By Sikivu Hutchinson*
While thousands of L.A. teachers, students, parents,
caregivers and supporters took to the rain-soaked streets to strike and fight
for the life of public education this week, LAUSD’s one-percenter
superintendent Austin Beutner took to the op-ed
pages of oligarch mouthpiece the Wall Street Journal to scold UTLA for bad
math skills. The union’s challenge to Beutner’s privatization regime has been a
national lightning rod for a revitalized resistance movement.
Black teachers have consistently been on the
frontlines of this resistance. A recent study
on Black student achievement found that Black
students who had just one Black teacher by
third grade were 13% more likely to go to college. Those who had two Black
teachers were 32% more likely. Overall, having a Black teacher made students more
likely to “ask questions and talk about school subjects out of class”. This
is not rocket science for those of us who were fortunate enough to have gotten a
solid foundation of Afrocentric pedagogy growing up or to have been raised in a
community of conscious Black teachers who challenged us to think critically. Yet,
many Black students aren’t exposed to Black teachers at an early age because of
the overwhelming whiteness of the profession and racist, sexist barriers to Black
recruitment and retention.
African American teachers are approximately 8-9% of the LAUSD’s
teacher population. They are in the trenches of a district that has become a national
symbol for the crippling effect urban apartheid, neoliberal control, and disinvestment
have had on historically Black public schools and neighborhoods. This week, Black
teachers walked the line and spoke, chanted and testified their truths on
street corners and in traffic, driving one of the biggest public employee union
uprisings of the decade. As Dorsey High
School English teacher Ashunda Norris commented, “We know that systematically, across the country, large
numbers of Black students are not being adequately served in the public school
setting. When the demands of this strike are met, it means a great amount of
Afro American children will receive resources in their school communities that
are, quite frankly, long overdue. In the spirit of Black educators such as Lucy
Laney and Ida B Wells, we're simply demanding what rightfully belongs to our
students: free and stellar educational opportunities.”
At Seventy Fourth Street Elementary in South Los Angeles,
fifth grade teacher Dr. Tammara Lewis slammed the pro-charter school board
majority for taking a 174% salary increase (bringing their salaries to $200,000
a year) on the backs of children of color.
Students at her high-achieving school have reported seeing ants coming
out of the classroom faucets, nurses are only on site once a week, and dated
textbooks extol the conquests of heroic white historical figures in narratives spiced
up with the occasional appearance of Black, Asian or Indigenous “mascots”. As one of the few predominantly Black gifted
magnets in the LAUSD, Seventy Fourth has an over 80% African American, majority
female faculty. This week, the school had 100% faculty participation on the
picket line. On the line, teachers spoke about providing their own funds for
supplies, pushing for culturally relevant textbooks, STEM and music education,
and fighting for more nutritious student food.
 |
| Mr. Garrett Lee @ GHS |
Walking the line at Gardena High School in South L.A.,
Restorative Justice and special education teacher Garrett Lee discussed the
importance of mental health services for students of color coming from
communities where there are few services, high rates of trauma and violence,
and strong cultural stigmas around therapy. Nationwide, Black male teachers
account for only 2% of the teaching population.
And Lee’s position is one of the scores of vital support jobs jeopardized
by the district’s multi-billion-dollar police
state apparatus. The district’s quiet push to phase out its already
piddling restorative justice programming and ramp up funding for school police
and surveillance would have the most harmful impact on Black students. As an
adviser to the school’s Black Student Union and mentor to Black male students,
Lee sees the strike as a continuation of the legacy of the civil rights
movement and a platform for Black student organizing. He noted that “It’s critical for Black
students in particular to see this example from Black teachers and to know that
their voices can be heard.” Across the district, African American students, who
comprise 8.2% of LAUSD’s students, are the
least likely to go on to four year colleges after graduation, the least likely
to have access to rigorous A-G coursework, and the least likely to be placed in
gifted and talented (or GATE) classes. Conversely, they are more likely to be “randomly”
searched by school officials, suspended, expelled and permanently pushed out of
school.
Walking the line at Seventy Fourth Street, fourth
grade teacher Ms. Frierson stressed the need for a visible Black teacher
presence to combat Black erasure: “How do we bring our best and brightest to
the profession when teachers are constantly being marginalized, constantly
being told ‘oh you’re just a teacher’ and constantly being forced to spend our
own money just to ensure our students’ needs are met? For Black students to
come to school and not see folks who look like them is problematic. Why would they want to be a teacher if they
don’t see people who look like them?”
 |
| Dr. Tammara Lewis @ 74th Street |
Echoing
Ms. Frierson, first year King Drew Magnet History teacher Brooke Moore-White
said, “This
strike is such a tiered issue for me. As a young black educator, I see few
black peers in my credentialing classes. I see how hard it is for me to stay in
the profession due to the low pay. I see how many students could benefit
greatly from smaller classes. And I see a district that won't invest
the resources it has, I think this strike is step one towards the changes that need to occur to save the district and possibly public education. Let's increase pay to make the job more attractive to qualified, culturally responsive individuals. Let's limit charter growth that has siphoned students and resources that desperately need to be reinvested in the district.”
 |
| Ms. Frierson @ 74th Street ES |
the resources it has, I think this strike is step one towards the changes that need to occur to save the district and possibly public education. Let's increase pay to make the job more attractive to qualified, culturally responsive individuals. Let's limit charter growth that has siphoned students and resources that desperately need to be reinvested in the district.”
On her fourth strike day, Dr. Lewis, a former charter
school principal, assailed Beutner's kleptocracy class agenda: “Our superintendent comes to work in a limo while
students are catching buses to school. He has a strong friendship with
billionaire Education Secretary Betsey DeVos. The district is trying to privatize
education just like they did prisons. Board members have funneled money out of
the district into charters and now their agenda is being exposed. Would this
ever happen in Beverly Hills or Calabasas?”
As the teachers go back into the streets for a fifth strike day a Change.org petition
demanding that Beutner resign has already collected over 15,000 signatures.
Twitter @sikivuhutch
*Permission to use photos for reprint granted by author
