Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/401002
October/November 2014 isea.org • ISEA Communiqué 6 COVER farmers, laborers, teachers, firefighters and other working Americans over big business, big banks and big government. Harkin endorsed Braley last year calling him a friend and a "proud and pragmatic progressive." Braley, in turn, calls Harkin a friend and a mentor. The latter is a word Braley also uses to describe a certain teacher from Brooklyn, Iowa: Marcia Braley, his mother. She's 85 now and the occasional former student will still call her "Mrs. Braley," too. "I learned the value of an education from her," Braley said, during a phone call from his office in Washington, DC. "My views on public education were formed, really, by two women; my mother, Marcia, who has been an ISEA member since 1948 and taught in Brooklyn, Iowa, and my wife, Carolyn, who's an ISEA member and teaches at West High School in Waterloo." Braley earned the recommendation of the ISEA PAC because of his commitment to public education, students and teducation professionals. He doesn't like the blame-and-shame politic of high-stakes testing and believes that teacher training should better incorporate skills needed in the real world, like classroom management. He also thinks teachers should be able to refinance their federal student loans and has consistently supported labor causes. Students, Braley says, need a well-rounded curriculum. It's one that helps them develop critical thinking as opposed to simple rote memorization. It includes rigorous physical education and immersion in music and the arts. "If you spend all your time teaching to the test, you're only teaching students how to take tests," Braley said. "Iowans have always prided themselves on providing a world-class education for our children, but it seems that has been put on the back-burner in favor of more testing. We have to bring that back to the front." Braley's opponent, Joni Ernst, worked against the Iowa State Education Association on matters of state funding for school districts and teacher training when she served as ranking member of the Iowa Senate Education Committee. She's called for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. This agency administers Pell grants which help working families cover college costs. Its existence also ensures that at least one Cabinet-level spot is reserved for public education. Braley, meanwhile, pushed legislation to make college more affordable, increase school bus safety, help graduates with college loan debt, and prevent bullying. Bruce Braley has always answered when the Iowa State Education Association called on him. Carol and Marcia wouldn't have it any other way. A teacher, outdoorsman and union organizer who pulled together a hodge- podge of state associations in the 1970s to build the foundation of the modern Iowa State Education Association died in late September at a hospice center in Madison, Wis. Ken Pfile was 70. Born in 1944 in Kansas City, MO., but raised in Baxter, Iowa, Pfile began his career as an English teacher at Kennedy High School in the Cedar Rapids School District. He was as fiercely loyal to his fellow educators as they were to him. They elected him president of the Iowa State Education Association in 1979. "At the time you had all these segregated groups, the music teachers had one, there was the classroom teachers, you had the administrators as part of the group, there were a lot of them," said Gary Miller, a friend of Pfile and a former UniServ Unit 10 director which was then based in Algona. "Ken really pulled us away from the administrators and brought the teachers together into one group. He was an excellent organizer." At 6'4" with a physique befitting an avid trout fisherman who chopped wood for exercise and relaxation, Pfile could be an intimidating presence in any negotiating room. But his size and stature belied an easygoing nature. "We called him a gentle giant," said Angie King, a former ISEA president who counted Pfile as a dear friend. "He was so supportive of women's causes and was one of the pioneers of the ISEA (Political Action Committee). He wrote the first contract Cedar Rapids ever had. Some of the language in those early contracts is still in use today." Pfile eventually moved on to organizing positions in Wisconsin and Michigan. In retirement he worked as Union Outreach Coordinator for Workers Independent News in Madison, Wisconsin. But he made frequent trips to Iowa where, he said, the trout streams rivaled those in Wisconsin and Canada. "He made the ISEA what it is today," Miller said. Pfile is survived by his wife of 26 years, Wanda Smith, and his daughter, Elizabeth (Beth) Anne Pfile of Phoenix, AZ. He is preceded in death by his father Edward Emerson Pfile, his mother Mary Pfile, and his son, Adam Pfile. Memorial gifts can be made to Workers Independent News, 520 University Avenue, Suite 320, Madison, WI 53703. IN MEMORIAM U.S. Rep Bruce Braley chats with Iowa State Education Association Executive Director Mary Jane Cobb at Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola. Harkin, a popular U.S. senator known for championing populist causes – exemplified in his authorship of the Americans with Disabilities Act – asked Iowans to support Braley in his bid for U.S. Senate. Braley, is both the son and husband of Iowa public school teachers, Teaching runs the Braley family continued Continued from page 1 Ken Pfile