Access to qualified teachers matters. Research shows it; parents and students know it. Yet, uncredentialed teachers represent more than one third of the faculty at hundreds of schools in low income communities across LA County. In many schools across Compton, Lynwood, Inglewood and parts of Los Angeles, the percentage of uncredentialed teachers rises above 50%. This teacher crisis is not due to a lack of public information--all schools report how many of their teachers hold credentials. Nor does the teacher crisis result from a lack of policy options. States like Connecticut insure that all students have a quality teacher by providing incentives and support for teachers to work in hard to staff schools. Rather, what we lack in California is the political will to provide all students a decent education.
This issue of Teaching to Change LA features a tribute to César Chávez, whose life-work offers a shining example of how political education and mass mobilization can construct a new political will. Many of our contributors draw on this legacy in their teaching and political action. Martha Durán-Contreras has written a picture book to teach her second graders about Chávez and the United Farm Workers. Her students conduct research on Chávez' life and the struggles of the United Farm Workers to create safe and decent work conditions. She encourages students to see a personal connection to these struggles. "I want them to remember that every time they have food in their mouths, it has been touched by a farm worker." For Durán-Contreras, this lesson follows Chávez' admonition to "educate from the heart." Her own father, Jésus Durán, picked fruit and vegetables in the fields of California for decades after teaching in Mexico as a young man.
