Teach our children well

In his journalism classic, The Chain Gang, editor Richard McCord wrote of how the Gannett newspaper chain instructed its local newspapers to gather up every cent made each day and send it to the national finance office, with the result that capital was daily being shipped out of dozens of towns around the country, draining the communities that produced that capital of any economic benefit from it.

In February, West Virginia teachers went on strike, staying out of their classrooms until March 7. Most of the national coverage of the strike was terrible to the point of being misleading. Few reporters looked beyond the issues of pay and health benefit levels, though those were the two least important issues. What was amazing was that the four or five most important issues overlapped with issues that concern many of us who have little or no stake in teachers’ pay. They were:

1. “Our message from day one has been for a reversal of corporate tax breaks,” said language teacher Emily Comer.

2. Teachers were expected to use Go365, a new feature of the worker health insurance program requiring teachers to wear an electronic monitor that measures their activities and reports back to Big Brother. Teachers who refused to use the devices incurred whopping penalties—an additional $500 deductible and a $25 monthly premium hike.

3. State legislators were planning to kill collection of union dues from teachers as a part of the payroll system.

4. Teachers wanted a limit put on the number of charter schools.

5. There was a proposal to curb seniority, allowing the state to bring in less experienced teachers with less training.

It was not that the teachers were not interested in pay and health benefit levels. They ended up winning a five percent raise and a freeze on health insurance costs. But that is not as good as it sounds. Teacher pay has fallen by 11 percent since 2009 in the state. No number has been put on the value of the health benefits freeze, but it is pretty clear that, at best, the strike succeeded in keeping teachers from losing still more ground.

While the matter of tax breaks is yet to be settled, the West Virginia teachers won on all other issues.

In Nevada as in West Virginia, corporate welfare drains school systems of needed dollars. It removes millions and billions of dollars from local use. Nevada’s Sales Tax Anticipation Revenue bonds, or STAR bonds, have damaged local businesses while sending capital out of state, hurting schools and failing to produce the promised tourism boom.

On privacy, tax subsidies for private schools, better teachers, the strikers spoke for more than themselves. Their example showed students what it means to live in a society together. The teachers fought for changes from which we would all benefit. Their selfless conduct struck a blow for progressive education and healthier state economies. We all owe them a debt of thanks.

Until the right wing found a reason to demonize them, teachers were honored in this society. We need to reinstate that esteem. For a start, and for a local perspective, turn to page 14.