[lbo-talk] School Debate: Central Focus

Julio Huato juliohuato at gmail.com
Tue Feb 14 14:02:41 PST 2012


Michael Smith wrote:


> Of course Carrol is right that teachers are just like any
> other workers and anybody who considers himself a
> leftist needs to take their side as against management.
> No quarrel here. But there are a few more balls in the air
> on this topic.

Well said.

In Mexico, there's a long standing debate among leftists on whether the struggles of teachers in public schools should be supported without concern for the interest of students and other (less well represented) workers, who may wind up with the short end of the stick in the fight over resources.

Right now, there's an ongoing teachers' strike at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (a public university where I once taught), and a leftist organization (to which I once belonged) is pushing for a compromise between the teachers' union and the university's authorities, which are elected by universal vote where a student's vote count as equal to a teacher's or a non-faculty worker's vote.

Ideally, students, teachers, and other workers should join forces in demanding public funding, but the teachers' union have shown very little interest in involving the students and other workers in their negotiations, and then they throw their full weight in the dispute over the internal allocation of the funds. Hence this backlash against them.

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/opinionuniversitaria.chapingo

The latest post in their blog: http://opinionchapingo.blogspot.com/2012/02/derechos-y-obligaciones-el-necesario.html



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