A Brief Labor History of Philadelphia's Public Schools

Philadelphia has a long history of public education, one of the longest in the United States, if not the world. Although vague and lacking in detail, the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1790 actually had the foresight to include: "The Legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for the establishment of schools throughout the State, in such a manner that the poor may be taught gratis." As a result, an Act of the Pennsylvania General Assembly (1818) created the "First School District of Philadelphia" in an attempt to control the spiraling poverty and crime that accompanied the exponential growth of the city. It would be a mistake, however, to equate these early public schools with the public schools of today. The Pennsylvania schools of the early 19th century were meant as ways to educate the indigent youth of the city and were typically staffed by a single teacher who would then teach the older pupils to instruct younger pupils. As far as academic rigor was concerned, all of these schools provided, at the most, what we would today consider to be a basic education: reading, writing, and simple arithmetic.

The largest reform in the early School District of Philadelphia, and the other various Pennsylvania school districts that were beginning to pop up, was the Consolidation Act of 1836. This law opened public schools to ALL students, poor and rich alike, and helped to rid the stigma of "public" schools as being nothing more than "charity" schools for the destitute masses. To quote The public schools of Philadelphia : historical, biographical, statistical:

"The Act of 1836 may be regarded as the corner-stone of the public school system. Indeed, many of its important provisions are still in force. Regarding the formation of school districts, the election of school directors and their powers and duties, the organization of school boards, the levying and collection of taxes for school purposes, and the duties of the State Superintendent, the law is substantially the same now as under the Act of 1836."

The Consolidation Act of 1836 also allowed for something unheard of up until that point, namely the authority "...to establish one central high school for the full education for such pupils of the public schools of the First School District as may possess the requisite qualifications..." Central High School, the second-oldest continuously-operating public high school in the United States, was therefore chartered in 1836 for those students - poor and rich alike (although no girls) - who showed the propensity to advance beyond a basic grammar school education. Following construction of the building at Juniper and Market Street, the doors of Central High School opened to students for the first time in October of 1838 with 4 professors and 63 students... and it continues to serve as a jewel in the crown of the state's public education system to this very day.

By the end of World War II, every state had not only created a progressive publicly-funded education system, but instituted compulsory education laws as well. Working conditions for the teachers at these public schools, however, were atrocious. Classes were overcrowded, jobs were dispensed according to who (not what) a teacher knew, and salaries were arbitrarily raised or lowered each year according to the whim of the state legislature. If a district was running a deficit, they would often chop off a couple of weeks at the end of June, sending the kids into an early summer break and thereby saving funds by not having to pay the teachers their full salaries. In 1947, to give you an idea, some "reform-minded" legislators in Harrisburg (the state paid all teacher salaries at the time) attempted to raise the mandated minimum PA public school teacher salary from $1,400 ($14,600 in 2013 dollars) to $1,950 ($20,400 in 2013 dollars). Philadelphia and Pittsburgh minimums were to be set slightly higher at $2,175 ($22,800 in 2013 dollars) seeing as those two districts subsidized their salaries with local tax dollars as well. In fact, when President Truman visited Philadelphia's privately-endowed Girard College in 1948, he made front page news across the nation with his off-the-cuff remarks about the state of teaching in America's public schools: "You young men are lucky to have a school like this in the present day. You have individual attention from your teacher. At the present time our public schools are so overcrowded there are plenty of instances where the teachers cannot call the children by name. The financial situation of our school system is something disgraceful for the richest nation in the world."

Unable to attract the best and the brightest under such poor working conditions and compensation, the college graduation rate of Philadelphia teachers stood at a measly 42%... hardly the type of educator any world power wants teaching that vital next generation. The time was ripe for teachers to seek changes from within the system because

THEY HAD THE PUBLIC'S SUPPORT...

As America continued down the path of a post-war economic boom, numerous public sector employees sought to unionize. They viewed themselves as being left behind in that post-war prosperity - pointing out that they earned less than factory workers who had not even completed high school - and Philadelphia teachers were no exception. The public agreed. Union activism among the nation's teachers reached a crossroads in the late 1960s as strikes threatened to erupt all across the country. This New York Times syndicated analysis from 1968 clearly shows why teachers all across the United States finally banded together under one of the two national teacher labor organization, the National Education Association or the American Federation of Teachers:

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (under the AFT) also launched a successful membership drive during this time and became the exclusive bargaining unit for the city's public school teachers. In 1970, once again DUE TO THE PUBLIC'S SUPPORT, Pennsylvania Act 195 was implemented which, for the first time, allowed the state's public employees to strike. The PFT took advantage of this new law and, from 1970 to 1981, greatly increased its members' wages and working conditions by going on strike 6 times. For example, by 1980 the average Philadelphia teacher was earning $24,000 ($68,000 in 2013 dollars). The city had the highest paid public school employees in the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, attracting the best and the brightest applicants to its schools as the suburbs struggled to keep their salaries competitive. All of that changed with the strike of 1981 and is one of the reasons why the PFT is so reluctant to strike in the 21st century.

