Teachers and Allies hold Successful Rally in SF

May 11, 2005

About 300 UESF members and supporters lined Van Ness at McAllister after school, building power for upcoming battles with both the state government and local contract negotiations.

Signs and chants mostly focused on Bodybuilder-turned-rightwing-populist-politician Arnond Schwarzenegger, who refers to teachers (along with nurses, firefighters, and other state workers) as "special interests", while serving as a pliant tool for his corporate backers.

Schwarzenegger is currently pushing for a special election on which to place 2 ballot measures: one which would eliminate teacher tenure in favor of "merit-based" pay (to be determined by whom?) and another which would make huge cuts to all state workers retirement packages.

But an equally pressing, related issue which was just under the surface was the ongoing contract negotiations between UESF and the SF Unified School District. In response to state cutbacks, the District is proposing pay and benefit cuts, school closures and reduced staffing, and reconstitution.

(Currenly billed as "Dream Schools", reconsititution is the process by which a school's entire staff is fired, then must re-apply for their jobs. The "new" schools' curricula are a "teacher-proof" standardized rote-memorization package, about which teachers are allowed zero input.)

San Francisco is the wealthiest city in the wealthiest state in the wealthiest nation in the world. Yet the power-holders--who, we should always remember, would never stoop to send THEIR children to PUBLIC SCHOOL-- gut public education spending, and then divert whatever's left to private interests.

Teachers, students, and communities won't take it. Next action: a huge rally in Sacramento, Wednesday, May 25, at 3:00pm. Check out http://www.uesf.org/may2505.html for info about buses.

Supporting organizations at the rally included the PTA, Coleman Youth Advocates, SEIU Local 790, Code Pink, and the West Portal Panthers.

For more info, see:
http://www.uesf.org/

UESF represents more than 6,000 San Francisco Unified School District employees including teachers, counselors, security aides, psychologists, community relations specialists, instructional aides, nurses, and speech pathologists and therapists.