Like most of you, I imagine, I’ve been paying lots of attention to the labor issues in Wisconsin and Ohio. The controlling Republican administrations in those states want to take current state budget crises and parlay them into opportunities to weaken or destroy public unions.
In Facebook interchanges this week I’ve been communicating with a former high school student, now an upstanding family man, who states clearly the purpose of unions is a thing of the past. Let public workers take their jobs or leave ‘em. His own wife works in education, and his advice to her is the same. Don’t like your job? Quit and find another one. That’s what I have to deal with.
Another complaint of his comes from bad teachers. Both good teachers and bad make the same money and get the same benefits. Fire the bad ones and reward the good ones with jobs. I do understand his issues, but I sure don’t agree with them.
First off, let me say that as a retired public school teacher, I knew colleagues who I thought weren’t doing their jobs. Most times I walked past one classroom, the teacher was reading the newspaper while students did seat work. Other times I’d walk by and I heard the teacher putting a kid down soundly while other students laughed. It was chilling to listen to and I didn’t like it.
Still, all teachers have administrative bosses -- called principals -- whose job it is to evaluate performance. Every contract I ever worked under had provisions for all teachers, even those under continuing contracts, to be reviewed. Regardless of the teacher, administration had powers to work with staff to improve performance. I always concluded that if administrators knew a teacher was doing a bad job, it was their job to intercede and follow procedure to improve that performance. Bad teaching is not a permanent problem. Make changes or remove the teacher. It was in the contract.
Lots of conservatives bitch about the National Education Association (NEA), the union I belonged to all through my career. As a labor union, the NEA most often sides with Democrats. I suppose they would support Republicans if the GOP acted like they cared about workers, but they largely don’t. I’ve always known the NEA to support teachers, but also students. The organization has always been in the forefront in updating standards and professional training. The NEA offers grants, writing contests, and curriculum samples. The NEA is more than a union, it’s a professional organization. You could look it up: http://www.nea.org/.
I know I worked hard in my career and made a decent living. I could never live an extravagant lifestyle, that’s for sure, but I did okay. Being a teacher gave me a good middle class living. I paid my taxes, even local taxes in a municipality where I did not live. I paid into my retirement the whole time, too. Yes, I was a public employee, but I always felt like I was giving back to the community. Even when I spent my own money to decorate my classroom which I did every year, along with every other good teacher I’ve ever known. Many of us willingly spent money out of our own pockets to make our classrooms more attractive and student friendly.
As a member of my local public school union, I also served on its governing board a couple of years, though I never took part in negotiations. As of member of that union, I felt I was taking a responsible role enhancing education in that community. Trust me, my job was way more than a paycheck. It was a true avocation. Most of us felt that way, too.
It hurts me to think that conservative Ohioans see me as a freeloader or enemy of the state. I was always proud of my work and the kids I taught. Taking power away from the teachers' union is one heck of a way to reward employees for a caring career well done.
Today’s elder idea: I wrote this letter to the Dayton Daily News editor a couple weeks ago. It ran in today’s edition (Friday, 25 February 2011):
I am sure Gov. Kasich and his crew of anti-public sector Republican cohorts now controlling all of Ohio’s state government offices would want nothing more than to have all public schools transformed into charter schools. That way salaries could be cut, benefits gutted, and any chance of faculty negotiating better contracts for their families a thing of yesteryear. Let’s return to the practices of the Gilded Age when big business only had the best interest of Ohioans at heart. And I wonder why the good governor didn’t run campaign ads promoting his intent to disregard public unions? Oh, that’s right. You get more votes by spending money on ads trashing your opponent than telling the electorate what you really want to do if elected.
Tom Schaefer
Harrison Township
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