In Section Editorial
As warmer weather is upon us and more people are becoming fully vaccinated against COVID-19, there is reason for optimism. Despite the hardships and frustrations of the past year, there are some hopeful signs that we are turning the corner — not only on the pandemic but in other ways as well.
It is time to take stock. As a union, where have we been? Where are we now, and where do we need to go?
In short, we have made significant gains, and we must continue to organize to reclaim public education, our democracy, and a sense of shared purpose in our communities.
Here are some of the key victories you’ve won for students and educators this year:
▪ The work of the MTA members, staff and public health allies who make up and collaborate with the MTA’s Environmental Health and Safety Committee was foundational to giving our local associations the tools they needed to achieve the most crucial COVID-19 mitigation strategies in your buildings. You laid the groundwork for working in schools and on campuses that are healthier and safer.
▪ In public higher education, MTA locals and chapters banded together with unions that are part of the AFL-CIO as campuses saw cuts, furloughs and layoffs looming. We also took our case to the public with the Massachusetts Agrees media campaign. College and university executives maintained that reductions were necessary because of the pandemic — and despite level funding, they refused to protect jobs and programs. One UMass trustee even went so far as to claim that reserve funds should be spent only in an event on the magnitude of an asteroid striking the Earth. But the unions hit back with a bit of political theater, creating a huge "asteroid" and the message: "The asteroid has struck." Point made.
▪ In coalition with other public-sector unions — including the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts and AFT Massachusetts — the MTA and our locals built enough public pressure to win a start date and dedicated weekend vaccination days for school employees.
▪ With a nationwide effort from organized communities and labor, we saw the election of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president, an important step toward closing the book on four ruinous years for our country. We now have an administration in the White House that not only recognizes the threat of the pandemic but is acting on community and labor demands to provide hundreds of millions of vaccine doses and waves of desperately needed economic relief.
Yet our battles are not over. The pandemic continues to take a major toll. We still contend with the deaths of family members and friends. We are still working harder than ever. We still face an economic crisis, one that has created even greater uncertainty for people in financially precarious situations. And as a nation, we need to regain a sense of common purpose.
This all occurred as you kept doing everything possible to make pandemic education successful under heightened concern for your own health and safety — and while caring for your families.
Yet our battles are not over. The pandemic continues to take a major toll. We still contend with the deaths of family members and friends. We are still working harder than ever. We still face an economic crisis, one that has created even greater uncertainty for people in financially precarious situations. And as a nation, we need to regain a sense of common purpose.
Where do we go from here? The pandemic has laid bare how decades of tax cuts for the wealthy — coupled with wholesale disinvestment in the public good, be it in health care, education, housing or child care, to name just a few examples — are at the root of the systemic racism that plagues our country.
In all communities — but especially in Black and brown ones — our schools and other public spaces reflect this policy of disinvestment. Infrastructure is crumbling. Access to affordable child care is inadequate. Public transportation is unreliable. There is a dire lack of affordable housing. Too many families and individuals, including members of the MTA, struggle to earn a living wage. And too many high school graduates face an unjust choice: attend college and emerge in debt or go to work to try to ensure economic survival.
The pandemic has had a significant impact on our public colleges and universities — and it has been particularly devastating for students of color, as well as adjunct faculty members and the lowest-paid workers on our campuses.
Community colleges have seen the enrollment of first-year Black and Latinx students decline by one-third. At the nine state universities, 15 percent fewer Black first-year students have enrolled. This will significantly impact the financial stability of our campuses as well as the future of our communities — and the consequences will be borne by public colleges and universities that had already been under-resourced for decades, even before the pandemic.
The way forward is to advance the common good principles that the MTA unveiled last summer. Our core values need to continue to guide us on every front, including our bargaining initiatives and our legislative priorities.
We need, for example, to ensure that the funding provided by the American Rescue Plan Act will supplement, not supplant, the resources promised by the Student Opportunity Act — the most far-reaching education equity initiative in our Commonwealth in decades. Throwing out a lifeline at a time of crisis is necessary, but our long-term work is to translate that relief into progressive and permanent public policy.
The state must commit to providing additional resources for public higher education in the budget for this coming year. We are urging a total increase of $136 million over this year’s funding levels, which represents the first-year investment called for by the Cherish Act.
We need to end high-stakes standardized testing systems such as MCAS and ACCESS now so that we can use the last weeks of the school year to reconnect with our students in meaningful ways. Until the state applies for an MCAS waiver and new U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, a former teacher himself, acts to grant it, we will move ahead with our opt-out campaign.
We need to lobby cities and towns across Massachusetts to endorse and act on the PreK-12 ESP Bill of Rights, a document developed by MTA Education Support Professionals to call attention to the need for better pay, respect and educational opportunities.
As we near the end of this historically difficult year, I hope you recognize how important your union activism is and will continue to be.
The pandemic has challenged us in fundamental ways, but it has also made us a stronger MTA. We have the opportunity to build upon our gains, strive for more equitable communities, and keep our focus on the common good. Let’s take it now and keep winning.
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