Call it the winter of their discontent, which may turn out to be the spring and summer of their despair.
Others see their plight as a “nightmare”, one which they didn’t create.
That’s what hundreds of Barbadian, Jamaican, Trinidadian, Guyanese and other Caribbean public school teachers are facing in New York City.
Essentially, many, certainly not all of the classroom professionals, are worried that their dream of career fulfilment can vanish in the proverbial twinkling of an eye, taking them away from what they do best: providing young people with a quality education.
At the turn of the century, as many as 2 000 teachers, the largest single bloc coming from Jamaica but a smaller number from Barbados and its neighbours, came to the city at a time of a severe teacher shortage.
But now, the city is threatening to lay off as many as 6 000 teachers as part of a painful budget cutting exercise aimed at closing a billion-dollar deficit, and many West Indians face the grim prospect of being thrown out of work and ultimately forced to return to their respective birthplaces.
To hear the Black Institute and the Association of International Educators tell it, the teachers are being left by the Bloomberg administration in general, and the Department of Education (DOE) in particular, to twist slowly in the ill wind of broken promises.
What a tragic turn of events! The West Indians arrived to much fanfare. They were heavily recruited by the then Board of Education, since renamed the DOE, to fill classroom positions left vacant by experienced teachers who were retiring early or seeking greener financial pastures in the suburbs of New York and elsewhere in the country.
Back then, the West Indians were seen as a godsend, the answer to the collective prayers of administrators and elected officials in desperate straits to solve the teacher shortage problem.
First, the city had turned to Western Europe for teachers and when they couldn’t get enough, they switched to the English-speaking Caribbean. The move made sense. After all, English was their first language, and the professionals were well qualified and eager to accept new challenges.
Just as important, at least 100 000 students, the children or grandchildren of West Indian immigrants were in the school system, especially in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.
When the recruiters went to the islands, they promised the teachers enhanced career opportunities, higher pay, better conditions of service than many were receiving at home, as well as a chance to improve their own education and certification at colleges and universities that do the New York landscape.
In addition, the department held out the promise that the teachers’ immigration status would be enhanced so they wouldn’t have to worry about a knock on the doors of their homes in the dead of night by federal immigration officials demanding an explanation for their presence in the country.
A problem at the outset was that many West Indian teachers were assigned to some of the poorest performing schools, where getting students to pay attention in class was a major challenge. Moving from the Caribbean to New York required a major shift in classroom management and teaching techniques.
Long accustomed to an environment in which the teacher was in charge and students were there to learn, the West Indians had to adjust to new surroundings that gave youths the right to challenge authority. Still, the West Indians soldiered on, far too many remaining in immigration limbo to this day.
To be fair, the experience wasn’t a total disaster. In the ten years since they set foot in city classrooms, many of the Caribbean professionals have earned Master’s degrees. In addition, many have gotten green cards, bought homes, expensive cars and have done reasonably well, living out the American dream. But far too many were not so fortunate.
And the unhappy souls are complaining that the DOE didn’t live up to its part of the bargain. For one thing, it failed to protect some of the teachers from the prejudice of principals and administrators at evaluation time. The department didn’t move as aggressively as it could have to change the teachers’ immigration status that kept them on the books as “unskilled workers”. As a result, their children are ineligible for scholarships and financial aid and their spouses are unable to work.
Clearly, their plight cries out for urgent attention. The Black Institute and the Association of International Educators along with United State’s Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, are pressing their case, hoping and praying that common sense and justice would prevail at City Hall.
The Bloomberg administration and the DOE have a responsibility to sponsor the teachers for the appropriate immigration visa, a green card, that would allow them to remain in the country and pursue their chosen careers without the proverbial Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. That’s not too much to ask.
