After walk-in, what's the plan?

After a day of signs and cheers and red clothes and pancake breakfasts for teachers, I bet I'm not the only person wondering:  Is anything going to change for N.C. teachers? If so, what's the plan and who's making it?

The Walk-In/Walk-Out day has tapped into what seems to be a widespread sentiment that our state's teachers deserve a better deal,  as teacher pay and per-pupil spending slump toward the bottom of national rankings and the state throws challenges and changes at public educators.

Parents and students at Elizabeth Lane Elementary

But sentiment isn't action.  The build-up to Nov. 4 illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of social media organizing.

It started when the pseudonymous  "Mike Ladidadi"  created a Facebook event called  "Nov. 4th NC Teacher Walkout."  The call for action was couched in broad terms:  "We want more respect for teachers.  Specifically a fair balance between workload, expectations and compensation for our teachers.  Help needs to come from both the state government and from unengaged parents who need to take an active role in their child's education."

As the idea circulated among teachers, administrators, journalists and others,  it morphed into the notion of a  "walk-in,"  bringing parents,  students and community members together to show support for teachers.  While the tone of frustration with recent legislative action was present,  there didn't seem to be any clear agenda here, either.

Things took some odd twists as the event neared.  I had assumed  "Ladidadi"  was a teacher worried about protecting his job.  But last week a conservative/Libertarian N.C. blogger known as Lady Liberty posted that she traced the name to a Wilmington real estate broker who,  "as far as I can tell,  has no horse in the teacher grievances race other than he himself thinks they aren’t being treated fairly."  (The irony of a pseudonymous blogger unmasking a pseudonymous organizer isn't lost on me,  but Lady Liberty identified herself to me as A.P. Dillon,  a Holly Springs mom who says she doesn't want her school-age child to get caught in the political crossfire.)

Lady Liberty 1885

That's not all:  A group called Organize 2020 emerged as a voice pushing for walk-in events on Nov. 4. You'd be hard-pressed to identify that group from its web site,  but the @Organize2020 Twitter profile describes it as "a member-led group within the NCAE advocating for teachers."  Organize 2020 appears to be the source of a statement saying the North Carolina Association of Educators "affirm(s) the desire and right of educators to use tactics like a walkout or strike,"  which prompted Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger to call for the state's attorney general to intervene.  The NCAE,  which had already publicly declined to endorse the walk-out, removed the link to that statement.

Organize2020.com

So why does a teacher advocacy group need a subgroup to advocate for teachers,  and why are the ties between the two entities obscured?  I've got a call in to NCAE President Rodney Ellis (who came to Charlotte today to speak at a "walk-in" rally at Ranson Middle School)  seeking an explanation.

Bottom line:  The GOP majority in the state legislature translated some prevailing sentiments  (accountability and choice improve education,  the teacher pay system is a failure)  into plans.  The question is whether the folks who don't like those plans have a strategy of their own.  As Superintendent Heath Morrison often notes,  public officials and advocates who say teachers deserve a raise need to be prepared to talk about where the money will come from.

The coming weeks and months will tell whether this was a step toward a real movement  -- and if so, what that movement means.  

Walkout? Contract rejection? N.C. teachers simmering

Talk about a Nov. 4 North Carolina teacher walkout is floating on social media,  but will anything happen?

That's hard to tell.  Five hundred people have clicked "coming"  on the Facebook page for the walkout,  created by Mike Ladidadi  --  a false name,  according to a Huffington Post article on the walkout posted on Ladidadi's page. An unsigned  "NC Teacher Walkout" blog was recently added to the mix.

Online comments and conversations I've had with teachers reflect a tension between the desire to jolt lawmakers and the public and fear that staying home will jeopardize jobs and harm students.

Calabro

 "I am not sure that walking out is the the thing to do, but sure am motivated to do something," said  Beverly Woods Elementary teacher Marie Calabro, who has been trying to rally teachers and their supporters to stand outside schools every Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate support.  "To be honest, I think having a walkout may be a bit premature, and I wish teachers would either join NCAE and/or write their officials."

The N.C. Association of Educators isn't endorsing the walkout,  and is reminding members that striking or taking part in a "sick out"  is risky business in a right-to-work state.

"NCAE understands that this walkout is the consequence of the General Assembly and Governor McCrory for failing to live up to their constitutional requirements to enact budgets and policies that provide for a sound, basic education for all students in North Carolina’s public schools," the group's statement to members says. "NCAE is working within the legal and political systems to hold the politicians accountable for their actions this past year, including replacing them with elected leaders who will stand up for public education."

Judy Kidd, president of the Charlotte-based Classroom Teachers Association, isn't endorsing the walkout either.

But regardless of whether they're willing to take that kind of action,  many educators say they're far from ready to forget about a 2013 legislative session that brought sweeping changes for public education,  from the abolition of tenure and master's degree pay to the perpetuation of a pay scale that's gaining North Carolina a reputation as among the nation's worst places for teachers.

Kidd and Charles Smith, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, say the next battle may come when districts follow the state mandate to offer four-year contracts to 25 percent of teachers for 2014-15.  Those contracts will offer a $500-a-year raise for those four years in exchange for teachers signing away all rights to tenure.  Superintendent Heath Morrison recently told the school board he's trying to figure out how the state expects the selection process to work.

Kidd and Smith say they both expect the tenure changes in this year's budget to be challenged in court.  "I encourage anybody who's offered a four-year contract with a $500 raise to turn it down and let the courts rule,"  Kidd said.

Smith said the NCAE and CMAE haven't taken a position yet on the new contracts. But personally,  he's with Kidd.  Anyone who signs away tenure won't be eligible to get it back if the courts rule against the new system,  he said.

"If you offer me (the four-year contract) I'm going to tell you 'no thanks,' " Smith said.  "To paraphrase the old saying,  you can have my tenure when you pry my cold, dead fingers from it."