Maribeth Calabro
President, Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals
Past president, Providence Teachers Union
1. What do you hope to accomplish in your new role? I hope that we continue to build a strong, professional labor union that works collaboratively with state and local leaders to create work environments where workers have a voice, are respected and can thrive.
2. Do you anticipate any major differences between running a local teachers union versus one encompassing multiple job sectors? As my entire adult life has been focused in education, I feel it will be an opportunity for me to grow and learn all I can about the working conditions, supports and needs of our health care professionals in order to maintain safe staffing for the health and well-being of our members and their patients, also engaging our higher [education] colleagues in a needs assessment to support their members’ needs. Through communication and member engagement, I hope to build on our successes and increase membership in all locales.
3. How do you think the state takeover of Providence schools will play out? I believe that the next three years will be transitional years as we work on a return to local control. There are mechanisms that must be in place in order for our students and teachers to be successful, both in and out of the takeover. First and foremost, we need a fair and equitable funding formula that will support the ever-changing landscape of public education and not allow the state or city to level fund the district ever again.
4. State officials have made clear there may be a tough fiscal road ahead. Are you concerned this may affect organized labor? Unions, particularly teachers’ unions, have always been a target for criticism, especially during tough fiscal times. That is not new. What is new is the teacher shortage and the number of understaffed schools that exist across the state and the country.
5. What are your thoughts on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election? I do have concerns regarding some of the statements that were made on the election trail by President-elect [Donald] Trump, particularly around the closing of the [U.S.] Department of Education, vouchers and teaching the Bible in public schools. Dissolution of the DOE is short-sighted and will have long-term, detrimental consequences for students with differing abilities; it will impact scholarships, student loans, curriculum guidelines, funding and much more. Vouchers and the Bible being taught in school go against the separation of church and state.
