Caught between a rock and a hard place

The passage of the PRAXIS testing without me being part of the committee conversation and vote placed me in a compromising position. I was not going to argue with the board in the general meeting when I had no time to review any of the information. The board should have known teachers were going to be asking me what happened with the PRAXIS testing and why didn’t I do something. So I did what this board forced me to do—make a legitimate objection on behalf of teachers. If I had just sat in a corner and kept quiet about PRAXIS, teachers would have crucified me. Now some BOE members want to crucify me, so I was caught between a rock and a hard place. The average professional should see the predicament I was put in.

I took no pleasure in going public but sometimes enough is enough. If anyone was personally offended, I’m sorry but this is not personal with me and I did tell the truth. This is just the business of being the BOE Teacher Representative. I came to BOE with three goals that were well known to the average citizen in the CNMI: 1. Get teachers their right to bargain 2. To help the board and teachers in their dealings 3. To improve the system. But I can’t do anything by sitting in a corner, being quiet and being left out of the loop.

The purpose of teachers bargaining with the school system is to make positive improvements in the entire system. Bargaining is not solely about getting more money for teachers. Bargaining raises expectations and expectations will create improvements. Many of the concerns in the Teachers’ Manifesto are concerns that raise expectations for improvements in the system at no cost!

The best example is the 1st expectation of “tenure” for teachers, which not only gives teachers a permanent contract but, more importantly, will create more stability in the teaching workforce. Last year we had to replace 140 teachers that represented 24 percent or a fourth of the teachers. Continuing to re-train 1/4 of the workforce will keep us behind. The teachers coming from NMC will help but they are not the total solution because the student population is growing almost at the same rate NMC is graduating teachers. It also takes teachers a year to become fully acclimated to teaching in the CNMI and that’s if they complete certification courses in their first year. Stabilizing the teaching staff will create improved student-teacher relationships, constant improvements in the quality of instructions, improvements in the teamwork of teachers at the school level and many other positive side affects in the school system that will improve the quality of education in the CNMI at no cost. This is just one example and there is much more. I just hope that BOE won’t put me in a position again to be caught between a rock and a hard place, or damned if I do and damned if I don’t. BOE and all teachers, one direction.

Ambrose Bennett
BOE Teachers Representative