Teachers, this time let's have the rebellion

IF EVER a law qualifies as unjust, it would be Pennsylvania's Act 46, the mean-spirited response to David Hornbeck, who served as Philadelphia's superintendent of schools from 1994 to 2000.

Act 46 authorized the state takeover of the Philadelphia School District, in 2001. This coup d'état replaced the city's school board with the state-controlled School Reform Commission. Then on Oct. 6 of this year, it allowed the SRC to unilaterally end collective bargaining by tearing up its contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Posting the meeting on extremely short notice ensured virtually no public input as they blindsided the union. Forcing PFT members to pay a portion of their health costs will save the financially strapped district money, they said.

From 2000 to 2004, I worked in the Office of Communications for the school district. Hornbeck had correctly assessed the dominant principle that governed decisions regarding funding education in Philly schools: racism. He said openly that legislators would not provide predominantly white school districts with such inadequate funding.

When he threatened to shut the schools down if adequate funding was not forthcoming, Harrisburg responded quickly with Act 46, which was never meant to reform anything. The new law's sole purpose was to show Hornbeck and the school board who was in charge. Act 46 has devolved into a vehicle that allows the commonwealth, under Gov. Tom Corbett, to eviscerate the Philadelphia School District. The SRC has brought an increased financial deficit, but it has not brought better education.

When the takeover seemed imminent in 2001, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers conducted a protest march to City Hall. As a PFT member, I walked next to a prominent union official (no longer with the local union) during the march and suggested that the union engage in something bigger to prevent the immoral takeover, something like a massive act of disobedience. If a takeover occurred, I argued, thousands of the PFT membership of 12,000 should refuse to work, thus closing the schools and packing the jails.

A jail filled with teachers would be international news. Full-scale rebellion might bring the change we needed in both funding and leadership, I said. The union official looked at me as if I had two heads. We did nothing; six months after ousting Hornbeck, the state takeover happened and the SRC accelerated the long decline of an already troubled school system.

So, here we are in 2014. Once again, the SRC has invoked their unjust law and stomped on the collective-bargaining agreement with the PFT. Yes, maybe some union concessions are in order, but think back to the intent of Act 46. It was not written in the spirit of wanting sorely needed help for Philly schools, it was written to chastise Hornbeck for speaking moral truth to power.

A friend disagreed with my call for civil disobedience, arguing that children should not have their education disrupted by the school closings that would result from a rebellion. I respond to this critique by observing that, given the deplorable state of the school system, an outstanding moral education might be provided to young people seeing their teachers seize power that is rightfully and morally theirs. Churches and others could open their buildings for freedom classes. All of them could benefit from a thorough detailed study of Dr. King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail," as well as the history of resistance to injustice up close and personal in other venues. Teachers who volunteered to be jailed for violating the immorality of vile Act 46 could write "Letters From Philly Jails" by the hundreds to their students. Wouldn't that be something?

In the 1960s, when I belonged to the Black Panther Party, our unifying cry was "All Power to the People." To paraphrase that to fit the occasion, let's shout, "All power to the teachers, students and parents." (A special shout-out to the students who went on strike in support of their teachers.) Thousands of teachers have far more power than an incompetent governor, a handful of lackeys on a commission that hasn't reformed anything and a city government that lets it happen.

PFT, settle for nothing less than the repeal of Act 46 and the dissolution of the SRC.