In September 1981, the membership of the PFT voted to go on strike because the mayor cancelled a contractual 10% salary raise and laid off 3500 employees, claiming the school board did not have the money as they faced a $223million deficit. (Eerily similar to our modern-day situation in 2013!) The teacher's union held out for 50 days until late October, but was eventually forced back to work by a Commonwealth court order that stated the Philadelphia school board DID NOT have the authority to lay off 3500 employees (they were rehired) but DID have the authority to simply not honor the promised 10% raise. Teachers returned to work for the rest of the school year under the old contract, minus the raise. The following year, the PFT did manage to negotiate a new contract with 6% raises for each of the next three years, but the damage had already been done. The surrounding counties slowly started to overtake Philadelphia in teacher pay to the point where, in 2013, Philadelphia teachers were, on average, earning 15-20% less than their counterparts in Bucks and Montgomery County.

The 1981 strike was disastrous in that not only did it paint teachers in a bad light, causing them to slowly LOSE THE PUBLIC'S SUPPORT, but it also ruined the School District's already soiled reputation by portraying an agency that was unable to keep its own house (staff and finances) in order. As The Inquirer summarized it:
The walkout that closed schools for 50 days in the fall of 1981 was not the sole reason large numbers of middle-class Philadelphians decided to leave the city schools - or the city itself - in the last two decades. But, for many people, it was the proverbial last straw.
"I heard that over and over again," said Happy Fernandez, the former city councilwoman and candidate for the Democratic mayoral nomination, who was executive director of the Parents Union for Public Schools at the time.
"Very few people I know stayed in [the city schools] after that," said Ted Hershberg, a University of Pennsylvania public policy and history professor who is also director of the Center for Greater Philadelphia, a nonprofit group that tackles regional issues.
The long-term impact of the 1981 strike on the city and its schools has been devastating, Fernandez and Hershberg said.

So why am I bringing all of this up? Philadelphia's teachers have come a LONG WAY, but there are limits to what a strike can accomplish. Most importantly, the teachers MUST HAVE THE PUBLIC'S SUPPORT. In 1990, Ted Kirsch's election as PFT President helped signal that the union would start working WITH the District, not against it, in order to gain that support. Kirsch (a fellow social studies teacher and student of history, currently the PA-AFT President) never forgot the follies of the 1981 strike and that is why he was so reluctant to call for another labor action 19 years later. This is how President Kirsch and his chief contract negotiator at the time, Jerry Jordan (YES - Jerry Jordan really DOES HAVE that much experience negotiating contracts!) responded to Philadelphia teachers who, like many now in 2013, DEMANDED a strike in 2000:
"Many of you have asked in letters and e-mail why . . . we are not already engaged in a work stoppage of some kind," PFT president Ted Kirsch and chief negotiator Jerry Jordan said in a letter to members dated Oct. 18. "In 1981, then-Mayor Bill Green reneged on a 10 percent raise to PFT members in the second year of a two-year contract. The PFT membership voted to go out on strike. We stayed out [50 days], but despite our commitment and unity, we never won back that 10 percent raise."
Instead, the PFT leadership called a "weekend" strike at the end of October that threatened to close the polls on an Election Day that was less than a week away (remember, 25% of the city's polls are located in public schools) if the District did not settle. Now THAT is strategy... not getting parents angry by walking in the cold for 50 days. Besides, striking before an election hurts the politicians - and they have the real power to settle a contract dispute behind the scenes. Striking for 50 days in winter simply hurts parents and makes teachers lose that all vital "Public Relations" campaign with them.

As our local history has shown, there is a time and a place for teacher strikes, but one MUST HAVE THE COMMUNITY'S SUPPORT...

That's exactly what the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is currently doing by demonstrating a willingness to compromise as it continues to bargain with a District and State that is hellbent on that very union's destruction.