Organized educators can build the networks to fight beyond school doors

Ariela Rothstein, 31, is a teacher on special assignment and site rep with United Educators of San Francisco. Currently, she mentors new teachers and coaches teacher leaders in professional development for San Francisco Unified School District. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, she taught high school history at a public transfer high school in Brownsville in Brooklyn, NY, and organized with TeachDream NYC and Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) around immigrant rights in school and beyond. She is an organizing member with California Educators Rising, a growing network led by rank-and-file public school union members in California fighting for the public schools our students deserve.

Rothstein spoke to Majority last week, after the January 12 Rally to Fund Public Education in Oakland, about what she saw at the rally and what she thinks is necessary for the movement. This interview has been condensed for clarity.

Majority: What does this rally mean to you?

Ariela Rothstein: Here in the Bay Area, the inequality is so stark, and public schools are one of the last public institutions still standing. There’s no reason why California should be having shrinking public education budgets at a time when the one percent in the state are booming.

It’s super energizing to see a sea of red, especially following on the heels of the 50,000-person march for UTLA [the United Teachers of Los Angeles] and then right before the first day of the strike. It was hugely energizing to send the message that we stand together, that we support these demands, and that there’s more of us willing to fight.

What did you see as the highlight of the event?

The most powerful thing about the rally was that there was a platform, front and center, for ROOTS [International Academy] teachers to speak and talk about what’s happening at their school — the powerful teaching and learning happening at their school and the lack of transparency and meaningful community involvement in the decision to close the school — and how people can fight back against these school closures.

The ROOTS closure was announced right before the holidays as a done deal, when there’s been no public hearing. At the rally, those teachers talked about their students who live across the street, and if they close ROOTS, the next closest school is a mile away. Closing schools is horrible for the neighborhood.

Those speakers really brought home the notion that when we talk about school closures and who’s affected — it’s our most vulnerable students and communities. As public school teachers, we have to stand up for our own rights and for community-centered demands, which of course include stopping these school closures.

What do you mean by community-centered demands?

School closures are one example, but there are other issues affecting students and families, particularly in this political moment: mass incarceration, deportations. And organized educators, teachers, and school workers can mobilize for their own working conditions, which are student learning conditions, and build the networks to fight beyond school doors, as well. We need to build these networks to fight for both the public schools that our students deserve and the society they deserve. Particularly in this era of Trump, these are rank-and-file connections and networks that need to be built.

Deportations rock a school community. Some California districts are ahead of the nation in terms of support for immigrant students and families. They might have an immigrant liaison or support person on staff, who can help connect people with immigration lawyers or resources for documented and undocumented families. Others are openly discussing the school-to-prison pipeline and demands brought forward by #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool.

I think what’s exciting about the RedForEd movement in California is the potential for these conversations to be intertwined. Because these are issues that teachers are talking about, that impact their ability to teach their students, that they’re showing up for and standing up against. As it should be. There’s still a question of how to turn them into demands around working conditions, but it’s also a matter of building networks who can turn out in solidarity.

What does it look like to build those networks?

I talked to a lot of teachers in the crowd about what was going on in their sites, what they could do to support UTLA, and to build energy for OEA [the Oakland Education Association, which is likely to go on strike in February]. Teachers kept mentioning the need to stand together, that we’re stronger together. What I’ve heard from teachers across the state — in Sacramento, Calexico, San Diego, Ross Valley, San Jose, Bakersfield, Alameda, Oakland, San Francisco — what’s being raised again and again is that we need a statewide movement to close corporate tax loopholes, tax the wealthy, stop privatization and charters, and fund our public schools.

The pots of money that districts are negotiating with locals are comparatively small; piecemeal contracts with so little state funding compared to the wealth in the state. But the process of organizing around contract demands can strengthen a network that’s ready to mobilize. So even when we don’t get everything we ask for, the more statewide structure we build, the stronger we are.

What do we need to do next to make that happen?

We’re obviously in favor of reforming Prop 13 to put the community first and closing corporate tax loopholes on the state level, but on the local level, we’ve got to do everything we can to fight school closures and fight budget cuts that are affecting schools and families.

California Educators Rising is promoting a clear message of no budget cuts that affect schools and no school closures. My hope is that any politician who spoke at the rally will be held accountable to a platform of no closures and no cuts affecting schools. And that any school worker reading this joins in the organizing work with California Educators Rising!

To join California Educators Rising’s work, sign up or email your name, school or local, and role to caeducatorsrising@gmail.com.

School workers and community groups can also join their Adopt-a-Striking-School program to support a school in Los Angeles. The program aims to build rank-and-file union relationships, facilitate sharing of information, and deliver material support to UTLA during their strike.