SEIU Statement on the MNPS Privatization Budget

SEIU Local 205 President Doug Collier made the following statement at the MNPS Board Meeting on June 8...

I’ve thought long and hard about what I would say to this body when I was again able to stand before you. So many things that I want to say simply shouldn’t be said in such a public venue. But the thing I keep coming back to and that I think I want to say most is shame on you.

I’m sure you’re not aware of the mission statement of SEIU Local 205, so I will share it with you. Our mission is to unite and improve the lives of Tennessee workers and their families by raising the collective standard by which work is valued. Let me repeat that… raising the collective standard by which work is valued.

Allegedly, part of your vision statement says - Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will provide every student with the foundation of knowledge, skills and character necessary to excel in higher education, work and life. Right now, it’s looking like this board is 0 for 3.

It was obvious to anyone watching the spectacle you made at the budget hearing before the council last Thursday that the majority of you sitting here are totally unqualified to provide anyone with a foundation of character. You have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that your priorities have nothing at all to do with equipping our children to be better members of society.

You spout platitudes about educating the children of Nashville, but what are you really teaching our children?

You’re teaching them that if you don’t have an important position or make a lot of money in this society, you are worth less. In other words….worthless.

You’re teaching them that even if you work hard and are loyal for years, if you’re not in a position of power, you are worth less.

You’re teaching them that classism usually still equals racism and that if you are on the wrong side of that equation, you are worth less.

You as a body are teaching our children that sometimes it’s ok to do something completely wrong, just because you can, as long as the people you are beating up on are worth less than you.

While we could have been able to work together to achieve our separate but not mutually exclusive visions, this Board elected to ignore our efforts at compromise and bridge building. You have chosen instead to disenfranchise the custodians and groundskeepers of their right to the duly established political process of the Metropolitan Nashville Government by sneaking around the Metro Council budget process and signing the GCA contract before they could even have a hearing on your budget.

Yet another shameful act on your part.

So I leave you today not in anger, but rather in pity. The good men and women that you’ve tried to make worthless will go on and be good employees for someone else, even though it will be for less money and less benefits. But you, the members of the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Education, have indeed proven to be worth less.