Tuesday, August 24, 2010
When did teacher's unions become "the enemy"?
Really, when did this happen? I can't trace it back to any specific time. Do we begrudge them collective bargaining because we don't have it or because we pay taxes that makes up their pay? I know unions, in general, have been looked down on for some time, foolishly, by even the more common working man, to his peril, but when did teacher's unions, specifically, become the center of evil in this country? I was just on Facebook and there was a sponsored ad for a group calling itself "Teachers Unions Exposed". Really. And what horrible things are teachers after, anyway? Oh, that's right--those horrible things like being treated fairly by the school district they work in and the administration they work for, right, that horrible stuff. So I Googled "Teachers Unions Goals" and this is some of horrific, diabolical stuff they're up to:
Our Vision
Our vision is a great public school for every student.
Our Mission
Our mission is to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world.
Our Core Values
These principles guide our work and define our mission:
--Equal Opportunity. We believe public education is the gateway to opportunity. All students have the human and civil right to a quality public education that develops their potential, independence, and character.
--A Just Society. We believe public education is vital to building respect for the worth, dignity, and equality of every individual in our diverse society.
--Democracy. We believe public education is the cornerstone of our republic. Public education provides individuals with the skills to be involved, informed, and engaged in our representative democracy.
--Professionalism. We believe that the expertise and judgment of education professionals are critical to student success. We maintain the highest professional standards, and we expect the status, compensation, and respect due all professionals.
Partnership. We believe partnerships with parents, families, communities, and other stakeholders are essential to quality public education and student success.
--Collective Action. We believe individuals are strengthened when they work together for the common good. As education professionals, we improve both our professional status and the quality of public education when we unite and advocate collectively.
NEA also believes every student in America, regardless of family income or place of residence, deserves a quality education. In pursuing its mission, NEA has determined that we will focus the energy and resources of our 3.2 million members on improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement and making schools safer, better places to learn.
Does that all sound so horrible? Does that not sound fair and smart and even good for the kids in the schools? I'm not so naive to think bad things don't come out of good ideas--in this case, unions, but I have to ask you, when did teachers and teachers unions become a big threat to us? To our society? What? When they asked for fair pay and fair representation in their school districts and with their administrations? When did teachers become the "big bogeyman" of our society? And why? Would you answer me that?
Links:
http://www.nea.org/home/19583.htm, http://www.wtulocal6.org/Goals/
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10 comments:
The corporate world would LOVE to get hold of the educational system.... let's privatize that like we did health care.... that's worked so well. That's why the call for vouchers is now a mantra amongst the Con-Corps hoping to dislodge the system from control of public boards and governing bodies. To the extent that teacher's unions hinder this goal they are demonized...
Teachers's unions and other public employee unions have become the enemy because they are the last bastion of union strength in this country. The corporate interests that now control our country have succeeded in largely decimating organized labor in all other industries. So now their target is teachers and government employees. The current economic downturn and the resulting crisis in state and municipal budgets has given them the perfect opportunity to strike a final blow against labor. Unfortunately, I think their propaganda is winning.
I do begrudge public sector collective bargaining for several reasons.
The first, and biggest is that there is no competitive pressure to keep demands reasonable. If the UAW demands excessive compensation, to the point that the costs of Chevrolets gets too high, we can buy Toyotas. If the government worker's union demands excessive compensation...What can we do? What pressure is there for a government manager or executive to stand firm?
How do you determine a fair salary? In virtually every way you can measure public sector vs private, public sector makes more money, better benefits and job security, shorter hours--even controlling for job type. A much more important number is quit rate--Public sector quit rate is only 1/3 the quit rate of private sector, a pretty good indication that they are at minimum fairly compensated and likely overcompensated compared to private workers.
Most individual teachers are decent and caring, and want to do a good job. Teacher's unions are there to benefit teachers, not students. They fight against incentives for good teachers, they fight getting rid of bad teachers, almost any change to the status quo.
