The RANTvocate: It’s Personal to NC Educators on May 16th

The opinions expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of UNC Charlotte, National Writing Project, or the UNC Charlotte Writing Project.

Last week I got a random email containing nothing but a link to the “Google Form that Durham County is Using.” Not having a clue what this was about, and seeing that it came from our NWP site director, I looked at the form. The first question was “Do you support Durham educators taking a personal day to advocate for our students, our schools, and each other, on May 16?”

Ummm, whaaaa?

I was also wading in the 7th circle of Research Hell, so I selectively ignored the rest.

Three days later, having elevated to the 4th circle of Research Hell, I got an early morning Facebook message from a local teacher and social justice advocate, inviting me to a meeting on Sunday to prepare for and spread the word about May 16th. The invite included information about a group of organizers from Durham coming to Charlotte to engage in community conversation.

Ohhhhhhh.

Having found my way to Research Purgatory, I “sacrificed” three kid-free hours on a Sunday afternoon to learn more. After all, I’d been wondering when North Carolina teachers would make waves like our peers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona.

The gathering was a standard meet-and-greet followed by a brief history of public education in the United States, highlighting NCLB, Race to the Top, the rise in charter schools and vouchers, and how the testing industry has gobbled up millions of dollars that used to be spent on classroom resources. This was followed by an urge to act now, because school choice advocates have already won in New Orleans. (I did not know prior to Sunday there is not one single public school left in New Orleans. That is crazy.) The meeting continued with a primer on how to evangelize forward-thinking people in our buildings and a plea to collectively take a personal day on May 16th. The intent is to flood time-off requests to a point where school boards will have no choice but to cancel school.

Neat-o.

Asking teachers by the thousands to all request the same day off during testing season is not just an act of defiance. We have reasons. According to may16.org, “Despite an economic recovery since the crash of 2008, NC State Lawmakers refuse to invest in our public schools.” May 16th is the first day of the 2018 legislative session, and according to the website, thousands of North Carolina educators are taking a personal day to be in Raleigh. North Carolina ranks 43rd in the nation for per pupil spending and 35th in teacher pay. Our state has lost over 7,452 teacher assistants since 2008, and almost 25% of our children live in poverty. This is not just a battle for fair pay, as naysayers may argue that teachers agree to their salary upon signing a contract. This is also a battle to reintegrate schools (as decided by the meeting participants), to bring back classroom resources, and to end paying out-of-pocket to stock our classrooms.

Before the meeting ended I knew I would go to the march. But I feel guilty about it. As I no longer work full-time in a K-12 setting, it will take minimal sacrifice and planning. I no longer have to square my shoulders, take a big breath, and ask for a personal day. I don’t have to make sub plans or pay $50 to have someone else work with my students. It feels too easy, and I am sorry I just get to show up without breaking a sweat.

At the end of the meeting, the facilitators from Durham asked everyone to say out loud how we will get more involved. Although I did not specifically mention National Writing Project, I promised I would spread the word and I would contact people at UNCG and ECU. I also emailed our Summer Institute facilitators and asked if they could say something about the march during their orientation with the new cohort on Saturday. One facilitator is a practicing CMS teacher. The other retired from Gaston County and is still a member of NCAE. Neither one knew about the march on May 16th.

Interesting.

I feel like an imposter asking teachers to take a personal day, so I won’t. If you do, however, the worst thing that can happen is no sub will be found, and you will be with your students. You still stood up for something important. If teachers request the day off en masse, some school boards might actually cancel classes, and May 16th will be treated like a very warm snow day. In the event you do decide to take the personal day (and not because this blog post convinced you), it’s important to put in the request five school days before May 16th. For more details about NC teacher rights to personal days, go here.

If you think teachers are silenced, take a look at what has already happened:

• Teachers received a 5% pay increase after a nine-day strike in West Virginia.
• After a nine-day strike, teachers in Oklahoma received a pay raise of approximately $6000 and according to The Daily Intelligencer,“some new revenues intended to make higher school funding possible in the immediate future.”
• As I currently write this, teachers in Colorado and Arizona are on strike demanding higher pay.
• [this last bullet is for future edits. In which state will teachers rise up next?]

Everything you need to know can be found at may16.org