Frederica Freyberg:
Jeffrey Canada says until now, education in the U.S. has been like Hurricane Katrina. He says no one is coming, coming to save the children. Canada says it's time for adults to rescue these children allowed to fail in school. Teachers, of course, are on the front lines of the rescue and reform. Our next guest represents these teachers as the president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council. Mary Bell is here. Thank you very much for being here.

Mary Bell:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
What is your reaction to Jeffrey Canada saying that the teachers' union has to face the fact that if they don't change, they're going to go the way of the UAW, that we can't keep producing an inferior product?

Mary Bell:
Well, I think we have a lot of evidence in the state of Wisconsin that we produce a fine quality product. We have a problem, particularly in those schools that serve high poverty students, students with particular challenges, and that can be urban or that can be rural schools. And we need to do the best that we can for all children. But Wisconsin educators, quite honestly, have been on those front lines trying to do that work for a long, long time. Many of the things that the Harlem opportunity center really works on, Children's Zone works on, are things that we've been calling for in terms of community involvement, in terms of support for children, in terms of early intervention. Early childhood, 4-year-old kindergarten, all kinds of mentoring programs. Those are things that we've supported for a long time.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you would take exception to him saying that the union has to change.

Mary Bell:
Well, everybody needs to make changes. Everybody needs to constantly improve. I see the union's role — and I think we've taken that on here in Wisconsin — to be to raise the level of practice for all our members and help them have the resources in order to be successful.

Frederica Freyberg:
As for reform and the Race to the Top applications which they're still hurriedly working on to try to get in by next week, the DPI superintendent says that most of these applications for these Race to the Top funds do not include the signatures of the local union presidents. Why is that?

Mary Bell:
Well, in some cases the school boards and the school district administrators have the same questions that we do as union leaders about what is going to be in the final grant application. We have an overview of the plan and we have some exhibits that indicate the kind of work that we would be doing, but the details really leave us with questions about the capacity of a school district to actually deliver on some of the things that they're asking for. Sometimes it's in terms of the money that's going to be necessary after the grant money is gone. We've long supported and pioneered mentoring programs for teachers to raise that level of practice, particularly among our newest members. But hiring those people and getting them in the right places with the time to do that work takes funding that we don't necessarily know that school districts are going to have. Funding for public schools is one of the continuing questions that we've had in Wisconsin and that we've been working very hard to try and improve.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, I know that calls for longer school days and longer school years have been embraced by the union in your own opportunity plan, as well as in other reform plans, including those for the Race to the Top funds. But where does the union stand on renegotiating benefit packages, which the governor has talked about?

Mary Bell:
Well, the benefit packages are part of a collective bargaining process, and we believe that one of the ways to ensure that we have high-quality teachers who stay in the profession in order to reach the most professional practice that they can means that you have to have quality compensation along with a benefit package that makes them secure. We have had good-quality benefits, and I would say that against a national standard, we've lost ground in the salary market. And that's because we've protected some of those benefits. It's a balance. But it's all part of saying that the work that teachers do, the length of time they work, not just student contact, but in preparation and getting their own performance up to standards, those are all things that deserve compensation.

Frederica Freyberg:
What would be your position on folding the teachers into the state insurance plans?

Mary Bell:
Those are all decisions that are made at local collective bargaining tables. And we've had that in Wisconsin since we've had collective bargaining rights. I think that every school district makes choices about how their dollars are best spent and they do that in collaboration at the collective bargaining table with their teachers' union.

Frederica Freyberg:
What is the level of urgency on the part of teachers and the union in terms of reform to help our children?

Mary Bell:
I don't think you can look at the achievement gaps in the state of Wisconsin and not understand how desperately many of my members are to make the changes needed for their children. Teachers in Milwaukee, in Racine or in rural Wisconsin, where the finance challenges have been such that they can't offer all of the opportunities to their students that they want. Those are very real to my members. And they have a history of going after what's the right kind of assessment to give the information about improving my practice. What tells me when a student needs early intervention? Where do I go to get those kind of supports? Those are all things that have been part of what we do as a union and what our members do in school districts across the state.

Frederica Freyberg:
Mary Bell, thank you very much for your time.

Mary Bell:
Thank you.