UPDATED-"Everyone Deserves Qualified Teachers:" Philadelphia Student Union Insists on Equity in Teacher Contracts

Philadelphia Student Union was part of a recent action held by the Effective Teaching for All Children campaign, in front of the School District Building and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) office. This action called on the Philadelphia Teacher's Union and the School District to come together publicly and discuss the new teachers' contract and make equitable distribution of qualified teachers a central priority.  According to a new report by The Notebook, "schools with the highest concentration of poverty still have the most teacher turnover and the lowest percentages of highly qualified and experienced teachers."

As stakeholders in the teachers' contracts, students and community members put forward four top-priorities for the new PFT contract. These four priorities will be the base criteria for grading the new teachers' contract, once it is finalized later this summer. The priorities are:

1.  Incentive grants to attract experienced and effective teachers to hard-to-staff schools.

2.  Full site selection, with hiring decisions made by committees of teachers, parents, principal, and at the high school level, students.

3.  Performance standards and evaluations for teachers, developed in collaboration with teachers.

4.  Teacher-driven professional development.

Several stakeholders took the mic during the action, including a member of Teacher Action Group (TAG), a parent from ACORN, and Dan Jones of PSU. Here is some of what Dan said:

Right now there is a really backwards dynamic in our school district. The schools that are already doing well, the schools that already have the most resources, end up continuing to get the most qualified teachers, while the schools that are struggling the most end up with the largest share of vacancies and new, alternative certified, and uncertified teachers.Now to me that just doesn’t make sense.

The inequitable distribution of teachers is one of the main obstacles to giving every student in Philadelphia the education they need and deserve. So why are things this way? And more importantly how can we fix it? Well time and time again we’ve asked both the district and the PFT that very question, and the answer we get is usually along the lines of We totally agree but it isn’t our fault, you have to go talk to the districtor… We’d change it if we could, you really need to go talk to the union”. Well we’re here to say that that' just not going to cut it any more. It simply isn’t good enough. It isn’t good enough for our communities, it isn’t good enough for our schools, and it certainly isn’t good enough for us as students.

In the coming months, the district and the teachers’ union are going to be engaging in contract negotiations, and we demand that they both put aside their own interests and their own pet issues. We demand that they stop playing the blame game, stop playing politics and say how can this contract help students. How can this contract help make sure that every student has a qualified teacher in their classroom that cares about them and wants to be there.

And let' just be clear, both sides involved here need to compromise, both sides need to really start acting on the idea that students do come first. So let' get out of this frame of who' fault is itand really start moving forward. We’re going to be holding both the school district and the union accountable for recognizing that putting students first in these negotiations is the way we’re going to be able to move forward and fix this equity issue. And we’re going to make them both recognize that the students united will never be defeated.

The audio piece, Students Present PSU's Teacher Quality Platform, was produced by Simone Waller and originally aired on PSU's youth-produced radio show, On Blast.

Students hold the report card that will be used to grade the new teachers' contract.