LOBBYING FOR LEARNING: DORIS FORD LEADS EDUCATORS AS HEAD OF MISSOURI STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION

An educator for 42 years, Doris Ford loves to talk about teaching. She champions it with an enthusiasm borne of experience.

As president of the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA), the 63-year-old Cape Girardeau school teacher spends much of her free time these days lobbying on statewide education issues and promoting the profession she loves.

The teachers' organization has more than 30,000 members.

Ford, a speech pathologist, began her one-year term as MSTA president on Nov. 6. Her late husband, Ralph Ford, who died in July, also was a teacher and served as president of the MSTA during the 1978-79 year.

Ford, who has held various offices in the local Community Teachers Association, said she never started out to be president of the MSTA. It just worked out that way.

A graduate of Jackson High School, she began her career in 1951 as a seventh-grade teacher in Sikeston.

Ford was still in college when she began teaching. "I think I had 70 or 75 hours when I started teaching."

She taught in Sikeston for four years. Ford graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1957. Her husband was employed as a math teacher in the Cape Girardeau Public Schools.

At that time, the district had a policy against hiring couples, Ford said. As a result, she ended up working as a speech pathologist in the Chaffee and Scott City schools.

After two years, she moved on to a job with the Easter Seal Society, serving for nine years as director of crippled children services.

"I was the fund-raiser, the director and the speech pathologist," she said.

In 1968, she was hired as a speech pathologist for the Cape Girardeau school district.

At one time, she was working with students in a wide age range, all the way from elementary school to high school. Today, she deals almost exclusively with students at Clippard Elementary School.

She meets with students individually and also in groups of up to four.

Ford said the students she deals with don't have good communications skills, many of them have neurological damage. "They have trouble following directions. They have trouble listening.

"I have two children diagnosed right now as autistic."

But Ford delights in helping students improve their communication skills. "I just think kids need to be able to communicate. They need problem-solving skills."

These days, school work means more than speech pathology for Ford.

As MSTA president, Ford's schedule is a busy one, from meeting with teachers from the 12 MSTA districts across the state to attending State Board of Education meetings.

Ford said she'll be a regular visitor to the state capitol in Jefferson City when the legislature convenes next year.

She said the MSTA will push for full funding of the Outstanding Schools Act, a new law that changes the state funding of Missouri's school districts.

The law will put more money into many school districts, said Ford.

"One of the best things about Senate Bill 380 (the Outstanding Schools Act) is that the teachers will have a lot of input," she said.

The law creates a Commission on Performance, which will provide advice on implementing the measure. One quarter of the members of the commission must be classroom teachers, she said.

Ford thinks teachers should be paid well. "Senate Bill 380 wiped out the minimum salary of $18,000," she said.

But the law aids veteran teachers. Under the measure, teachers with master's degrees and 10 years of experience will receive a salary of at least $24,000 a year by 1997.

Ford said that in some districts, teachers with master's degrees have been paid the same salary as beginning teachers.

The public often complains that teachers are overpaid. The average salary of a school teacher in Missouri is $29,410.

But that's lower than states such as Illinois ($38,576) and Kentucky ($31,487), she said.

Ford said the public often forgets all the work that goes into teaching.

Teachers, for example, may only spend nine months a year in the classroom. But during the summer, they take continuing education classes and work toward advanced degrees. "It never ends. You keep going back (to school)," said Ford.

Teachers also must prepare for the next academic year.

"I guess I've never looked at it as a nine-month job," Ford said. "Most of my career, I've been in school in the summertime. Teaching is not an 8-to-4 job.

People, she said, lambaste education in general while supporting their local schools.

"Schools weren't intended originally to solve all the social ills in this country," said Ford.

But more and more, schools are being called upon to do just that. "Teachers are no longer just teaching reading, writing and math," she said.

"Educators can't do it by themselves," said Ford. "We are going to have to have the support of the parents and the community." Students have to put forth some effort as well, she said.

Ford said collective bargaining could be an issue in the next legislative session. Gov. Mel Carnahan has expressed support for the concept for public employees.

But Ford said the MSTA opposes forced unionism and teachers strikes. Instead, it favors salary negotiations with school boards, as is currently done.

"Collective bargaining is fine in the private sector, but it doesn't work in the public sector," she said.

Public schools can't raise taxes, for example, to pay for a new salary agreement, she said.

Ford said it's better for administrators and teachers to work together. The MSTA certainly thinks so. It's membership includes school administrators.

Meeting with other educators across the state is also a learning experience. "It's an education in itself, it really is," said Ford.