In the revitalized US union movement, teachers are the group that are most likely to draw support and sympathy. Nowhere in the country is the struggle more visible than Philadelphia, where parents and teachers joined to protest deep cuts to the city’s school system – which they say are just the latest in Philadelphia’s war on teachers.

Philadelphia schools are struggling. They are out of money, dealing with an $81m shortfall, and as a result all types of funding are being slashed. So far this year, Philadelphia has laid off 20 administrative workers and cut 300 slots in dropout prevention programs. About 7,500 high school students who live two miles away from their school have been left without transportation.

The 12,500 members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, PFT, have been left without a contract. Early this October, the School Reform Commission, which controls the city’s school district, voted to cancel the teachers’ contract and require the union members to give up to 13% of their paycheck as contribution towards their healthcare insurance. Teachers are also buying supplies for their classrooms from their own paychecks.



Similarly, in the suburbs of Chicago, Waukegan teachers went on a month-long strike leaving more than 17,000 students with no school. Their cause: a contract that would last for three years and would promise them stability and support. Both students and teachers will be back in the classroom on Monday.

For some – including Philadelphia teacher Leshawna Coleman – these contracts and education funding will be at the forefront of their mind as they vote this Tuesday 4 November.

‘We are not putting our money where our mouths are’

Leshawna Coleman, 35, has been a teacher and a member of the the PFT for 14 years. Currently, she spends each day at a different school in the district and is teaching English as a second language at five Philadelphia schools.

Election season is important for us to put focus back on education. We commonly say: ‘Kids matter the most’ but we are not putting our money where our mouths are. We need to make sure that our funding is fair, that it’s giving our children the same leverage that children in surrounding suburbs have.

Pencils on her mind: Coleman says that Philadelphia teachers often have to supply their students with basic supplies like pencils. Photograph: Andrew Duke/Alamy

There seems to be a lot of pushback now to put the blame on teachers – when in fact, we are the ones standing on the frontlines every day. We are giving everything we can every day to educate students that are coming from challenging backgrounds. Instead of being celebrated for making this choice to be in the more difficult environment we are being villainized.

Politicians often try to demonize us as if we are somehow the problem with public education. When, in fact, in the next breath they’ll argue we are the solution. We can’t be both.



We are looking for them to be honest and tell the truth that we are underfunded, that we are not given the resources that we need to do our job effectively. Schools don’t have textbooks. They don’t have paper. They don’t have pencils. They are lacking new technology. Students don’t have extracurricular activities because there are no funds to pay for them. Our students are doing the best they can with the bare basics, because teachers are buying it. We are forced to buy our own paper.

The other day a parent was complaining to a teacher about her child not having pencils. The teacher said: “I am buying as many as I can. I just didn’t have any more.” The general public doesn’t seem to know often that these things only get bought if teachers pay for them out of their own money. That’s what’s happening.

The fight that we are waging is hardly about us. It’s about making sure that the kids have the right learning conditions, which are also the right teaching conditions. We are missing important staff that mentor students and just help steer them away from things that aren’t good choices. By having fewer counselors, we don’t have people to help push them in the right direction.