Rallies were held at 15 schools in Boston by the Boston Teachers Union (BTU), which is seeking better pay for teachers and paraprofessionals.
A teachers’ union is a labor union designed to fight for the rights of educators. Dating back almost 150 years, they play crucial roles in securing benefits for teachers and helping organize the way the system works.
The BTU argues the contract negotiations between the union and school district are being drawn out, having gone on for months without closure. The union also seeks adequate staffing accommodations for special education students and multilingual learners. They feel as though these students are not receiving the proper services needed to excel in the classroom. BTU president Erik Berg, in a New England Cable News (NECN) article, stated:
“The students aren’t getting the services they need to thrive and we have an inability to retain great educators.”
Special education and multilingual students alike have accommodations that need to be met, which is nearly impossible to do with just one teacher. Multiple teachers make it much easier for the class to progress as a whole, instead of having students fall behind and not know how to ask for help.
All students learn at a different pace, and it puts a lot of pressure on both teachers and students when strict curriculums are put into place, expecting teachers to have certain subjects mastered by certain dates. Students will feel overwhelmed if they don’t understand the lesson and oftentimes feel embarrassed to ask for help as they don’t want to seem “dumb” to their peers or teachers. This results in the student not actually understanding the lesson, therefore stressing the importance of teaching to mastery and not to the standard.
Teachers who have special education or language training are better equipped to understand the needs of these students and help them progress at the pace they need. Lone teachers are having to support these students in ways that reach beyond their areas of expertise, making their job much more mentally draining; they are working two jobs for the price of one.
Additionally, COVID-era-emergency school funding has expired, impacting school districts nationally. This funding provided emergency assistance to help K-12 students respond to the impacts of COVID-19. Dan Compitiello, a Boston High School history teacher said:
“Those school psychologists, those school nurses, those extra staff, that increased school participation, increased scores for our students, increased quality of life for our teachers, all of those things in places across the country are getting cut today.”
The expiration of this funding sent the union over the edge, where they realized enough was enough. Not only are teachers not paid enough already, but the lack of pay is driving away qualified professionals who know how to take on the roles that are lacking in our districts.
As an Elementary Education major, lack of pay was an initial concern when thinking about majors and career paths. This is living proof of how undervalued teachers are in society, and how the stigma around learning abilities and curriculums is still prevalent, even while schools try to deny it.
Jaden Johnson can be contacted at
jaden@kscequinox.com