I am certain that with vision and experimentation, we can do a much better job teaching children for less money--but not with teacher's unions fighting every change. A first step would be paying for performance, like most private sector jobs. ( I wish I could find the story I read a while back, where a union objected to merit bonuses that were in addition to their contracted salary...insisted they be given out by seniority or not at all) Another would be to NOT require a crime to be proven before firing a bad teacher. Yes, I know that isn't literally true everywhere--but it is far too close to truth. I once had a public school teacher who taught that humans began in Africa, but the smarter, more adventurous ones moved to other continents--therefore whites are smarter than blacks. She was not tenured, and should have been fired for cause immediately-instead they let her finish the school year, and merely refused to renew her contract.
Come on, Sevesteen--"teacher's unions fighting every change"? You know that's patently untrue.
As for teachers in certain, specific situations teaching horrible things? That ax swings both ways. In your example, it was racist and stupid. In others, it's against proven evolution, etc. Those situations will always arise.
Tell you what--you be a teacher and see if you want to stand alone, fighting for your job, fair conditions and fair pay and see if you don't need the strength of your co-workers behind and with you. I can guarantee you, you will.
mr
What sort of reforms do teacher's unions support, other than "more money for teachers"? Have they ever supported accountability for their members?
Being fair to students and teaching them well should be a much higher priority than being fair to teachers--but students don't have a union. Teachers should not have more job security than anyone else, especially if it interferes with weeding out incompetent or otherwise ineffective teachers. I have to do my job well to keep it--so should a teacher.
A public school teacher who is teaching that blacks are mentally inferior to whites should be at minimum put on leave until allegations are either proven or not--she should not continue teaching for the rest of the year. Once allegations are proven, she should be fired for cause, regardless of tenure. A system that interferes with that is not acceptable.
Teachers and their unions know they have to be accountable. It's life. It's the real world.
You apparently don't know any teachers. If you did, and you asked them this kind of thing--about fairness to students--you'd know it's a given.
And there just aren't many, if any, teachers out there who think they can and should do anything but a job well done and if and where there are, if there are any, they should go, sure. No one's proposing differently.
As for this: "A public school teacher who is teaching that blacks are mentally inferior to whites should be at minimum put on leave until allegations are either proven or not--she should not continue teaching for the rest of the year. Once allegations are proven, she should be fired for cause, regardless of tenure. A system that interferes with that is not acceptable." I'd agree with that. I don't think a teacher doing this is going to get any support, even from their union. Heck, it could be proven that's against the law, not just being "un-PC".
mr
I know quite a few teachers--my Dad recently retired from the local college where he was union president for several years. Mom taught junior high for a few years before becoming a nurse. From my experience mostly with small-town schools, most teachers are competent and effective--but there are too many who are not.
How can you say that it is a good thing if teachers who are well below average in effectiveness essentially cannot be replaced by better teachers?
You neglected to answer my question--what reforms other than more money for teachers do unions support?
I didn't say "that it is a good thing if teachers who are well below average in effectiveness essentially cannot be replaced by better teachers" and wouldn't.
The Union's quote: "NEA also believes every student in America, regardless of family income or place of residence, deserves a quality education. In pursuing its mission, NEA has determined that we will focus the energy and resources of our 3.2 million members on improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement and making schools safer, better places to learn."
mr
Is there anyone who does not support "improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement and making schools safer, better places to learn."? The question is not what we want to do, but how to do it.
What concrete proposals do unions make other than more teachers, more pay for teachers better working conditions for teachers?
the question, anymore, is virtually never, as you said, what we want to do but, like candidates for public office, you rarely get what they propose to achieve that goal.
That said, I'm not a teacher. I defend them and their union--though I certainly don't defend all teachers as there are stinkers out there, like anywhere else. I don't belong to a union, either. You might google it if you'd like but I have no idea what the AFT or NEA or any other union proposes to get better grades from students. I'll check with a friend who is and see if he can tell me.
mr
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