BOSTON TEACHERS UNION, LOCAL 66, AFT Non-Profit Org. 180 Mount Vernon Street U.S. Postage from the Boston, Massachusetts 02125 PAID Boston, MA Boston Permit No. 52088 Teachers Union Officers and Staff! EVERYONE ¡TODOS IS SON WELCOME BIENVENIDOS BBOSTON TEACHERSU HERE! AQUÍ! TUNION BT U BT U The Award-Winning Newspaper of the Boston Teachers Union, AFT Local 66, AFL-CIO Volume 53, Number 4 • January, 2021 President’s Report Jessica J. Tang WELCOME 2021 A New Year With New Hopes! s we all say goodbye to 2020 — a had funding to adequately upgrade health? That is why the political action Ayear for the history books — we antiquated and obsolete facilities. It also work we get involved in is absolutely gladly welcome in 2021! It is a new year decided for how long educators could necessary. That is why we ask for COPE that will undoubtedly also have its own continue to count on the Family First contributions, we endorse candidates, challenges, but with a new administra- Coronavirus Act to take leaves for child and then organize and mobilize to get tion in DC with new opportunities to care or health reasons. That bill expired them elected. Jessica J. Tang begin the healing process and undo the December 31, 2020. The relief bills were Public education is political. There is BTU President harms of 2020 and the prior four years. the difference between a family getting simply no way to avoid the conversation. There is much hope that the worst of the evicted or being able to pay rent; to have We get involved to put our words to fighting for. And always, when we fight pandemic may be over and that there is a to choose work, and risk their health and action and truly use our collective union together, we are stronger and better and better way forward. life, or pay for food and housing. power to advocate for what educators and we will continue to advocate and stand in The hope comes in the form of The damage of the last four years is retirees need to be healthy and secure. solidarity not just with our sister locals in vaccines for health care workers and, far from over. Unfriendly immigration And because it’s not just about us, we get Massachusetts, but beyond as well. soon, educators and school-based staff as policies as well as the pandemic has led involved for our students, families and all This year, there will be challenges. The well. But also in the hope that comes with to a decrease in enrollment of Boston the community to be healthy, secure and hard work still lies ahead. And there will, a new federal administration, Secretary Public Schools. This will affect budgets cared for as well. The belief that working as always, be forces that try to divide us of Education, and Secretary of Labor. and could lead to potential layoffs or people deserve security, stability, equity — within our union, within our schools, The policies and laws that might be reductions in force. The lack of funding and the ability to meet their basic needs within our communities — and we must enacted, and the relief that hopefully is to get rapid testing for educators and is what the labor movement was founded be prepared to resist those divisions and on the horizon, depends much on the students as well as adequate ventilation on and that is what we fight for and will not turn on each other, but turn to each outcomes of the Georgia Senate races. in schools delayed the district’s ability continue to fight for. That includes the other to remember our common goals, That is why our members, and union to bring students back in person. There political fight because the decisions our values and humanity as we tackle the members across the nation have been is a dire need for compensatory services political leaders make determines our work ahead and work through the hard engaged in supporting the Democratic for our special needs students and a lack reality every day. conversations and dialogue. Senate candidates in Georgia who of guidance and regulations to decrease As we welcome in 2021, we have the While there will always be challenges support public education, support community spread of the virus while also opportunity, with new leaders and a and fights, in this new year there is also labor and support the values we believe helping suffering businesses are actually new administration to hopefully get a hope that we can continue to push the in. 2020 has made abundantly clear all connected. new deal--not just across the nation, but “arc of justice” as Martin Luther King that the elected political leaders of our While it is often uncomfortable locally, too. We must fight nationally so Jr. described, in the right direction. If government make not just decisions for many of our BTU educators to get that locally, we have what we need and we truly believe in the values of social, that impact schools and education, but involved in politics, (we didn’t pursue deserve for our students, educators and racial and economic justice that the health, housing and a myriad of other careers in education in order to get families. Our fight in BPS for Safety, labor movement and public education issues. involved in politics) the politics absolutely Equity and Transparency as schools movement has embraced, not only can The impact of political policy can be determine what we do every day. Do continue to reopen and we address the we continue to bend that arc, we must. felt from the federal level down to each we have the resources to do our jobs disparities that have always existed, is And we will do so together. household. The COVID-19 relief bills every day? Will the stress from teaching the same fight that our brothers, sister Happy New Year and welcome 2021! decided whether or not school districts in underfunded schools affect our and sibling locals all across the nation are We are ready for you. “The Purpose of Education” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Morehouse College Student self is very form, and the pulpit in many instances Paper, The Maroon Tiger, in 1947 difficult. We do not give us objective and unbiased s I engage in the so-called “bull ses- are prone to truths. To save man from the morass of Asions” around and about the school, let our mental propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the I too often find that most college men life become chief aims of education. Education must have a misconception of the purpose of invaded by enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to education. Most of the “brethren” think legions of half discern the true from the false, the real that education should equip them with truths, preju- from the unreal, and the facts from the the proper instruments of exploitation dices, and fiction. so that they can forever trample over the propaganda. The function of education, therefore, masses. Still others think that education At this point, is to teach one to think intensively and should furnish them with noble ends I often won- to think critically. But education which rather than means to an end. der whether stops with efficiency may prove the great- It seems to me that education has a or not educa- est menace to society. The most danger- two-fold function to perform in the life tion is fulfill- ous criminal may be the man gifted with ing its pur- reason, but with no morals. of man and in society: the one is utility Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) and the other is culture. Education must pose. A great The late Eugene Talmadge, in my enable a man to become more efficient, Education must also train one for majority of the so-called educated people opinion, possessed one of the better to achieve with increasing facility the quick, resolute and effective thinking. do not think logically and scientifically. minds of Georgia, or even America. ligitimate goals of his life. To think incisively and to think for one’s Even the press, the classroom, the plat- (continued on page 2) Commentary Garret Virchick Pandemic Inequality he past year has exposed the systemic diseases are much higher in low income it on workers. Tinjustices that are inherent in communities. These comorbidities have After the first initial shutdown of the America. African-American, Latinos, contributed to the increased rates of country the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Native Americans are four times cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from and Economic Securities (CARES) Act as likely as whites to be hospitalized COVID we are seeing in black and was passed in late March staving off a with COVID and almost three times as brown communities. collapse of the system. Since that time it likely to die. These jarring statistics can During the Gilded Age of American has been ignore, ignore, and ignore from be directly linked to the economic and capitalism in the late 1880’s we saw Mitch McConnell and the Republicans. Garret Virchick social injustices of our system. comparable inequality. This led to It was like pulling teeth to get a second Boston Union Teacher Co-Editor COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations, and Deaths, by Race/Ethnicity COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations, and Deaths, by Race/Ethnicity a veto. Hoping to feed his ego one last American Indian Rate ratios Asian, Black or Hispanic or time he demanded larger checks, with of compared to White, or Alaska Native, American IndianNon-Hispanic African American, Rate ratios Asian, Black or Latino persons Hispanic or Non-Hispanic persons Non-Hispanic persons or Alaska Native, persons Non-Hispanic persons compared to White, Non-Hispanic African American, Latino persons course his narcissistic signature to go on Non-Hispanic persons Non-Hispanic persons persons Non-Hispanic persons each of them.