Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced his budget cuts for 2010 late Friday afternoon. As expected, they included three more furlough days for the state's public school teachers. This is on top of the three we started the year with, which in many systems has already been figured into our pay. That meant the pay cut's bite was spread over the next year, and thus didn't have as big an impact. My take home pay, for example, has been about $100 less per month since August. The new three days will be figured into less time and will obviously bite harder.
Naturally I feel frustrated by the pay cuts, just like I do about the other budget cuts that have packed my classes full of students because there's no money to hire more teachers. But my biggest frustration on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday) won't be with anything the state or my local system has done, but with some of my fellow teachers.
For the last twenty years I've been my school's area rep for my county's branch of the Georgia Association of Educators, which is an affiliate of the National Education Association. I attend local meetings and occasionally serve as a delegate to the state conventions. But one of my biggest duties as area rep is to try to get new teachers to join GAE And that's the source of my frustration.
Over the past twenty years I've tried to meet every new teacher at my school sometime within the first few weeks of the year. I tell them about GAE and why its a good idea to join, both for legal protection and to support the association's lobbying efforts. As the years have gone by I've gotten to know who's a likely new member and who isn't.
Young teachers are difficult to persuade. Most newbies have little or no knowledge of GAE or NEA or any idea that it might be a good idea to join. When I tell them its good legal protection I get reactions like (this is an actual quote) "Why would I be sued?" When I tell them it might be a good idea to get some support in case an administrator wants to non-renew them, I get stuff like this (another actual quote) "I'll be a good teacher, they won't do that."
This kind of ignorance in neophyte teachers can be excused, but it still gives me heartburn. Along with a few other older teachers, I try to explain reality. Some of the young ones catch on and join, but unfortunately there are always a few who have to learn the hard way, either personally or through observing someone else's travails. And I understand the 35 bucks a month dues can seem like a big chunk to someone who's paying off student loans.
I've also had quite a bit of experience trying to persuade older teachers to join GAE. I've gotten a myriad of negative responses such as (all actual quotes again) "No, I can't join that, I'm a Republican." "No,I can't join NEA, I'm a Christian." (I've gotten both of those several times and I've learned to just smile and back away slowly. No one who's responded that way has ever lasted more than a year at my school, by the way. If you're that clueless you're not going to be very functional in a classroom full of teenagers.) Then there are the people who, whether because its "cheaper" or its "not political" choose to join PAGE, the "non-union" teacher's association in Georgia. PAGE has been around for about thirty years. It got a foothold with teachers who were unhappy with NEA/GAE's decision to start endorsing political candidates. PAGE does its best to undercut GAE in the state legislature and does little or nothing to represent its members either through lobbying or through providing legal assistance. Unfortunately, PAGE members are usually not politically active and tend to be extremely gullible, so they never realize how lame their group is until they need to call for help.
With that as background, let me tell you what will happen when I get to school on Tuesday. Teachers, nearly all of them non-GAE members and some of them PAGE members, will seek me out (I have the reputation of being The Guy With All The Answers) and ask "What is GAE going to do about this?" or "Why didn't GAE stop this?" or even "This is why I didn't join GAE,they never do anything!" I'm pretty patient most of the time, but I really have to bite my tongue on days like this.
This year is my last year in education. After twenty nine years I'm retiring in May. I'll miss the students and the teaching, and I'll miss the camaraderie of working with GAE to try to better our pay and working conditions. Quite a few teachers all over the state are retiring this year, not least because we've been warned that next year's cuts look to be even more severe. The future doesn't look good, particularly since so many of us who are retiring have been the ones who kept GAE going for so long. I've been telling myself for years that eventually teachers in Georgia will wake up and stop believing PAGE and the politicians and get a dose of reality, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe it will happen next year. I'll be watching from my front porch.