State receivership of Holyoke schools will end on July 1 with provisions that limit educators' rights
State receivership of Holyoke schools will end on July 1 with provisions that limit educators' rights
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy released the following statement in response to state Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler informing the Holyoke School Committee that state receivership of the city’s schools will end on July 1 but with provisions that limit educators’ rights:
Until members of the Holyoke Teachers Association have their full bargaining rights restored, Holyoke’s public schools remain in a form of state control and severed from the community.
Until members of the Holyoke Teachers Association have their full bargaining rights restored, Holyoke’s public schools remain in a form of state control and severed from the community.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education took control of Holyoke Public Schools more than a decade ago. The state had been intervening in Holyoke Public Schools for more than 20 years before that.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association opposes such drastic measures that limit local control of public schools and infringe upon the rights of educators to bargain over their working conditions, which are students’ learning conditions. Evidence over the last 15 years has shown that receiverships have failed — in Lawrence, in Southbridge, and in Holyoke.
Holyoke’s educators, families, community leaders and elected officials deserve the right to determine how to best meet the needs of the city’s students. The state has an obligation to ensure that Holyoke has the resources it needs to support educators and students. Holyoke Public Schools have had to contend with the crushing effects of poverty in the community; that is the problem the state needs to help address.
Stripping educators of their rights and silencing their professional voice — a key tool of the failed Achievement Gap Act of 2010 — worsens the problem and undermines the possibility of achieving the schools the city deserves. As DESE prepares to replace a state-appointed receiver with a superintendent and restore some authority to the School Committee, educators are being unjustly cut out of the decision-making process. In this scenario, the community loses a powerful advocate for students and their needs.
Holyoke students deserve the benefits of a stable workforce that creates the culture and climate of the school community.
Under this new form of receivership, the state will perpetuate undesirable working conditions in Holyoke Public Schools, making it more difficult for the city to attract and retain the best educators. Holyoke students deserve the benefits of a stable workforce that creates the culture and climate of the school community.
The role and responsibilities of locally elected School Committee members remain constrained when state bureaucrats determine the acceptable topics of bargaining in Holyoke. The city’s educators – the people with the most direct experience and perspective on the classroom environment – deserve the right to authentically negotiate for working conditions that support their goals for their students. Anything short of that prevents Holyoke residents from having authentic local control of their schools.