Educators are striking for safe, stable schools

All of our students deserve a strong, safe and stable public school that inspires their natural curiosity and prepares them for tomorrow. But despite a budget surplus and after a devastating, disruptive pandemic, Minneapolis Public Schools leaders are refusing to recognize that our students' needs are greater than ever before.

Students need more educators and increased diversity among school staff, additional counselors and nurses, and more academic programs.

Instead, MPS decisionmakers continue to demand that educators do more with less, forcing educators to go on strike for the needs of their students.

Education support professionals (ESPs) sit beside our children every day — helping them to sound out words and solve complicated problems and encouraging them to keep trying. Those professionals go home every night wondering how they'll be able to pay the rent and buy groceries on their meager wages. They spend every day helping children learn and grow but often work two and three jobs just to get by.

After three pandemic school years of MacGyvering lesson plans, our best educators still feel disrespected by the school district — earning wages that aren't keeping up with inflation and fall ever further behind their professional peers. And our students, who have already had their most critical learning years defined by uncertainty and loss, are crammed into classes of 40 children or more, making it nearly impossible for educators to give students the one-on-one attention they need.

These are some of the realities confronting educators and school staff in public schools across Minneapolis. Despite these challenges, Minneapolis educators create safe, welcoming environments for their students to learn and thrive. Yet when educators sit down at the bargaining table to explain to the school district that they need more resources and support, they're met with nothing but resistance.

Compare this with their St. Paul colleagues. It's a tale of two cities in the Twin Cities. In St. Paul, while there were protracted negotiations, the district finally agreed to a tentative agreement on many of the things that Minneapolis educators say they need for their students.

Instead of working with families, educators and students to invest in the city's schools, Minneapolis Public Schools leaders are burying their heads in the sand and claiming they don't have the funds to help our students shine.

The numbers tell a different story. The district is flush with cash. The district's general fund surplus is about $113 million, and the state has a $9.25 billion projected budget surplus. Just one year ago this week, Minnesota received $1.3 billion for elementary, secondary and early childhood education under the American Rescue Plan — a landmark federal investment that provided a lifeline to states to, among other things, help schools recover from the worst pandemic in a century. Ninety percent of those funds were allocated directly to schools, including $250 million to MPS.

Those federal relief dollars were earmarked to help solve the inequities plaguing Minneapolis schools — such as hiring more educators to reverse staff shortages, relieving overcrowded classrooms and hiring more counselors and nurses to help kids with social, emotional and mental health issues.

But after months of bargaining, and with district officials ignoring the needs of students and teachers, educators had to take the avenue of last resort and strike in the hopes of finally waking up school leaders.

This was a totally avoidable strike; it is something that no one wants. But kids have needs that aren't being met.

When school districts fail to invest in children and their public schools, they are washing their hands of their responsibilities and sending the message that students aren't a priority. It's a wholesale failure of our basic responsibility to provide every child with a high-quality public education, no matter where they come from or what challenges they face. And now, educators and parents are demanding better.

Public schools play an incredibly important role in our country. The support and resources we invest in our children speak volumes about the kind of nation we want to be. Minneapolis school administrators need to listen to parents, educators, students and communities who want their schools to be well-funded, strong and stable.

Educators come to work every school day with the goal of putting our students on a trajectory for success in life. It's time for MPS leaders to show the same commitment.

Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers. Becky Pringle is president of the National Education Association.