NEAT - info about SPPS budget: http://tinyurl.com/3gt66 _________________________________________ Terry O�Brien Menke wrote:
�Many factors influence how well the budget dollars impact the classroom. For example, rising health care costs and an increase in the number of teachers high on the salary scale are factors that impact whether dollars make it into the classroom. What are the factors, and how can they be controlled? How much money is needed to facilitate a productive, engaged learning experience for students?� Thank-you Terry, for your well put questions. Teachers in District 625 are compensated according to a system known as �Steps and Lanes�. That is (A.) How long has the teacher been with the district (Steps) and (B.) Whether the teacher has an undergraduate or graduate degree (Lanes). The problem with this system is easy to recognize. First of all, the length of service really means nothing more than how long a teacher has physically been in a classroom and secondly the only thing that any diploma absolutely guarantees with certainty is that the recipient does not owe the issuing institution any money. This system serves the interests of no one but the union leadership and the mediocre, the jaded or the inept few teachers who would be much better served in another field altogether. It is the standard way blue collar factory workers have been paid for decades, and it also serves to exclude any possibility of rewarding excellence or punishing incompetence because it inherently excludes any qualitative measurement of performance. The idea of �accountability�, as it is taken to mean any qualitative measure of performance in a given task is an anathema to teachers unions nationwide. This fact is one that past board member Becky Montgomery is now thoroughly familiar with. Ms. Montgomery was a vocal supporter of Superintendent Harvey�s attempt to instill real accountability (as described above) into the district. During the next election, the AFT removed it�s endorsement and installed someone more to their liking. The fact that it was Ms. Montgomery�s support of accountability that cost her the election is widely known--SPFT made sure of that. After the election, the first (and only) item on the agenda for the first meeting of the board was to give Superintendent Harvey a �new perspective� on what constituted acceptable accountability according to the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers. I was in attendance at that meeting, as were SPFT President Ian Keith and his three, new, union endorsed, board members (although they had not yet been sworn in). As a result of this show of force, Dr. Harvey agreed to remove all aspects of enforcement and to incorporate the type of cryptoclastic methods of measurement that any failing school administrator or teacher can easily hide behind. (Perhaps the teeth that were removed at that meeting were the ones Mr. Oertwig installed in the districts �right to organize policy� ;-) How does this type of manipulation help the struggling students of Dayton�s Bluff Elementary? Of course it doesn�t. But academic excellence is not a unions job! The SPFT and every other teachers union in the country exist to secure high paying jobs for their members and to fight against any measures that cast a shadow over them or reduce their control over public education..period. But the unions are not to blame for the current state of affairs in public education: WE ARE. We are the one�s who continually vote for candidates who bear the �union label�. We are the ones gullible enough to believe that since a union has the words �Education� or Teacher� in their names that they automatically have our children�s best interest at heart. They don�t! Hey, don�t take my word for this. Here is what past NEA President Robert Chase said during an address entitled �Reinventing Teachers Unions for a New Era� presented to the National Press Club in 1997: �I campaigned for and was elected president of the NEA to make a difference for children, by recreating--by fundamentally recreating---NEA as the champion of quality teaching and quality public schools in the United States.� �Bear in mind that, for nearly three decades now, the NEA has been a traditional, somewhat narrowly focused union. We have butted heads with management over bread-and-butter issues--to win better salaries, benefits, and working conditions for school employees. And we have succeeded.� �Today, however, it is clear to me--and to a critical mass of teachers across America--that while this narrow, traditional agenda remains important, it is utterly inadequate to the needs of the future. It will not serve our members� interest in greater professionalism. It will not serve the public�s interests in better quality public schools. And it will not serve the interests of America�s children.� �The fact is that, in some instances, we have used our power to block uncomfortable changes--to protect the narrow interests of our members, and not to advance the interests of students and schools.� As one might expect, these sentiments did not go over well among the unions power brokers. Here is an excerpt from a response signed by the eight presidents and executive directors of NEA�s Wisconsin locals: �What is most profoundly disturbing is your acknowledgement that traditional industrial style teachers unions have brought major improvements to public education, and then to proceed to debauch these accomplishments with the insight that it�s time to create a new union. We are union and we are proud, we stand in solidarity..� �Members pay dues for us to promote their interests. Why should we accept the responsibility for poor teaching quality in light of inadequate teacher preparation programs at schools of education..� �We contrast your comments with the reinvigoration of the AFL-CIO leadership accepting the challenge to return to its roots, to organize and challenge employers all over the United States. It�s time that the NEA joins the labor movement, renews its commitment to its members, and moves forward in its quest on behalf of education employees across the nation.� What was Mr. Chase�s criminal plan for reinventing the NEA? He wanted to create an association of PROFESSIONALS in the mold of the American Medical Association. He believed that teachers would be better served if the NEA insured high wages through an oversight intended to maintain standards of excellence among the teaching profession. He wished the association might have a greater role in the education that educator's recieve. He has the audacity to suggest that it was not in the best interest of the teachers or their students to band together for nothing more than to argue with school administrators and their employers: the constituents of the districts--us. Mr. Chase was a visionary, but for his reactionary anti-trade union views he was also the owner of one of the shortest NEA presidencies on record. The union power brokers evidently feel that teachers are best served by treating them as unskilled laborers--by keeping them under the belief that they must not rely on their own skills and passion to be rewarded. Teachers are led to believe that only by protecting the weakest, the most inept in their ranks are their jobs secure. Next: What does all of this have to do with budget shortfalls? Tom Swift __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools _____________________________________________ SPPS Budget Reduction Forum - Feb. 23-27 Co-Sponsored By NEAT: http://www.stpaulneat.org/ _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
