An Editorial By Haydar Khan-- Essential Sacrifice

Teacher unions are misreading the moment. The time to strike is under a Biden regime.

America society has suffered immensely since the outbreak of Covid–19. Fragilities and inadequacies have been revealed and magnified in multiple facets of U.S. society. We have supply-chain deficiencies. We have professional incompetence. We have bipartisan political incompetence. There are tens of millions of unemployed who are about to lose temporary support that has been meager from the start. Our for-profit healthcare systems are under stress. The university and college systems are teetering, having been brought to this point by a bloated administrative class, high costs, and a weakened faculty whose members struggle to hold on to their positions. Many other parts of society are also strained by the pandemic. However, there is one facet of American society that I would like to draw special attention to: the public K-12 educational system.

As someone who has taught at multiple levels of the educational system in the United States, I can personally attest to the stress and anxiety that pervaded the public K-12 system prior to the pandemic. The lack of teacher autonomy, Fordist curriculum standards, seemingly endless clerical work, inadequate supplies, slow erosion of benefits and pay, and baseless scapegoating of teachers have transformed teaching into an increasingly unpleasant experience. Covid-19 may lead to the collapse of this much-weakened educational system or may, as impossible as it may seem at this bleak moment in American history, lead to a rebirth.

Volumes have been written about the never-ending assault by the oligarchy and corporations upon the kindergarten through high school system. From the Koch family to Bill Gates, a menagerie of enemies have been chipping away at this particular public good. We even have an education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who is a proud member of this infernal club. An endless wave of “accountability” measures, coupled with the Democratic Party’s betrayals of teachers by embracing neoliberal educational “reforms” have pushed K–12 to the wall; Covid–19 is magnifying the misery. Teachers were forced into emergency distance- learning mode during the initial outbreak in the U.S. The situation was far from optimal for teachers, students, and parents and was meant to be a temporary stopgap measure. Now teachers and students face the resumption of in-class coursework for the ensuing year, and many are terrified. Indeed, many teachers are so terrified by the threat of the virus that they may respond to Trump with tactics such as sickouts or strikes. This could be a fatal mistake for the teacher unions.

According a recent Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll (July 23rd), 60% of parents surveyed indicated they would prefer to wait to reopen schools due to infection risks. Some teachers and progressives interpret results such as this as a signal that now is the time to strike back against President Trump’s pressure to reopen schools. However, in the same poll, parents expressed concerns about the consequences of not returning to in-school instruction: “However, if schools don’t reopen, about two thirds say they worry about their children falling behind socially and emotionally (67%) and academically (65%). About half say they worry about losing income because they can’t go to work (51%) and not being able to pay enough attention to their kids while working at home (47%).” These seemingly contradictory results indicate that a strike wave may not have the support of the public.

Speaking of polls, Trump’s polling numbers are terrible due to his pathetic response to the pandemic, and he is desperate to drive his numbers up. Some commentators have theorized various “October Surprise” strategies that could boost Trump. One theory is that Trump could go to war with Iran, a reckless move that could send Trump into political oblivion. Another theory is Trump could hastily release a Covid–19 vaccine before Election Day, delivering a knockout punch to Biden. However, polling conducted on this issue indicates that this might not be the “game changer” Trump may be hoping for. In what may be yet another attempt at setting up for a campaign resuscitation, Trump is spinning himself as a “law and order” president set against violent protesters, as evidenced by the recent appearance of federal law enforcement officers in Portland, Oregon, and other epicenters of protest. It remains to be seen if Trump can get a poll bounce from such a strategy, but it certainly bears watching.

It is in this political context that Trump may view a war on teachers as another potentially beneficial election-year ploy. As indicated by the Kaiser poll, it isn’t clear that teachers would have the backing of parents in the event of a nationwide strike campaign against a premature return to in-class instruction. Indeed, Trump may be hoping for a chance to re-enact a “Reagan versus the air traffic controllers” scenario, using the threat of withholding Covid relief funds and parental resentment instead of Taft-Hartley, finishing what Reagan began in 1981 by delivering a death blow to, in this case, the teachers’ unions. Silicon Valley and the school-choice movement are waiting in the wings, and this could be their moment of victory.

What are teachers to do? We’re now caught in a double bind between Trumpian threats and parents who are at the mercy of a neoliberal job market.

The answer comes in two parts. First, teachers must keep the strike powder dry and march back into the classroom. It would be wonderful if the U.S. educational system would emulate measures taken by countries such as Germany or Denmark but this will not happen while Trump is the president. We must refuse the Trumpian baiting and show solidarity with all of the other essential workers who are being forced back into the Covid–19 storm. This is a physically hazardous course of action, but public sympathy is critical for teachers to have a win. If Covid erupts among the teachers and students, as it did in Israel upon a return to physical instruction, Trump will be forced to take ownership for this failure and the educational system will revert to virtual learning anyway. The second part? Trump is a drowning fool, reaching desperately for anything to save his political career. By depriving him of a potential rescue, teachers will likely have Joe Biden in the White House come January. After Biden is firmly ensconced and presumably implements effective pandemic control measures, it is at this time that teachers should unleash the strike weapon and force the Democratic Party to come to terms with their neglect of organized labor and the working class.

For too long, the mainstream of the Democratic Party has taken organized labor for granted. An unchallenged Biden would likely follow the path of neoliberal Barack Obama, who promised much and delivered little to organized labor. Therefore, teachers must force Biden’s hand. It will not be easy for a political party that represents itself as a champion of American public education to resist actual labor militancy.

Would Biden dare mimic Reagan against a core part of his constituency? I think it highly unlikely and, even if he does, the fallout from such an action could be fatal for a party that is increasingly seen as a bunch of do-nothing corporate stooges. The demands must be ambitious, ranging from passing the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers organize a union through a simple majority sign-up procedure, to increased funding for education and other public goods. From a seemingly precarious position, teachers actually have a chance to strike a blow for essential workers and children across the nation and teach the Democratic Party a lesson.