chose not to support. Things like money laundering for the DFL.
What day was your “word of the day” dystopia??? Again it becomes apparent you lack understanding of the meaning of the word “dystopia”. This might help you.
dys·to·pi·a
/disˈtōpēə/
an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.
Sure sounds like a discription of the current situation in the MPLS schools instead I look forward to a state of Utopia.
What does dystopia literally mean?
The word dystopia comes from adding the Latin prefix dys, which means “bad,” to the word utopia. So a dystopia is a utopia gone wrong. While the intention might have been to create a perfect society, all the regulations make life there really bad.
You realize that when given the choice, 40% of teachers currently teaching choose to not be part of a union, and 90% of new hires choose to never join a union. Give people the choice, and let them decide for themselves.
Ed, you have been out of public k-12 education for decades. I looked. Your educational experience was likely unlike those of the teachers on strike. You didn’t teach through a pandemic. It was not a cakewalk. It was a lot more work than conventional years of teaching. And I have no idea where you get the idea that so many teachers would choose not to be in a union. As for making more money in the private sector, most every teacher would be able to make more in the private sector. They are a talented resourceful group. That they choose to stay in education is laudable.
I disagree with Jessie Begert’s comments about the teachers strike. I believe that this is one of the few ways that the publics attention will be directed to the plight of our schools in Mpls. We are in a crisis and I don’t think enough attention is being paid. This strike is not about teachers getting a higher salary. It is about schools being fully staffed and non teaching staff getting a better salary. I don’t think that is too much to ask for our kids.
A couple of thoughts. First I’m not sure you can call it a caste system. It appears to me to be a difference in the level of education and responsibility. I would imagine that teachers just have more education and higher level of responsibility. And secondly it is my understanding that the support staff positions are part-time. Are we saying a part-time job should offer a living wage? If so, sign me up. My uncle was a high school teacher. His summers were spent doing other jobs to supplement his teaching salary. Why is that a problem?
I predict the teachers are going to get their wish for smaller class sizes by natural selection.
Thanks for including multiple perspectives in this report. IS MinnPost going to examine what provisions could be included in the contract so that the district does not lay off mostly recently hired teachers, many of whom are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)?
Is MinnPost going to write about what steps MPS might take to win back the thousands of students, predominantly BIPOC who have left the district in the last 5-10 years?
Why should race or color have anything to do with who gets laid off?? Tenure is the first factor to consider and the union totally supports tenure. If a non tenure teacher has a unique skill set not acquired/held by a tenured teacher, they will not be laid off, and if more than one individual have the skill set then it becomes a case of seniority. If you are to make exemptions for this situation, why not other special situations? Better yet, why bother having a union at all, or let the teachers decide to join the union or not join the union. Remember according to the union/union rules, the janitor, the lunch lady, the hall monitor all have one vote and that vote is equal the those with a BS/BA/MA/or PHD. Teachers want to be treated like professionals, but choose not to act like a true professional.