No matter the challenges, we will not surrender our priorities or our values
A hundred minutes was a long time to listen President Donald Trump when he was spreading lies about public schools, especially when those lies will be used to harm the educators and students Education Minnesota stands for.
I sat in the gallery of the great hall of the U.S. House of Representatives as the president addressed Congress on March 4 as a guest of Rep. Angie Craig, who wanted to signal her support for public education.
The president bragged about removing whatever he’s calling “critical race theory” and “indoctrination” from schools. He engaged in his familiar and ignorant transphobia. He repeated his claim that surgical procedures were performed on children in schools.
Hearing such cruel fictions said in a room so rich with American history was infuriating. In that ornate room, progressive lawmakers ended slavery, gave women the vote, passed the GI bill, enshrined voting rights and guaranteed a free education to students with disabilities. They paid to defeat fascism in Europe and sent Americans to the moon.
Now we have elected leaders planning to disband the U.S. Department of Education. They’re threatening more than $530 million in federal funding for E-12 students in Minnesota, and more than $25 billion for Minnesota college students, every year.
They will try to do it behind a pack of lies designed to inspire disgust and distrust with public education because, as educators, we believe every student should have the freedom to feel safe and welcome in their school, no matter their race or ZIP code, religion or background, transgender or not.
The majority party in the House has already approved budgets so large they would slash Title I, special education and food programs, which would ripple through every E-12 school in the state. A big enough cut to Pell Grants for students with exceptional needs could jeopardize the existence of some two-year colleges.
It’s no exaggeration to say every educator, at every level, in Minnesota would feel the effects of the budget cuts already approved by the U.S. House to pay for more tax cuts for billionaires. Those cuts could erase the gains Minnesota educators have made in the past four years.
So, what do we do? We keep pushing for the economic freedom of all educators, especially around pay, pensions and health care. We fight at the Legislature for more revenue. We fight at the bargaining table. We fight at the ballot box for pro-education leaders and referendums.
We will keep making the case, with increasing volume and frequency, that educators deserve better than we have. The status quo of unfair pensions, insufficient pay and spiraling health insurance costs is not acceptable.
And we will also reject the notion that our union of more than 84,000 educators can only do one thing at a time. Every educator can multitask. So can our union.
We can improve our compensation and still resist cuts to Social Security and Medicaid. We can bargain for safer schools and fight back against the erosion of our basic American freedoms—to vote in fair, secure elections, to breathe clean air, to live healthier lives, and others. When I left the Capitol late that night, I felt clarity. Even with all the challenges, our union must not surrender our priorities or our values.
We must not bargain against ourselves. We will keep our faith in each other, in what we can do when we are unified, and in the endearing support Minnesotans have had for their schools—no matter what roadblocks are thrown in front of us.
Together,
Denise Specht
Twitter: @DeniseSpecht
