Teachers aim to school lawmakers
Election winners carry concerns from classroom
Editor’s note: USA TODAY is spending the 2018-19 school year exploring the work, the demands and the future of teaching in the USA.
On her first day of congressional orientation in Washington, Rep.-elect Jahana Hayes, a longtime Connecticut teacher, was struck by the differences between her new job and her old job.
On the first day of school, Hayes said, teachers always welcomed “everybody back at the same time.” In Washington, new members were split according to
party. “I kept thinking, ‘What a missed opportunity,’ ” said Hayes, a Democrat.
That scene, Hayes said, demonstrates the division in the country. And it’s exactly why she ran for Congress.
Hayes, who won her race for Connecticut’s 5th District with nearly 56 percent of the vote, was part of the blue wave in the election Nov. 6 that put Democrats in power in the House of Representatives.
Hayes wants to keep another important label: educator.
Teachers were on the ballot all over the country this cycle, spurred by demonstrations this year that protested low teacher pay and cuts in money for education. After years of being told what to do by lawmakers, teachers want to start making the laws themselves.
The 2016 national teacher of the year, Hayes was one of the most well-known educators to win her race. The other was Tony Evers, a Democrat who stunned incumbent Republican Scott Walker in the Wisconsin governor’s race.
Across the country, educators were voted into state legislative offices. The National Education Association said almost 1,110 educators will flood legislative ranks when sessions begin in January. (The organization includes teachers, administrators, support staff and college personnel in its definition of “educator.”) That’s out of nearly 7,400 state lawmakers.
In Oklahoma, where a teacher walkout this spring lasted a week and a half, the number of educators in the Legislature nearly tripled, from nine to 25.
Teachers find their voices
“I think it’s a real shot in the arm for us (teachers) but also for America,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Teachers are problem solvers, and when you have problem solvers sitting in state legislatures and in Congress and in governor’s seats, they understand education and the challenges of it.
“They’re not going to be like (Secretary of Education) Betsy DeVos, who just takes cheap shots at education instead of rolling up her sleeves.”
DeVos, a school choice advocate whose appointment served as the tipping point for many public school teachers who decided to run, has been heavily scrutinized by Democrats and teachers unions across the country.
Teachers had other common opponents. In Wisconsin, Walker pushed a law that gutted the state’s teachers unions.
“Walker’s demise by an educator represents the dawn of a new beginning,” Weingarten said.
Many teachers lost their bid for office, but more teachers will run, Weingarten said, because they know how powerful their voices are.
The conversations about testing standards that don’t work and lawmakers who don’t understand how their policies affect children and families have finally come out of the teacher lounges and into the national arena, Hayes said.
Make a difference, or else
Toni Hasenbeck, a Republican who won her race for Oklahoma’s House of Representatives, said the impact of the 2018 election will be felt for decades. Teachers, parents and community members who got engaged the past few months understand how local government works and how bills are made, which will allow them to track progress and “hold our (politicians’) feet to the fire.”
She’s already been warned by one voter that he’ll be watching closely to make sure she stays true to her cam- paign promises.
“My husband told me if I don’t make good choices, he’ll primary me out,” she said.
Hasenbeck, who ran for office in 2016 and lost her primary by just 93 votes, had to resign from her seventh-grade English position to serve in the Oklahoma Legislature, per state law. Though she knew it was coming, saying goodbye to all her students was harder than she anticipated.
“There was a lot of crying from me,” she said, “which was really unexpected.”
Yet on her first day in the Capitol, “I got that feeling that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
State law prohibits Hasenbeck from substituting, so she gets her classroom fix by visiting schools and teachers, shaking hands and making sure they understand she won’t forget them.
“I want to remind teachers that I know what it feels like to have 56 kindergarten eyeballs staring up at you when you’ve finished the activity you thought would take all day in just 30 minutes,” she said. “I know what it’s like to go home and grade 170 essays. I know what it’s like to be in their struggle.”
Oklahoma’s teachers-turned-lawmakers want to pass education changes in the first 100 days, said Melissa Provenzano, an administrator and former teacher who won as a Democrat in a traditionally Republican Statehouse district. “We would be foolish to not ad- dress it right out of the gate,” she said. “The new government and the old guard received a message in this election – and that message was, “You better get busy on education.’ ”
Making laws and helping students
In Washington, speculation has ramped up that Democrats will use their power in the House to take on DeVos over a variety of issues. Hayes said that talk assigns too much power to one person.
“We have a secretary of education who fundamentally disagrees on many of the things that I think about education,” she said. “But this is about our kids. I’m not here to work against Betsy DeVos. I’m here fighting to solidify programs that will help students and communities.”
She appreciates “how significant it is that I’m in the room,” Hayes said. “I can say to Secretary DeVos, ‘I know what you think you’re doing, but let me explain what it looks like to a teacher by the time (that policy) gets to a classroom.’ ”
In her heart, Hayes said, she’s always an educator.
She has been busy building her staff and trying to maintain her campaign’s message that government belongs to everyone. She’s thrilled about legislation passed this year to allow paid internships on Capitol Hill, which will open doors to hundreds of students from varying socioeconomic backgrounds.
“Many of the young people I came in contact with during my campaign wanted to work on the Hill, but they weren’t in a financial position with their families to be supported for six to eight weeks in D.C.,” she said. “Now, I want to seek those kids out.”
Hayes is focused on maintaining her relationships with young voters. She recognizes the crucial role youth will play if Democrats are to win more races in 2020. She wants them to know their voices matter and their vote counted.
“I keep thinking of what Alexander Hamilton says in the musical,” she said. “You know, I don’t want to throw away my shot.”
Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.