Building Education That Works

Reflections on the CFT Convention by Debora Bone

It was exciting to go to Sacramento to the CFT convention this weekend with our small and congenial Cabrillo delegation. I realized that I have not gone in several years and remembered back to my first CFT convention over 13 years ago…

At that time, Grey Davis was governor and the Enron crisis had not yet begun to bankrupt the state. The Twin Towers still stood tall in New York City and John Hurd was president of Cabrillo. Many of the active CCFT members had been part of the initial effort to unionize the college in the early 1980s. What a difference a decade or so can make!

My overall impression this weekend is that the stakes are so much higher now. The pressures on us as teachers and on public education are enormous. Fortunately, CFT has been effective in a number of ways to organize members and community, put pressure on legislators, and influence outcomes.

Here are just a few of the issues that were hot topics of discussion.

• Accreditation. There was a great deal of concern about the ACCJC sanctions against San Francisco City College and the role of the accreditation body in pushing for a different model of education that would greatly limit access and diversity, roll back union agreements and curtail shared governance.
• Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). There was strong opposition to recent proposed legislation to bring private, for-profit online courses into the public universities and community colleges under the pretext of meeting demand for classes now that state austerity measures have cut back offerings to students. Standardization of curriculum provided by corporate publishing companies de-professionalizes teachers and threatens academic freedom. Research suggests that only 10% of students who begin these courses finish them.
• Community organizing. Speakers from Chicago spoke of the strike last year that mobilized thousands of community members and teachers to stop the closure of public schools, protect access to education and support teachers in the classroom. Strategies for identifying shared interests and building ongoing coalitions across communities were seen as vital to achieving the broad goals of maintaining a pathway into the middle class.

One keynote speaker was AFT president Randi Weingarten, who spoke of the national assault on public education and teacher’s unions as part of a corporate agenda to profitize, privatize and de-professionalize our work. With the top 1% now owning 42% of national wealth and the bottom 60% owning only 2.3% of wealth, access to education for economic mobility is critical. Weingarten called on union members to link with community members around a set of shared values that promotes quality public education as a key solution to poverty and inequality.

All in all, it was revitalizing to listen to colleagues from across California come together to understand what we are facing and strategize about actions we can take to make a difference.

A Good Time Was Had by All by Susan Stuart

John Govsky and I arrived at the Sheraton Grand around on Friday March 15th almost in time to catch the opening guest speaker David Berliner, Education Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, kick off the three-day annual California Federation of Teachers convention in Sacramento. It was disappointing to miss (due to traffic) his clarion call to deepen our understanding of student success in an environment of poverty, cultural apathy and national test hurdles. Thankfully, Debora Bone was able to attend his workshop on Saturday: “Designing a Progressive Agenda for Educators.”

It was a rewarding, inspiring weekend crammed with speakers, workshops, networking, and (most lasting for me), the adoption of over forty resolutions the CFT will carry forward this year in affecting legislation and Ed Code policies. The overarching theme, “Building Education That Works,” proved a fine umbrella for the variety of political, social justice, community outreach and membership topics that engaged our delegation of seven along with five hundred other delegates and guests from all over California. We chapter #4400ers were also blessed to have two Cabrillo students, Adrianna Mee and Brittany Moore, attend right alongside us. This spring these two extraordinary young women are developing campus-wide outreach to students who may have no real knowledge of what important work our union does – for us and for them.

I was most interested in COPE (Committee on Political Education) issues that most intersect with community colleges and higher education. Friday afternoon, Maya and I sat in on a workshop titled “Keeping Political Action Legal,” which made me feel extremely secure about our CCFT involvement in local and statewide politics – we have met and exceed the standards, reporting and tax requirements (including keeping COPE-funded political items completely separate from regular union dues and activities).

Late Friday afternoon, Beth McKinnon and I sat with John and about twenty other delegates on an important subcommittee marking up resolutions pertaining to “Professional Issues: Higher Education” submitted by state committees, local chapters and guilds; eventually, all convention delegates vote to accept or reject these. Enrique Buelna and Debora sat on different subcommittees. It is really interesting to listen to the often-heated discussions generated in these sessions and later in the convention-wide adoption process of these resolutions in the “floor debates”–messy old democracy in action.

This convention includes K-12 educators and classified personnel as well as community college faculty and early childhood educators. Friday evening after an hour social and dinner break, the Division Councils representing these three entities met separately to elect their officers. John was reelected as Part-Time Rep to the Community College Council - a process that lasted until eleven o’clock–thanks John!

Saturday morning we met in the ballroom to cheer guest speaker Jesse Sharkey, Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union, who told stories of last year’s teachers’ strike. Sharkey spoke of a huge outpouring of public support and renewed interest in keeping public education both public and accountable to students, families and teachers. Following his presentation, he and three other riveting speakers convened a panel discussion about building the community coalitions necessary to reach our goals of educating every child and adult learner in the country. Yes!

After lunch, John and I listened to our two bright CFT staffers who work with Sacramento legislators present the workshop “Legislative Advocacy for Quality Public Education.” The two young women covered the in-and-outs of meeting with legislators and their staffs to develop lasting relationships to influence state level decisions on education policy. I took a lot of notes.

It wasn’t all work though. We took time to meet and greet, swap stories, and generally network. Los Rios District sponsored a Saturday evening reception at a nearby restaurant, where we got to mingle with colleagues and listen to jazz. By Sunday morning the crowd had thinned, but the floor debates continued, and the energy was still vibrant in that big ballroom. Officers had been elected, resolutions had been passed and some even got rewarded by winning the closing raffle (I won a lovely woven scarf, Brittany won a $100 gift card!) As we dispersed, we knew that both struggles and victories remain in front of us. It was empowering to be a part of it all.