PAT Strike Day 11+ : Shouting into the Wind
I wrote the Board, the PPS bargaining team and various combinations of my state legislators on November 6, 13, 16, 21, plus contacting the governor and blatting at PPS on social media. I got ONE form response from the school board, one response from one state rep and a form letter from the Gov’s office
LETTER from 11.16.23
As a parent of three Portland public school students, a voter, and a taxpayer, it concerns me immensely that PPS has not made even an offer that addresses the needs of teachers for real cost of living allowance that compensates for inflation. Equally concerning are PPS tactics, which appear designed to starve out public employees who are bargaining in good faith, presumably in an effort to force them to accept bad faith, low ball offers. State government bears considerable responsibility for this, having failed to proactively and professionally address regressive funding for education in Oregon, but unfortunately PPS is the one at the table. 45,000 children and their families are looking for more from you than fingerpointing and empty, self-congratulating press releases.
I have been in corporate/management/defense professional functions my entire career. I have also been a public employee whose ability to do my job is dependent on appropriations. I have been accused of consciously harming or enabling the harming of vulnerable people, and I have participated in negotiations involving complex, high dollar disputes. The positions I have taken in any of these situations have never caused me to lose sleep. I’d like to believe that all of you actually want good outcomes for children in public school, but if you do, I’m wondering how you can sleep at night. Over the past three weeks PPS has seriously undermined my faith in the integrity of its leadership, institutional priorities, and the commitment of its administration to the wellbeing of educators who are critical to the functioning of our public education system.
The teachers went into the process after having worked without a contract for more than long enough for PPS to have made meaningful proposals and PPS didn’t even negotiate until Portland children had lost school days. A single lost school day is too much. PPS was in a hair-on-fire emergency on October 31, and PPS public statements regarding the timing and availability to participate in negotiation suggest PPS wasn’t ready or expecting to have to negotiate immediately. That is utterly implausible.
The 4000+ professional educators are not being paid particularly generously in the first place. $50K to start, in a city where the average home price is $500K is unsustainable and embarrassing. Inflation has devalued the existing compensation so that teachers are effectively being paid less each year. Teachers have been without pay for weeks. Since you obviously know that, and it is your actual jobs to know exactly how economically vulnerable teachers are, down to the last dollar, every day is a day you are deliberately exerting economic duress on people with less power.
PPS communications to the public and the press have demonstrated utter lack of urgency. Since you are well known for having professional (expensive) communications staff, the only rational reading is that all of your communications are deliberate and intentional in timing, content, and effect, which in turn reflect deliberate decisions about the pace of the negotiations and the impact of that leisurely pace on children, their parents (who lack child care, or are paying more than they can afford for it), and teachers.
As far as I know none of the people on the bargaining team for PPS have had to lose a day of salary. And what is the lowest salary any of you make? 50% or 100% more than the highest paid, most experienced teacher?
Even knowing that the State has willfully refused to budget adequately for education statewide, PPS is profligately spending on administrative costs. Not once have I heard in the last three weeks that PPS is doing any belt-tightening in the highest salary levels, or non-student facing positions. Instead you make pronouncements blaming teachers for forcing budget reductions that fund vital services. Even if you don’t have the capacity to make up the difference with administrative cuts, publicly communicating willingness to do so would make PPS look less contemptible and enhance your credibility.
I would very much like to think that no one in the employ of Portland Public Schools partakes of the corrupt, anti-education, anti-human rights mindset that took over our federal executive branch seven years ago. But honestly, the feeling of panic and despair and belief that bullies are going to win that characterized that horrible November a few years ago is starting to creep through. No competent professional in any field should be a party to that kind of deja vu. PPS has the opportunity to do right by people who hold the tide against ignorance, and to honor the role that being educated, competent, and humanitarian plays in a civil society. Please do not screw this up.