英文讀書會

May 1, 2010

Op-Ed Columnist

Teachers Always Show Up

By GAIL COLLINS

Sometimes, in election season, I have the feeling that the entire audience at political events is made up of teachers.

O.K., maybe an exaggeration. Democratic political events. And you do see people from other unions, although, unlike the teachers, they tend to come in large buses and wear identical T-shirts. And there will be students, as long as the event in question takes place in a university gymnasium.

But the teachers — good citizens who are always worried about what the government will do to them next — win the political participation prize. During the presidential race, the line in Barack Obama’s speech about how standardized tests should not “come at the expense of music or art or physical education or science” often got more applause than getting out of Iraq.

All of this takes us to Florida, where Gov. Charlie Crist announced Thursday that he was going to leave the Republican Party and run for the United States Senate as an independent. This happened at a rally where most of the attendees appeared to be teachers.

It was, by the way, a terrible rally. It was smallish and disorganized, as befits a candidate whose Republican staff members were in the process of quitting. Crist’s speech was brief, yet there was plenty of room for lines like “I love my country. I love the fact that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave.” He made it clear that he was running as an outsider, which would make him one of the rare breed of governor-outsiders. This seems only fair since his opponents — a former speaker of the State House and a four-term congressman whose district was previously held by his mother — are running as outsiders, too.

As the whole world now knows, Crist expected he would become the Republican Senate nominee until Marco Rubio, a youthful conservative with Tea Party ties, ran rings around him in the primary race. So there he was in a park in St. Petersburg, a brand-new independent, talking about the home of the brave and introducing his family. Crist seems to have a lot of relatives, who should come in handy now that there’s no campaign staff.

And there were the teachers, waving signs and attempting to follow one of the governor’s sisters in a cheer, despite the extreme lameness of “Crist! Crist! Crist!” as a political war cry. They are exceedingly, intensely, grateful to the governor for vetoing a bill that would have tied their pay, employment and even certification to the performance of their students on standardized tests.

“Governor Crist has earned a whole lot of friends within the teaching profession,” said Andy Ford, the president of the Florida Education Association.

Can I digress, people, and say that while it’s important to make teachers accountable, telling them their jobs could hinge on their students’ grades on one test is a terrible idea? The women and men who go into teaching tend, as a group, to be both extremely dedicated and extremely risk-averse. The stability of their profession is a very important part of its draw. You do not want to make this an anything-can-happen occupation, unless you are prepared to compensate them like hedge fund traders.

It’s a terrible time for American teachers — almost every school district is facing monster budget cuts, and a number of politicians have tried to make them the villain in the story. (New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, recently accused them of using their students as “drug mules” to convey information on school budget votes.) If Crist defeats Rubio with the teachers’ support, it will certainly help them push back.

But nothing is simple in Florida. If the teachers decide to endorse Crist, it will hurt Democrat Kendrick Meek, a longtime ally who hopes to be the first African-American elected to statewide office in Florida.

Meek, who took over his district the year his mother, Representative Carrie Meek, retired, has enough problems already. For one thing, no one outside Miami seems to know who he is. For another, a billionaire named Jeff Greene has just announced he is prepared to “spend whatever it takes” to grab the Democratic nomination for himself. It does not seem terribly likely that Florida voters are yearning for a man who made his maxi-fortune betting that real estate prices would drop. But, still, no candidate likes being stuck with a rogue billionaire.

Every election season, Florida seems to find a new way to be the center of attention, and the education angle makes this race more important than its effect on the Senate vote count.

Meanwhile, all this anxiety cannot possibly be good for classroom performance. Keep an eye on Florida. And give the next teacher you see a smile, or an apple.

Q: Do you like your teacher who like to participate in political activity?