HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Unions and their allies are trying to
flex their muscle in state legislatures, pushing for labor history to be
included in social studies curriculum and hoping a new generation of high
school students will one day be well-educated union members.
But the results are instead shaping up as a reminder of the
tough political landscape faced by organized labor. In six states, opponents
have pushed back against demands that teachers offer lessons about the first
craft unions in the 19th century, the large-scale organizing drives that
powered the growth of industrial unions in the 1930s, the rise of organized
labor as a political machine and other highlights of America's union movement.
California and Delaware are the only states with laws that
encourage schools to teach labor history.
Kevin Dayton, a policy consultant to non-union construction
companies in California, said the legislation was pushed by unions to boost
their ranks.
"They believe that one of the reasons young people are
not organizing in unions is because they're not taught in schools the benefits
of being in a collective workforce," he said.
Ed Leavy, secretary-treasurer of teachers union AFT
Connecticut, said the opposite is the case: "It's not that labor unions
are demanding this so we can increase the ranks. It's people preventing this so
we don't."
The legislation proposed in Connecticut was benign, Leavy
said. It would have helped teachers with resources such as textbooks and
instruction guides.
Steve Kass, a member of the executive board of the Greater
New Haven Labor History Association and a backer of the legislation, said
Connecticut's legislation could have bolstered the union cause.
"We're losing a generation of workers who don't have an
understanding about the union movement," he said.
The measure failed this year for a third consecutive time
even after supporters agreed to a compromise to include lessons in the history
of capitalism. Opponents had many arguments against the measure.
Joshua Katz, a math teacher at the Oxford Academy in
Westbrook, told lawmakers that decisions about curriculum belong to teachers
and students, not the legislature.
"In general, I'm opposed to all of this top-down
legislation," he said.
The state's largest business group, the Connecticut Business
and Industry Association, said the legislation would have diverted resources
from teaching core curriculum and closing the state's achievement gap.
And although backers say the legislation would not have
required schools to teach labor history, Robert Labanara, state relations
manager at the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said the state Board
of Education would have been ordered to help and to encourage school boards to
include the history of labor and capitalism in curriculum. That's less benign
than it appears, he said.
"It's not uncommon in Connecticut to see this
inch-by-inch law," he said. "It's one thing one year and becomes more
of a financial and administrative burden down the road."
Various versions of labor history legislation have failed
over the years in Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Tennessee,
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Legislation also
failed calling for labor history and collective bargaining to be taught in
Vermont.
The Connecticut Legislature has already enacted measures
requiring the state Board of Education to help and encourage local schools to
provide curriculum materials for lessons about the Irish famine,
African-American history and Holocaust studies.
Steve Armstrong, president of the National Council for the
Social Studies and a West Hartford teacher, says squeezing another course into
an already crowded school year could be difficult.
"It would be great if we can teach six weeks on the
Irish potato famine, but it ain't going to happen," he said.
To Leavy, labor history could introduce students to early
labor leaders such as Eugene V. Debs in addition to industrialists who are
familiar to most Americans.
"You hear Rockefeller, you hear Vanderbilt," he
said. "You don't hear Debs. The world is bigger than this."
Source: Philly.com
No comments:
Post a Comment