'ESP and teachers need to support each other,' says NEA's Eskelsen
If given the chance, for-profit companies will try to privatize teacher positions.
Beware the privateers and profiteers, NEA Secretary-Treasurer
Lily
Eskelsen told MEA members attending
the Southern Zone ESP Summit last fall.
They want your jobs.“They don’t like unions for one simple reason,” Eskelsen said. “We stand between them and their profits.”
Support staff members are underappreciated and underpaid, said Eskelsen, who started her education career in an ESP position—food services—and later become a classroom teacher—Utah’s teacher of the year in 1989—before ascending to her top-level position with the NEA.
“It’s people like you who don’t have the ‘glamour’ jobs in education but who contribute so much,” she said “You are an important member of the education team that provides quality learning for every child in every school building. You’re the hard working, practical problem solvers with deep roots in the community.
“You keep the computers up, the principal on task and help people like me become better teachers. What you’re doing is special, and you deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.”
Eskelsen called on K-12 teachers and support staff members to continue to work together. “We are a team in every building, and we need to support each other,” she said, noting that the same forprofit companies that want to privatize ESP jobs will seek to privatize teacher positions if given the opportunity.