Like father, like son: SRC move on teachers contract looks familiar

WHAT happened Monday with the School Reform Commission's decision to break its teachers contract feels like deja vu, the feeling is not entirely misplaced.

It's easy to find several parallels between the actions of SRC Chairman Bill Green and those of his father, former Mayor Bill Green III, who oversaw the biggest teacher strike in Philadelphia history in 1981.

First, some background: In September 1981, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers went on strike for 50 days over a promised 10 percent pay raise that never materialized. Students lost seven weeks of school.

Here are some similarities between the actions of the son and those of the father 33 years earlier:  Both determined that the school district could not afford the allowances in the teachers contract. In 1981 it was a 10 percent raise.

This year, it is with paying toward health-care benefits.  Both Greens blamed the contract breaches on massive school-district deficits that were trickling down to affect students - a gap of $223 million in 1981 compared with $81 million in 2014.

The abrogation of the teachers contracts led to a court battle then - and likely now, with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers calling the contract annulment illegal and promising a fight.

"When you look at the issue of resources, you can probably draw parallels between the lack of resources in 1981 and the lack of resources in schools today," said PFT President Jerry Jordan.

"However, I will point out that in 1981, we did have nurses, counselors, art and music teachers, which we don't have today in some public schools."

Asked if he saw Monday's move as reflective of the steps taken by his father when he was mayor, Green said that "it is a complete coincidence."

"Things are extremely different today than they were then," he added. "On the other hand, the school district had lots of problems decades before my father came here, and he had the courage to make change. The SRC has had 13 years to take this action. There's a group of people that do have the courage to do the right thing, so in that sense it's not a coincidence."

Deborah Willig, a PFT attorney, said that the work stoppage in 1981 forced the school district to pay up to $27 million in unemployment.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," she said. "Green has had total disregard and antipathy towards the people who make the system work every day, since he started with the SRC. It's always 'My way or the highway' - whether it was Bill Green the mayor or Bill Green of the SRC."

Source: Philly.com