A Conundrum For Wisconsin Teachers & Democrats

The battleground. (HT Theguidetotheus.com)



The teachers unions in Wisconsin have put themselves in a bind. From National Review Online:

"So far the angry teachers of Wisconsin have not yet won over the public. They have not convinced the majority that, in an age of staggering budget deficits, they — or, indeed, public employees in general — must as a veritable birthright enjoy salary, benefits, and pensions on average far more generous than those of their private-sector counterparts, who make up the majority of taxpayers.

Teachers are right that the crisis transcends compensation. Yet why, others might ask, would teachers’ unions oppose merit pay? Why should someone who did not join the union still have to pay its dues? Why should the state have to collect the dues from employee paychecks on behalf of the union? Moreover, when these questions are posed amid a landscape of teachers skipping classes to protest, urging students to join them, and soliciting fraudulent doctors’ notes to cover their cancellations of classes — while their supporters in the legislature hide out to prevent a quorum and thereby subvert the democratic process reaffirmed last November — the public becomes further estranged from their cause."

The teachers went astray when they fibbed about calling in sick so they could protest and followed it up with those bogus doctors notices. Furthermore, did the teachers have the parents permission to have the students join them??

The conundrum gets deeper. From Hot Air:

"Given the disaster that union contracts and especially pension plans have become in most states, we can expect to see this fight take place everywhere in the nation, including on the federal level. Unions have a conundrum in this crisis as well; the more they flex their muscles to maintain their status quo and block the serious downsizing that most people want government to conduct, the more it will expose their grip on politicians and make it even more urgent to dismantle their grip on power.

We have finally come in Madison to the basic question: will voters control government and public policy, or will the unions? Don’t kid yourselves into thinking the unions don’t understand that, either. They know exactly what’s at stake in the Battle of Mad Town, and that’s why they’re throwing everything they have into winning it."

Which is why Democrats and unions must be defeated. Sarah Palin makes this plain:

"Hard working, patriotic, and selfless union brothers and sisters: please don’t be taken in by the union bosses. At the end of the day, they’re not fighting for your pension or health care plan or even for the sustainability of Wisconsin’s education budget. They’re fighting to protect their own powerful privileges and their own political clout. The agenda for too many union bosses is a big government agenda that only serves the union bosses themselves – not union members, not union families, and certainly not the larger community. Everybody else is just there to foot the bill; and if that bill eventually takes the form of thousands of teachers and other public sector workers losing their jobs because the state of Wisconsin can no longer afford to keep them on the payroll, that’s a risk the union bosses are willing to take as long as their positions are secure. Union brothers and sisters: you are better than this and you deserve better. Don’t be led astray."

Amen. Don't go down with the union bosses. They're not worth it.

Background Reading:

NRO: On Teachers and Others
Hot Air: Palin to Wisconsin: Do not let unions bully you

NEA Is About Power, Not The Children

Looks Like They're not "for the children" after all. (HT Ysletateachers.org)



Let's cut to the chase. Check out the comments made from the NEA’s annual meeting in July, 2009:

CHANIN: “Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.”

“And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year, because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.”

“This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.”

So in other words, collective bargaining rights come first, and the children are on the back burner, if they're on the stove at all.

Here's the question I propose: What's the primary purpose of schools, to educate kids, or to provide jobs, benefits,and pensions for union workers? According to Bob Chanin, it's the latter. The taxpayers that pay his salary hwo want to reign in the unions believe it's the former. Given how schools for the most part have underperformed, with scandals involving some of the folks who run them, shouldn't somebody be protesting that??

Background Reading:

Fox News: Teachers Union Big Wig Says It's Not About Kids, It's About Power!

17 Year Old Gets The Wisconsin Issue

On Wisconsin. (HT 50States.com)



Something very interesting happened yesterday. From RushLimbaugh.com:

RUSH: We have Lena on the phone from Madison, Wisconsin, 17 years old. Am I pronouncing your name right, Lena? Is that it?

CALLER: Yes, you are.

RUSH: Thank you very much. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Yes. I'm so excited. I was at the capitol all week this week for a government leadership class, and as we were walking around the capitol one of the main signs that the union it printed out said, "Care about our educators the way they care about your children," and I found that incredibly ironic, since what they were essentially saying with all their other signs is -- other than your student will feel the brunt of this bill -- was that they weren't going to teach as well if they had to pay a minuscule amount of their pensions and their insurance costs. And I just found that ironic that they said that they cared about them so much that they wouldn't teach them as well if they didn't get as much money. I found that incredibly ironic. Also another thing I was saddened by was that one of the nights that they stayed overnight, they had doughnuts the next day, and they had such disrespect for our state constitution that they put their doughnuts and coffee on top of it. I was just so saddened by that, amazed that there they were saying that they were exercising their rights, but they didn't want their --

RUSH: So they actually...? I want to go back to the first part of your comment. They have signs that say, "Be as respectful of us as we are..."?

