Our Mission:
Educate.
We, the members of the Badass Teachers Association, reject profit-driven education reform.
We, the members of the Badass Teachers Association, reject profit-driven education reform.
“Union democracy - defined as rank and file power - is the essential ingredient for restoring the power of the labor movement.”
Democracy is Power - Mike Parker and Martha Gruelle
We are focusing on this during the month because a lot of our state and local unions are starting their election season. The biggest election that has caught our attention is the election for leadership of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
The Caucus of Working Educators has put together a slate this year to run against the Collective Bargaining Team Caucus. Even if you aren’t in Philadelphia, it’s definitely worth checking out the different teams that are running for leadership of a local that will continue to face challenges in 2020 as they fight against toxic schools that are harming their educators and their students.
Twitter: @CaucusofWE
Twitter: @CBTeamCaucus
If you are in Philadelphia...make sure you vote and have your voice heard on who you want representing you, your students, and your schools!
If you’re not in Philadelphia, do you know when your state and local elections occur? Do you know the process that is outlined by your constitution? Do you know where the candidates stand on different issues? As we look to rebuild the labor movement it is important that we are ALL engaged in these processes!
To kick of the month, we are so excited for the Black Lives Matter at School National Week of Action and want to thank the amazing national team that leads this movement, including our own Asst. ED Denisha Jones! Check out our post with all of the resource links.
Tying right in to the latest demand of the Black Lives Matter at School “Fund Counselors, not cops” let's make sure that we let our school counselors know just how important they are during National School Counselors week! (Starting Feb 3rd)
Many of our BATs are getting ready for next month’s conference being hosted by the Network for Public Education. Tickets are still open if you have not reserved your spot yet!
We are excited to hear Diane Ravitch speak about her new book “Slaying Goliath” and joining the many BAT presenters, including our Quality of Worklife Team
But before that, you can join us virtually, next Sunday to hear from the writers of “Parent-Teacher” as our ED, Melissa Tomlinson interviews Meredith Riley Stewart and Angela Garcia Combs about this exciting project. We will be livestreaming the interview in our Facebook group.
You can also listen to Melissa being interviewed herself about standardized testing on the Overthrowing Education Podcast
Thank you to all that have filled out our BAT Member survey! We have had a lot of comments about bullying, harassment, and intimidation in educational workspaces and we are excited to announce our involvement with the National Workplace Bullying Coalition! Keep an eye out next month for more information!
This is for every educator committed to the struggle for racial, social, and economic justice work. We refuse to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality, and refuse to accept curriculum, assessments, tests, and evaluations imposed by those who have contempt for real teaching and learning. BATs will promote activism and pro-union work that actively fights against attempts to dismantle public education and for positive, collaborative and supportive work environments.
Read the full BAT mission here.