I am writing this editorial in late January, yet it already feels as if the new administration in Washington has been in for a year, wreaking havoc on our values, our institutions, our unions and our public schools and colleges. The historian Timothy Snyder, in his book "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century," says that the first lesson in fighting back against an authoritarian regime is "Do Not Obey in Advance." The second is "Defend Institutions." Your union, and our 400 locals, will defend our schools and colleges, which are the bedrock of our democracy. But the wave of Trump administration actions, intended to generate fear and chaos, are enough to breed a sense of despair.
That’s why this issue of MTA Today could not come soon enough. The articles in this issue highlight union victories at three different levels – federal, state and local. They should give us all some additional strength for the fights ahead.
At the federal level, we won a battle that some of you have been waging for more than three decades – repealing the "steal" of the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision, two laws that denied our members the Social Security benefits they had earned. By finally passing the Social Security Fairness Act, we have won for our members a greater measure of retirement dignity. I am especially taken with the justice finally achieved for our ESP members, many of whom can now rely on spousal benefits which they were previously denied. The difference of hundreds of dollars a month will be life changing for them. I was pleased to join U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and labor leaders from Massachusetts and across the country at the White House for one of President Biden’s final bill-signing ceremonies.
Last November we won passage of Question 2, ending the use of the MCAS as a high-stakes test, which denied 700 or more students a year the diploma they earned through successful coursework. While the opponents have not given up, and we will be fighting efforts at the local and state levels to impose new, onerous, one size-fits-all assessments, we have pushed off the worst threats to our victory. More importantly, more and more people – including those who might have opposed Question 2 – are coming out of the woodwork to say what you, our members, have been saying for years: There are better ways to assess students than a high-stakes test. And there are broader goals we have for our students than performance in a limited number of subjects on a bubble test. Quietly, many naysayers are thanking us for opening up a true public conversation on the mission of our public schools.
Finally, at the local level, one by one, we have been winning paid parental leave for our members. At virtually every bargaining table, the issue of parental leave is near or at the top of the agenda. Having helped win excellent paid family and medical leave for every other worker in the state, it is long, long past time for our members to get access to the state’s program. We believe this basic right should not have to be won local by local, but until the state acts on the legislation we have filed this session, our members will lead robust bargaining campaigns to demand this basic human right.
Please take a moment to celebrate these victories. We don’t do that enough because, as educators and unionists, you always know that there is more to be done to make change so that the world we live in now more closely matches the world we want to live in.
