IEA - Issues

Professional Development

Across America, education support professionals transport students to schools that are kept safe, clean and well-maintained; where school offices are operating efficiently and records are kept properly; where nutritious meals are served; where quality instructional assistance is provided; and where special programs — such as those for handicapped and disadvantaged students — are underway.

But despite their power in numbers and the fact that schools clearly couldn’t operate without them, support professionals are often thwarted from turning their jobs into careers or gaining promotion opportunities, because of a lack of professional development and advanced training.

NEA provides a foundation to help ESP members across the country organize around professional development. It gives real examples of how members have created and implemented ideas to advance their professions, improve their working conditions and contribute to student achievement. The “Getting Educated” section contains professional development information for each of the nine K-12 Education Support Professional job classes. Other sections contain information and action tools designed to be used in your local association professional development work.

ESEA and Paraprofessionals

The most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also called “The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,” is far more specific than past versions of the law. The law’s provisions about testing, accountability, and teacher and paraprofessional quality will have a great impact on NEA members. The NEA ESEA and Paraprofessionals area outlines how the new law will affect ESPs and includes downloadable resources.

Privatization

One of the greatest issues facing ESPs today is privatization. A wide variety of companies and corporations are attempting to take over virtually all of the work traditionally performed by school district employees, from teaching to providing student transportation to cooking meals to cleaning and maintaining school buildings and grounds, and more. The National Education Association is strongly opposed to privatization because of the threat it poses to the quality of education, the accountability of public schools to the communities they serve and to the well being of children in school.

The best time to fight privatization is long before it happens.

Going on the Offensive

Although circumstances will vary, contracting-out often proceeds from an idea to a proposal to reality in predictable stages. You can prevent privatization by taking these five positive steps, starting right now:

Build your union’s capacity to fight privatization.
Watch for warning signs.
Set conditions and standards that “raise the bar” for private companies that provide public services.
Make sure taxpayers are satisfied with the services they are receiving.
Educate decision-makers, the media and the community about the problems of privatization.

In spite of everything you do, public officials may still decide to privatize public services. When that happens, you need to fight back on every front.

Waging the Battle

Make a Plan. When privatization rears its head, act strategically. Develop a plan that’s comprehensive, effective and doable. And then put it into action.
Mobilize the Members. Using every tool at your disposal — membership meetings, council or local publications, telephone trees, e-mails, Web sites, house calls, leaflets and one-on-one discussions at work — make sure the members know:
- Privatization has been proposed;
- It is harmful for them and for the people they serve;
- The union is fighting back — and we need everyone’s involvement and support. Your power comes directly from membership support and willingness to act.
Learn the Arguments. Proposals to privatize public services touch off debates in which both sides offer the best battle-tested arguments.
Get the Facts. Understand the process. Privatization usually involves the issuance of a “request-for-proposal” (RFP), which is a description of the work to be done and guidelines for submitting a bid. Sometimes privatization might just be a proposal to contract with a particular company. The union can use this process as a forum to fight privatization.
Offer an Alternative. “You can’t beat something with nothing.” These wise words are especially accurate when it comes to fighting privatization. Your best strategy may be to examine the company’s proposal and then offer an alternative that keeps the service in public hands. In some cases employees and managers work together to submit a bid to compete with the contractor’s proposals.
Support Legislative and Legal Action. Even after privatization has been proposed, there’s still time to introduce legislation limiting or prohibiting it. And there may be legal options available to stop the proposals. If you have legal issues please contact your UniServ Director.

After the Battle

In the fight against privatization, there are no lasting victories. And it’s up to us to make sure that there are also no permanent defeats.

If You Win, Stay Vigilant
- Continue to improve the service that was threatened with privatization, so that there will be no reason for any public official to advocate turning it over to a private company.
- Continue to reach out to the news media, public officials, the community and unrepresented workers.
- And thank everyone who helped win the fight — from union members to community activists to elected officials — and try to keep the coalition together, addressing new issues as they emerge.
If Jobs Were Privatized, Protect The Workers
- Follow the work by exercising any successor rights under your collective bargaining agreement or under the National Labor Relations Act.
- Or organize the contractor’s work force, which may include many former union members.
- Bring the work back by monitoring the contractor’s work to document problems. Use that information to bring the service back in-house and make sure that no additional services will be privatized.
Share Your Experiences
- Every step of the way, as you fight privatization, please share your experiences with your local, regional and state offices so we can share your information and ideas with other members facing similar situations.