March 2005 Edition

It is already March!  Get ready: our busiest time of year is upon us!  Spring is the time of year when we usually get invited to participate in career fairs and youth days.  If you are looking for ideas or materials to reach out to young people to teach them about labor and the world of work, please contact us.  We are happy to assist you.

To submit information on your organization, or career development curriculum, please email Linn Nguyen at lnguyen@teamster.org or Sharlene Mentor at smentor@teamster.org

If you missed previous issues, please visit: http://www.ibtstw.org/listsubscribe.asp.

Thank you!

Education Department Staff
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
http://www.ibtstw.org

What's in This Edition

THIS MONTH:

Teamster Updates

~ Teamsters Host Students from the Washington Center
~ Teamsters Host Cardozo’s TransTech Academy Students
 

Conferences & Meetings Nationwide

~ Labor 2 Youth Fair

Resources to Build Your Curriculum

~ Breaking Down Barriers: K-12 And Beyond
~ Harvard’s Tuition Announcement

Articles of Interest

 ~ Costs of Education Slope Sharply Upward
 ~ Higher Education
 ~  Tests Don’t Measure Child’s Circumstances

Getting Connected: Web Site Links

 ~ Northland Poster
 ~ Canadian School-Finder

 

Teamster Updates

~~~~> College Students From Washington Center Visit Teamster Headquarters

Union Representatives Explain Organization’s History, Importance

In January 2005, the Teamsters Education Department conducted an afternoon seminar at the International’s Headquarters in Washington, D.C. for college students from the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars.  Students from six different colleges participated in discussions about unions and their role in the American workplace.

Director of Education Mary G. Hardiman led the meeting, and International Trustee John Steger was on hand to share his experiences as a Teamster and his insights into the country’s labor situation.

Hardiman provided an overview of the important role that labor unions have played in American history.  “Before unions, workers were at the mercy of their employers on every issue,” Hardiman said.  “Labor unions have helped secure rights and a voice for millions of workers.”

She also discussed the 100-plus years of the Teamsters.  “The Teamsters Union has grown from representing only drivers to representing a wide array of workers across the country,” Hardiman explained.  “These workers include airline mechanics, nurses, law enforcement personnel, truck drivers, pilots, emergency medical technicians and paramedics – everyone who keeps our communities safe, and everything you use on a daily basis.  Chances are if it wasn’t made by a Teamster, it was delivered by a Teamster.”

A Teamster since his college days, Steger spoke of the union’s influence in his life, including how the union saved his job when he was a UPS driver.  He also discussed the benefits that unions have provided to workers over the past century, including health insurance, vacation, pensions, and even weekends.

“When I say this about unions, it’s not about just one person,” said Steger.  “It’s about the collective spirit - what all of us can do for one another.  That’s the strength of a union.”

“This was a good experience for the students,” said faculty leader and Texas professor Rey Flores.  “The students enjoyed it, and I think they learned a lot from the presentations and the experience.”

“It was a nice dialogue.  I wish I’d had more time to talk about the union’s position on even more issues,” said Russell Jonas, a sophomore at Brookhaven College in Dallas, Texas. “I think it’s great what the Teamsters are doing,” Jonas said.  “It really shows how an organization can make a difference.”

~~~~> Teamsters Host Cardozo’s TransTech Academy Students

Each year, across the United States and Canada, Teamsters reach out to thousands of young people to engage them in learning about the union, the labor movement, and the world of work. On February 10, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) hosted 14 eleventh graders from Cardozo Senior High School’s TransTech Academy in observance of its annual Groundhog Job Shadow Day Program.

The event provided the students the unique opportunity to engage in a hands-on work experience within a union setting. Each student shadowed a professional, technical or administrative worker to get first hand experience of the world of work in various IBT departments, including Accounting, Benefits, Corporate and Strategic Initiatives, Government Affairs, Human Rights, Investments, Legal, Research, Safety and Health, and Organizing. The students learned about workers’ rights on the job, the labor movement, the advantages of being a Teamster, as well as the different career options available to them.

Teamsters Associate Director of Education Michael B. Filler welcomed the students and their teacher Mrs. Shirley McCall. He engaged the students, through questions and answers, in learning about unions and the benefits of being a union member.

