"Educational reform' or victimization?

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Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. says: "This child is named hunger," and then points to the other and says: "This child is named rage." The ghost pauses for emphasis and balefully intones: "And it is that child (pointing to rage) you should fear."

In "A Christmas Carol" everything ends well. Scrooge goes through a transformation, becoming the best of bosses and a "father" to Tiny Tim, his employee Bob Crachit's crippled son.

The world's Tiny Tims The story was written 146 years ago. Unfortunately, the fate of the world's children has not really improved. Nor has capitalism reformed itself. Instead, the imperialist powers have amassed the world's wealth at the expense of millions of the world's poor. Panama is just the latest example of how, unlike Scrooge, the capitalists will stop at nothing to protect their monopoly on power.

And for the world's Tiny Tims, This month's guest commentator for "Behind the Lines" is Sean Padilla, an educator in New Mexico. Michael Schreiber's regular column will appear again next month.

Behind the ruling-class rhetoric touting the benefits of educational reform, Republican and Democratic state legislators have begun the process of stripping teachers of due-process rights when they dare exercise their First Amendment right to free speech.

This was demonstrated by the recent dismissal of Patricia (Trish) Wahe, a Fort Sumner, N.M., spethe special education (apparently too outspoken for the school board's taste). She met with parents of special-education students and privately advised them of their rights.

Ima Lee Wells, president of the National Education Associaton of New Mexico, concluded that the school board terminated Ms. Wahe in order to hire "an inexperienced, more compliant teacher" who could "be paid at a lower salary."

Prior to the educational-reform law of 1986, teachers could be fired with "good and just cause," but this required documentation by the administration. The burden of proof now has been shifted to the teacher. Under the facade of the misnamed "educational-reform" law known as Senate Bill 106, he or she must prove that the school board acted for arbitrary, capricious, or legally impermissible reasons.

Alice in Wonderland

~ Mark™ Bennett, a Santa Fe, N.M., lawyer, was the "independent" arbitrator in Trish Wahe's case. Though he upheld Wahe's firing, he felt compelled to denounce both the law and the district's personnel policies. The termination of a teacher for "lack of potential," Bennett said, "smacks of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland ... beheading people on a whim."

Fortunately for Trish Wahe, the case will not end with the arbitrator's decision. Her union (NEANM) filed suit Oct. 20, 1989, against the state of New Mexico, the state Board of Education and Superintendent, and the Fort Sumner School Board and Superintendent.

The suit asks the court to: 1) declare that Wahe and other NEANM members affected by the "Education Reform Act of 1986" have been deprived of rights guaranteed by the contract and dueprocess clauses of the New Mexico and U.S. Constitutions, 2) permanently enjoin the defendants and other entities from enforcing the law, and 3) offer Wahe her previous position.

In addition to the lawsuit, NEANM is demanding that the 1990 session of the New Mexico legislature pass a bill to give all school employees the right to an arbitration hearing where "good and just" cause must be established if a school employee's job is to be terminated.

Beyond sloganeering Laws which permit school administrators to fire experienced and committed teachers when they disagree with school board policies has nothing to do with improving the quality of education. Genuine education reform will require spending some of the hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked for the "defense" budget and interest payments to the rich.

In the first place, teachers' salaries must be raised. Average AcTioN Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER JOSEPH RYAN Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, Hayden Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: DAVID KIRSCHNER St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110.

These are expressed in editorials. salaries in New Mexico have plummeted to 40th in the nation and are 18 percent below the admittedly inadequate national average.

"At risk" students should be identified and money appropriated for programs to curb the unacceptably high "drop-out" rate. Class sizes must be reduced, but not at the expense of overloading other classes.

All education workers must have the right to negotiate a collective-bargaining agreement which should include (but not be limited to) working conditions, salaries, and benefits. School councils, democratically elected by education workers and parents— rather than appointed administrators—must be authorized to establish school policy and priorities.

Then-and only then-will the question of "education reform" move beyond the election-year sloganeering by Democratic and Republican Party politicians.

Clo: iing date Dec. 30, 1989