Racial and Social Justice

The Racial and Justice subcommittee of the RMC has been hard at work. One of our main goals is to increase retiree activism within MTA, with a particular focus on our retirees of color. This past September, in collaboration with the New Members Committee and EMAC, we unveiled a new mentorship initiative, pairing newer educators of color with educator retirees of color. In our first year, we currently have 9 mentor/mentee pairs and are working on pairing more. It is our objective and fervent hope to be able to aid in increasing the retention of educators of color.

We are currently inviting retiree educators of color to share their stories in the Reporter and MTA Today, highlighting the challenges, successes, and trials they experienced teaching in their districts, as well as within their locals and MTA. Currently three retirees have done so, and we thank them immensely for their brave and thoughtful essays.

This work was brought about by meeting with retirees of color to find commonalities and areas we needed to address. We asked them to relate their experiences, and even more importantly, what they believed the solutions were. Out of that came the two programs above, as well as working to eliminate the MTEL as. Barrier to aspiring educators of color. We would welcome you joining us in this important work.

Current Members of the sub-committee:

Phyllis Neufeld, Ora Gladstone, Robin Smith, Dale Melcher, Kip Fonsh, Maureen Posner, Marguerite Foster Franklin, William Clarke, Sylvia Galvan, Joe Zellner