BY EDWIN FRUIT
PITTSBURGH - The Turner Elementary School in Wilkinsburg, just outside of Pittsburgh, became the first public school in the country to be operated by a private company with its own staff September 5.
In March, the Wilkinsburg school board hired Alternative Public Schools Inc. (APS), a company run by two Nashville, Tennessee, businessmen who have never run a school. The company promised that for $5,400 a child (the board says it currently spends around $8,000) it would lengthen the school year, provide before- and after-school programs, organize individualized learning plans, and improve student achievement.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), which represents the Wilkinsburg Education Association, immediately filed suit on behalf of the teachers at Turner. As a result of the privatization 15 teachers were laid off and 9 were reassigned, in spite of the fact that there was a contract between the school board and the teachers union.
The community is split on the issue. "I think it is going to be a good thing, because I think the children now will have a chance to learn," one parent told the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette.
At the same time a group of Wilkinsburg residents has gotten together to oppose the privatization scheme. They call themselves Wilkinsburg Residents Against Profiteering (WRAP) and are working with the union to get the courts to overturn the school board decision. Supporters of WRAP and union teachers protested outside Turner Elementary on the first day of teacher orientation, August 28. Picket signs said, "Keep Turner public" and "No scabs."
The Wilkinsburg case is just one of many attacks on public education and the teachers unions that are occurring around the country.
In Michigan, teachers are fighting in court to overturn a new state law that would levy fines if they strike. In Chicago, a state law froze salaries for 18 months and took away the union's right to bargain over issues such as class size. In Indiana, the State Teachers Association will not be able to bargain with school districts to assess fees to nonmember teachers, even though those teachers receive the benefits of any contract negotiated. And in California, Governor Pete Wilson has called for eliminating lifetime tenure and repealing the entire state education code, which includes protections for teachers and their retirement system.
In Wisconsin, so-called school reform has taken the form of promoting school vouchers. In 1990 the state legislature allowed Milwaukee to grant $3,600 coupons to children of families earning less than $26,000, to be used toward private school tuition. In July of this year the legislature extended the voucher program so that they could be used at religious schools. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the teachers union went to court and got an injunction stopping the program. In a lively Militant Labor Forum held here September 15, these issues were addressed in a panel discussion.
Butch Santicola, director of organizing for the PSEA, explained that privatization is "simply education for profit." He explained that the Landmark Legal Foundation, a national conservative group, is representing Alternative Public Schools and the Wilkinsburg school board in court at no cost to the litigants. Santicola said privatization is an attack on the right to a public education, as well as the rights of teachers to bargain collectively.
Eugene Beard Jr., the chairperson of the education committee of the Pittsburgh NAACP, also addressed the forum. He spoke against the voucher system. Pennsylvania governor Thomas Ridge had proposed that vouchers of $1,000 be given to parents to send their children to any school of their choice. This was defeated in the state legislature last spring, but will come up again next year.
Beard said that since most private schools charge between $3,500 and $12,000 a year for tuition, a mere $1,000 would not help poor and especially African-American families. He pointed out that the voucher system is not a real "choice" system, because the private schools have the right of refusal.
"Tell me," he said, "are the well-to-do public schools in Fox Chapel or Mt. Lebanon [suburbs of Pittsburgh] going to accept all the Black children from the inner city who want to go there?"
Beard also stressed the hypocrisy of those opposed to busing. Now the opponents of public education want school choice - going out of the neighborhood if necessary. "They'll bus for every special reason except integration," he said.
Edwin Fruit, a member of the International Association of Machinists and the Socialist Workers Party, said that privatization is part of the attacks on rights won by working people and the unions.
"The replacement of union with nonunion employees is not new to the labor movement," he said. "The United Mine Workers went on strike in 1992-93 against what they called double-breasting. Mine owners would close down a union- organized mine, open it up under another name, and then hire nonunion workers. USAir, where I work, did the same thing. They operate their commuter airlines under another subsidiary. The company forced out all the regular employees and then hired new people at half the pay."
Fruit called for fully funded schools regardless of location, that education be free through college, and that teachers be protected and have full rights of collective bargaining. "Discrimination does exist today and we need affirmative action, including quotas, as well as busing to achieve integration."
As for Wilkinsburg, the battle will be fought in the streets and in the courts. After a Common Pleas Court judge held the Wilkinsburg school board in contempt and ordered it to rescind its contract and rehire furloughed teachers, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stayed the judge's orders. On September 18 the State Supreme Court began hearing arguments on the legality of the contract with Alternative Public Schools.
Edwin Fruit is a member of International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 1976.