Austin’s Teacher Union, Race, and Resistance to Corporate School Reform: Community-Led Innovations at Travis Heights

• In Event: Teachers Unions, Race, and Education Research: Innovations in Grassroots Organizing for Equity

Abstract

The third set of co-presenters focuses on the Southwest and highlights the efforts of Latino/a organizers, and Austin's teacher union, to mobilize around a community-driven charter school. Education Austin, a merged local of the AFT and NEA, applied for the AFT's Innovation Fund Grant in 2010. The grant provides funding to AFT locals nationwide to create innovative approaches to addressing educational challenges and racial inequities confronting schools. Following an extended and contentious battle with IDEA, a Teach for America-affiliated corporate charter school chain, Education Austin was successful in creating a community-led in-district charter school at Travis Height Elementary School.

Presenters contrast Education Austin’s efforts to serve as a conduit to bring teachers and parents together to create an in-district charter school that meets the needs of the community with the hegemonic, corporate approach employed by IDEA charter chain. They carefully examine the process of creating a democratically-controlled community-based charter by utilizing the expertise of the school's teachers and administrators. They also document the critical thinking and collaborative skills that are focus of the charter school's curriculum. Descriptive demographic and achievement data enable comparison of Travis Heights Elementary to similarly situated traditional and charter schools in Austin.

In the end, presenters reveal how the concept of charter schools first promoted by AFT President Al Shanker has been perverted by IDEA, KIPP, and others to the point that they often do little more than prepare kids for passage of high-stakes tests (Williams, 2013). To ensure success, they argue, charter schools often control for risk by limiting or eliminating the highest needs student such as Special Education or English Language Learners (Williams, 2013). By controlling the students that enter and dismissing those that fail to follow the prescribed program, many present-day charter schools purport success, while public schools continue to educate students that charters are unwilling to teach (Author E et al., 2011). They question: What should be the role of teachers unions in organizing against such injustices? According to CREDO (2009), 85% of charters perform no better than the traditional public schools in the neighborhood.

Authors

• Julian Vasquez Heilig, California State University - Sacramento

• Ken Zarafis