Jim McCall, who is Special Counsel in the Teamsters Legal Department, also addressed the students. He spoke about his youth, the opportunities made available to him, the career path he chose and the sacrifices he had to make in order to finally achieve his career goal in the legal profession. He urged them to examine all the available options, choose a career path and work towards achieving their goals.

“I learned the value of a union, and that with a union your rights are protected. Without a union, you could get treated poorly by your employer,” said student Malachi Suggs.

Job Shadow Day is one of the events through which the Teamsters Union reaches out to young people to teach them about the world of work–good jobs, career options, workers’ rights on the job, the vulnerability of non-union workers, the advantages of being a union member, and what unions have done for workers over the years.

Conferences and Meetings Nationwide

~~~~>  Labor 2 Youth Fair 2005

(New Date) May 16, 2005 

Venue:
Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.

This event is open to young adults, ages 14-21, in grades 9-12 and/or in youth programs. It is sponsored by the Community Services Agency of the Washington Metro Council, AFL-CIO, and funded by the District of Columbia Employment Services.

Young people will have the opportunity to learn about available career opportunities from area union members and unionized companies. They will visit, review displays of union-made products, witness demonstration skills, and participate in hands-on activities.

For more information about this event, please contact Jackie Barnes at (202) 857-0480 or email jbarnes@dclabor.org.

Resources to Build Your Curriculum

~~~~>  Breaking Down Barriers: K-12 and Beyond

The national network of Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers is pleased to announce the availability of a new publication designed to promote accessible information technology in elementary and secondary schools.

The Breaking Down Barriers: K-12 and Beyond materials include a booklet and an interactive CD for educators, as well as A Parents’ Guide to Accessible Technology in Schools.

Schools, even at the elementary level, are using technology more and more to enhance learning for all students.  Information technologies in educational settings can include instructional software, electronic textbooks, various telecommunications systems and products, office machines, video equipment, computers, web-based applications and distance learning programs.

It can be a challenge to ensure accessibility to this increasingly sophisticated array of technologies, but meeting that challenge creates new opportunities and facilitates greater involvement for students, parents, employees, and members of the community with disabilities.

The booklet and CD can assist principals, superintendents, school board members, computer lab personnel, library staff, technology directors, curriculum planners, and teachers to identify barriers and improve the usability of information technology within their schools.  The package also includes a full-color, 17” x 23” poster illustrating “Barrier-Free Computing.”

The parent guide offers practical advice and strategies that can be used to advocate for the purchase, development, and use of accessible technologies in schools.

To obtain copies of the Breaking Down Barriers: K-12 and Beyond materials, or other information on accessible technologies, contact your state’s Assistive Technology program.

Please visit: www.http://atpdc.org to get information for the District of Columbia and links to other state sites.

~~~~> Harvard's Tuition Announcement

Harvard's Tuition Announcement Highlights the Failure of Prestigious Universities to Enroll Low-Income Students.  Harvard University announced that undergraduate students from low-income families (those earning less than $40,000) will pay no tuition. 

In making the announcement, Harvard's president Lawrence H. Summers said, "When only 10 percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half the income distribution, we are not doing enough.  We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution."

If you know of a family earning less than $40,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University may be willing to pay the tuition.  The prestigious university recently announced that undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free...no tuition and no student loans! 

To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $40,000 a year, visit Harvard's  financial aid web site at http://adm-is.fas.harvard.edu/FAO/index.htm, or call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495- 1581.

Articles of Interest

~~~~> Costs of Education Slope Sharply Upward

By Valerie Strauss
The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Numbers tell stories.

This month, President Bush proposed a $56 billion education budget for fiscal 2006, nearly 1 percent less than this year's spending.  If approved by Congress, it would represent the first reduction in federal support for education in a decade.

Bush sees in the numbers a strengthened commitment in key places, citing more money for the No Child Left Behind Act and his plan to eliminate the relatively small Perkins Loan Program and add that money -- more than $1 billion a year -- to Pell Grants.  Pell Grants are the cornerstone of federal financial aid to college students.  Bush wants to increase each grant (now at a maximum of $4,050) by up to $100 a year for the next five years.

Critics, however, see the numbers as a weakening of federal support, largely at the expense of low- and middle-income students.  They say that higher education costs are going up at least $500 a year -- far more than the proposed grant increase.