CALLER: "Care about our educators the way they care about your children."

RUSH: Well, but they don't care about the students! It's obvious! They're lying about calling in sick.

CALLER: Exactly!

RUSH: They're not sick. They're leaving you up for grabs, and you're not in school.

CALLER: I'm actually homeschooled, so I was just amazed. I'm like, "Really? You don't even care about them enough to give them your same work ethic even if you're not getting as much money?"

RUSH: Wow, that's amazing. This is encouraging. You're 17, did you say?

CALLER: I am, yes.

RUSH: You got teachers running around here. If they cared, if the teachers unions cared about the kids, their scholastic scores wouldn't be in the toilet. Your scholastic scores are pretty high, I'll bet.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: You're doing well in your grades, right?

CALLER: I am.

RUSH: This is interesting. Well, look, I'm glad that you called. This is just wonderful to hear from you. She's 17 years old and she nailed it.

CALLER: (giggles) (garbled)

RUSH: Lena, you know, you're able to spot the irony, the hypocrisy right in front of you. Congratulations. I appreciate the time you've taken to call here. That's why when people say, "What can we do to involve the yutes," get 'em to tune in to this program. Homeschool them; get 'em to tune in to this program. Just like in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood wants Scott Walker to tear up the Wisconsin Constitution and write a new one. That's exactly what's happening here.

What stands out to me about Lena's comments was that she saw the hypocrisy in the union slogan, "Care about our educators the way they care about your children." Very perceptive. What also stood out is her noticing the Union protesters "disrespect for our state constitution that they put their doughnuts and coffee on top of it." They don't respect themselves, much less the law of the land.

My Take: The Unions care for the children is in doubt. Especially when graduation rates and test scores are low, scandals keep coming out about financial corruption amongst school board and union leaders, and teachers shutting down classrooms in part by lying about calling in sick so they can "protest".

Background Reading:

RushLimbaugh.com: Seventeen Year Old Nails It

Your Tax Dollars At Work: Another Vegas Junket, Baby!!!

What is it about this place?? (HT CBSChicago.com)



There's another Vegas Junket on the taxpayers dime to report. From CBSChicago.com:

"The Chicago Public Schools system is suffering from a $700 million budget shortfall. So why did some educators travel to Las Vegas just days after a travel restriction was ordered?

CBS 2′s Dave Savini and the Better Government Association investigated questionable spending of school tax dollars and how children are impacted.

Former Scammon Elementary School teacher Laura Hoffman is angry that 14 of her Chicago Public School co-workers went on an all-expense paid trip to a Las Vegas resort and spa for a conference last year.

“That’s what happened. Does it make sense? No,” Hoffman said. “I think parents need to be aware what is happening.”

Hoffman quit her job at Scammon Elementary last year and says school officials should not have spent the $15,000 on the conference in Las Vegas while city schools are hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

The school’s principal, Mary Weaver, went on the trip with her staff and allegedly missed their own school’s report card pick up day.

Hoffman said that time is “the biggest night for teachers to talk with parents.”

That's pretty strong stuff. The usual school officials lavishing money on themselves trick. Then it gets twisted:

"Michael Presnell is one of the students who says he was not getting his services, until his family spent years fighting for them. He says he still is not getting all that he is supposed to get, but he is receiving more than other special education students.

“Some kids — they just ignore them,” said the teen, who added that some special education students were simply placed in a room where horrible things happened.

Edwina Meyer was in that room last fall when she says classmates repeatedly engaged in sex acts. Teachers back up her story and say the room lacked proper staffing."

Lacking proper staffing is the least of that school's problems. Yet, the CPS can't figure out why parents are angry all the time?? Now for the numbers:

"The Better Government Association’s Andy Shaw says action needs to be taken.

He says the entire Board of Education needs an intervention. An analysis of an internal CPS investigation found hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasteful spending by Chicago School Board members.

Tax dollars were spent on champagne costing $125 a bottle; thousands more on limousines, steak lunches and a food and liquor bill from a Soldier Field skybox event that alone cost more than $6,000.

“The Board of Education has to investigate this,” Shaw said. ”Someone is not doing their job.”

It's a lot more than just one person. Paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, we need to reduce the influence of teachers unions and school boards, and put the school back in the hands of the Principals, Teachers, and Parents.

Background Reading:

CBSChicago.com: Taxpayers Send Teachers To Vegas Resort