BTU Presidential Candidate Mooney Narrowly Defeated, but Reasons for Optimism Abound - Entrepreneur Generations

The BTU Election is over, and out of roughly 6800 union members, Marietta English beat Kimberly Mooney 694-512.

This was the first serious challenge to Ms. English, who has been BTU President for 16 years, in several election cycles.

First off, the turnout: it's too bad that only 1/6th of our union decided to vote, but it's not totally surprising. When teachers voted to renew the contact, it was approved 540-480, a comparable number. Feelings of powerlessness plus difficulties of voting during a busy school day lead to low turnout.

That's disappointing, but it's not surprising. As aforementioned, the inconvenience is real. My day yesterday was intense: I taught from 7:50-9:30; was on a field trip from 9:30-2:30; changed and handed out Orioles tickets from 2:30-3:00; participated in a student activity from 3:00-4:00; and had to use the window between 4:30 and 5:30 to vote and let my dog out before I returned to school to help take 25 students down to the Orioles game. I got home at 11:30 pm after seeing the last three kids home.

I was able to vote because I made it a priority and I don't have kids of my own, but imagine if I had to pick up children from childcare or head to a doctor appointment -- it would have been impossible.

Teaching is like this. It runs in fits and starts. Some teachers were able to run over to a voting site during a planning period or after school. Others had to work through. I know there are teachers who just couldn't get to a voting site because they had teaching or family priorities and couldn't take the time away from them. That is the reality.

There have been movements to change the voting so that is online, but the BTU hasn't shown interest in pursuing this.

Secondly, I do think there is a sense of powerlessness amongst union members, and powerlessness means teachers don't vote. I don't think teachers feel like they have much of a voice in their profession, and not voting on their union is a symptom of that, as well as a cause. The first time I felt this was back in around 2008, when I voted for a slate led in part by Baltimore educational advocate Jay Gillen; I was excited about this campaign, but was surprised by how much that slate was defeated by; it made me feel a bit defeated as well and made me realize how entrenched the English slate is. Later, when Baltimore teachers rejected the new contract in 2011, the union brought in national union members from around the country to convince us over a series of months in meetings that didn't prove to be very honest. The re-vote narrowly passed (full disclosure: I voted for it at this point, and have benefitted from it, but don't think it's enacted fairly so voted against its renewal in 2014). Contract language about groups and individuals not being able to use system e-mail while the BTU is allowed to, added to the contract in 2013, as well as fishy union voting practices during this election, make the feeling of entrenchment even more uncomfortable.

In discussions with my colleagues and peers, I don't know of anyone ho voted for Marietta English. She clearly has enough support for a win, but the electorate is very much divided.

I give Ms. Mooney real credit: she launched her campaign only three months ago, but was able to gain enough support to really make this a very close race.

There are a number of things I'm unhappy about with the current union leadership: the lack of transparency about what happens to the BTU's approximate $8 million budget; the lack of communication in general and especially about the issues that matter most to me and my students -- class size, class load, incessant testing that interrupts instruction.

But I'm optimistic after the closeness of this election that more union members are engaged (including myself) and ready to move forward to put out a longer, more developed campaign for change in 2019. I also know about trips by some union members (not leadership) to Chicago to learn about how the agency the teachers are using in that district to bring about change can be brought to Baltimore. All of this makes me excited and optimistic.

I'm quoted in this article about the results.

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/1rYBzW9 BTU Presidential Candidate Mooney Narrowly Defeated, but Reasons for Optimism Abound - Entrepreneur Generations

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