There has been less debate about the numbers, which show how fast college tuition has been rising. Nor has the debate focused on the distribution of state and institutional grant money which has, in recent years, benefited middle- and upper-income students more than the poor.

~~~~>  Higher Education

February 15, 2005
Washington Post

• Tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities averaged $487 more this academic year than last year: $5,132 vs. $4,645, a 10.5 percent increase, according to the nonprofit College Board.

At four-year private institutions, tuition and fees averaged $1,132 more than a year ago: $20,082 vs. $18,950, a 6 percent increase.

• While the highest-priced schools get the most media attention, less than one half of 1 percent of all full-time undergraduates attend campuses that charged $30,000 or more in 2003-04.

• Johns Hopkins University cost an undergraduate $21,820 in 1990-91 -- $15,000 of that in tuition. In 1995-96, the total cost was $28,250 -- $19,750 in tuition. This year, the total package is $41,306 -- $30,140 in tuition.  Next year, the entire package will be about $44,000, said Ellen Frishberg, director of Student Financial Services. "I have two teenagers," she said, "and I think, 'Oh my God, what's it going to be like when they get to college?' "

• Community colleges, with two-year programs, cost far less than four-year colleges. Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y., for instance, charges annual tuition of $2,300. It estimates that a student can save more than $50,000 by attending Hudson Valley and then transferring to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, instead of spending four years at Rensselaer.

• State support for public universities has been declining. For example, the University of Virginia, which received nearly a third of its budget from the state legislature in 1987, received about 8 percent of its $1.7 billion budget from state tax dollars this year. When the university was chartered in 1819, it received $15,000 from the state. Its founder, Thomas Jefferson, raised $40,000 more.

• Pace University in New York is one of a small but growing number of schools that guarantee fixed tuition. First-year students this year are paying $30,960 for tuition, room and board and fees, and they will pay that same amount for three more years.

~~~~>  Tests Don't Measure Child's Circumstances

February 19, 2005

Philadelphia Inquirer
Opinion Editorial
By Sarah Berman

As a third-grade teacher, I am inundated each day with educational mandates and academic measurement tools: the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exams, yearly progress reports, etc.  I believe, as most of us do, that holding schools accountable – both educators and students – is absolutely necessary.  Students must have the skills they need for both educational test and life, and teachers should provide them.

However, in Chester, where I teach, scoring at the “proficient” or “advanced” level on the PSSA is not a priority for most students.  It is not that they are not smart, or that they “just don’t care,” as some would believe.  I think it is because of their circumstances.

We have students who come into our classrooms in the morning with no soles on their shoes.  We have students who come in bloody because their parents just beat them.  We’ve heard of some children who steal food from the trash cans at lunch and save it for later, knowing they will not have anything to eat at home.  These students are thinking about survival – not about doing well on a test.

In education, we learn first and foremost about psychologist Abraham Maslow’s  “hierarchy of need.”  His theory usually is displayed to us in the form of a triangle, with the most basic human needs at the very foundation of the structure.  Those needs are safety, food and shelter.  If those basic human needs are not met, all other needs and desires cannot even begin to be addressed.

When we have students coming into our classrooms hungry, afraid, and not sure whom they will go home to that night, we cannot expect that they will be motivated and ready – or able, for that matter – to learn new information.

Put yourself in their place.  Imagine coming into work with holes in your shoes on a cold, snowy day, or that just before you came in, someone punched you in the face, or that you had nothing to eat.  Would you be able to do your job?

This is what I deal with on a daily basis and, unfortunately, I know that I am not the only teacher who sees this kind of tragedy.  It is not just in Chester, and it is not all of our students.  There are students all over the county, even those in “wealthy” school districts, who are unable to absorb their lessons through no fault of their own.

I believe that schools must be held accountable for educating students and preparing them to be functioning adults in society.  As an educator, though, I see that until children’s basic needs are met, they will be unprepared to learn all that we have to teach them.

In this rich country of ours, I hope that our government soon will find a way to ensure that all children have the basics for survival.  Then teachers can do their jobs and be judged on students’ academic progress.  That, after all, is what we are here to do.

Sarah Berman teaches in Chester, Pennsylvania.