Whatever comes next, never underestimate a union of educators
Nevertheless, her union persisted.
That’s how I would like future educators and unionists to look back on my time as president of Education Minnesota, a job I will step away from at the end of June.
When I was first elected 12 years ago, I was reminded that the winner of any elected office becomes a caretaker of an institution, with a duty to make it stronger before moving on.
With the help and support of dozens of members of our union’s governing board, too many extraordinary local leaders to count, and five excellent officers, we’ve succeeded.
Acting in solidarity and guided by foundational values, Education Minnesota has shown resilience and courage in the face of a decade of adversity.
Hostile politicians in St. Paul and Washington, billionaire- funded think tanks, a biased U.S. Supreme Court and a global pandemic couldn’t sink us.
Through it all, our union has been a progressive ecosystem that made Minnesota a blue dot in middle America, and our families and the environment are better for it.
Our union has blocked the worst of the school privatization movement and defended continuing contracts, collective bargaining and academic freedom.
We’ve helped pass laws to make students safe from bullies, teaching staffs more racially diverse, age- appropriate books more accessible and all-day kindergarten available.
Our work led to the passage of paid family and medical leave, a halt to captive audience meetings and an expansion of bargaining to include class sizes.
Our campaign program helped elect pro-education majorities in the Capitol in 2022, who made the biggest spending increase on public education in history in 2023.
Our union continues to add locals—48 since 2013— and I’m confident in the transition to President-Elect Monica Byron on July 1. Members will continue to be served.
Is there more to do? Yes. Pay for educators still lags similar professions. Health care costs are spiraling. As I write this, the Legislature is still working on pension reform.
The next leaders of our union will continue battling the big-money groups that want to destroy unions, privatize schools, silence workers and subvert democracy.
Ever since the Janus case at the Supreme Court in 2018, those groups have tried and failed every fall to persuade educators to leave their union. Now they’re changing tactics and trying to move educators to create alternate unions with fewer services—and less social conscience.
Unionists believe every worker should make enough to live in dignity and provide for their families. But we also want a free society, where everyone is treated with respect.
My greatest worry as my term winds down is that too many educators have forgotten that lesson and are tempted to ignore the formula that sustained unions for a hundred years.
If labor only pursues compensation, workers will eventually live lives controlled by oligarchs. But if labor focuses only on social issues, we’ll never get paid because it takes money to win justice in America.
Our union must always advocate for both, and continue delivering concrete results for members, wherever they are, through contracts, referendums, elections, budgets and legislation.
While I wish I could predict the next 12 years will be less eventful (and stressful) than the last, I can’t, but I’ll always bet on Education Minnesota to pull through.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you should never underestimate a public-school educator, especially when they’re working…
Together,
Denise Specht
@DeniseSpecht on X
