As the nation’s largest teachers’ union meets in Philly, its leader talks vouchers, Israel-Gaza and the ‘surreal bizarro world’ educators must navigate

As the nation’s largest teachers’ union convenes in Philadelphia this week, Becky Pringle has a big mission on the agenda: protecting public education.

Pringle — a North Philadelphia native and Girls’ High graduate who became president of the National Education Association in 2020 — sees the public education system as under attack amid intensifying efforts nationally by school-choice proponents to send public money toward private school voucher programs.

She sat down with The Inquirer ahead of the start of the NEA’s meeting Wednesday, which is expected to draw 7,000 delegates from across the country to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and discussed some of the other issues confronting teachers.

» READ MORE: President Biden will speak at a teachers union event in Philadelphia on Sunday

We need to understand that it’s a chronic problem. And the reason I point that out is because if we try to solve things like we usually do in education, silver bullet one time this and that — we’re not going to solve it. The NEA has been following this for almost two decades.

... Now I call it a five-alarm crisis because it’s worse. ...We did a poll. ... I really was shocked with the findings. Fifty-five percent of our members reported to us that they weren’t thinking about it — they were planning to leave the profession. With our Latino teachers, that went to almost 60%. With our Black teachers, it was over 63%. ... We’ve always suffered from what we call a wage penalty gap, where other professions — same amount of schooling, same level of experience, teachers earn 23% less. But after the pandemic, we saw those numbers start to rise and then in some parts of the country, it was it was pushing to 30%.

It’s a crazy, surreal bizarro world that [teachers] live in that as a professional, they don’t get to make teaching and learning decisions — everybody else gets to do that for them. And so because of the pandemic .... light was shining on schools, right? Everyone wanted to say, “Oh we need to do this” ... Then that transitioned to what I call, affectionately, the crazy and the stupid. Like, I’m sorry, you don’t want us to teach about slavery and the impact? ... So now you have teachers afraid — “Wait a minute, can I teach about Harriet Tubman?” ... Teachers are saying, “I’m not doing this. I can’t do this. And you don’t pay me enough to do this.”

The theme of our convention is promote public education as a common good, as the foundation of our democracy. ... We’ve seen the uptick in the passage of legislation across the country, or certainly putting in legislation around vouchers. ... It’s a deliberate effort to dismantle public schools. A democratic society is based on that. And if you don’t have an educated citizenry that can use critical thinking skills ... you’re not gonna have democracy.

Unless and until educators are at the core of any conversation about what happens in reading or science or math ... the educators have to be given the resources. The educators and the schools have to have the funding to implement anything they do with fidelity.

In February, our board of directors came together and we are on record for calling for a cease-fire, the return of all hostages. We talk about the need for working toward the future where both Palestinians and Israeli people have a homeland ... and they’re free to live in peace. We call for addressing the rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia, and the continuous learning of people ourselves. ... I made a commitment after last year to travel to the region, and I did.

... We’re part of a larger organization, Education International. We have an Israeli teachers’ union and a Palestinian teachers’ union. And so we’ve been working directly with them, in addressing specifically education needs, the displacement of students in Gaza.

... As far as educators in classrooms and worksites across the country, as a union, of course we’re defending their right to free speech. We’re making sure they know their rights. ... Our educators are part of the greater society. We, the NEA, are a microcosm of that society’s great diversity. And with diversity comes incredible strength and beauty and challenges because people have different opinions.

I was a part of the debate about whether we should let kids use calculators. In education, those debates have brewed. ... We’re not stopping that. It’s already here. Generative AI is a different beast, and we have a lot to do around that.

... [On cell phones], parents are making decisions about that. We shouldn’t make that decision by ourselves. We should come together as a community and say, these are the downsides of it. It’s interrupting education, it’s increasing bullying ... and think about what policy makes sense for your community.

Broken record here, it is about having that conversation. What does that mean? How does that impact the community? How does it impact parents, schools, students? ... Are you giving educators the time to figure it out? ... Those are the questions that need to be asked.