Central Falls. This ain’t bean bag.
Mr. Dooley.
When Central Falls, Rhode Island fired all its teachers it should have been a lesson to every teacher union leader in the country.
Check out my earlier discussion with IEA Prez Ken Swanson and Government Relations Director Jim Reed.
The late mayor Harold Washington use to quote the Chicago journalist Finley Peter Dunne’s imaginary bar room philosopher, Mr Dooley. Dooley would say, “Politics ain’t bean bag.” Mr. Dooley knew that Chicago was a rough and tumble town and the political sharks will chew you up if you’re not tough enough.
Central Falls shows that the fight for our schools ain’t bean bag. The education sharks will chew you up if you’re not tough enough.
Some of our union leaders think they’re being oh-so-wise by sitting down at the table. Let’s look at what they’ve ordered off the menu.
Now they themselves are pushing through legislation that takes the power to determine teacher evaluations out of the hands of locals to negotiate.
Now they themselves are claiming that the fight for collective bargaining is over.
Now they themselves are claiming that our own unions need to show that we are not opposed to firing teachers. We should forget about the hard-won rights of due process.
For a few Duncan Dollars, they’re willing to sit at the table. Sitting at the table is not the problem. The problem is that once at the table they show no heart for the fight.
The enemies of public schools and teacher unions are ready and willing to fight.
Imagine. All that the teachers at Central Falls in Rhode Island wanted was to negotiate rules and compensation for plans to extend the school day. Rather than negotiate, the board of education fired them all. Obama’s school boss Arne Duncan praised the firing of the teachers as courageous, with mounting evidence that the idea came out of those in the USDE to begin with.
Last July at the NEA convention in San Diego, Duncan sat with NEA Prez Dennis Van Roekel and swore that he wanted to work with the unions. He swore that his agenda was to make change with teachers, not to teachers.
Tell that to the teachers at Central Falls.
Great post. True, powerful, and so sad.
The party line about negotiating with the union is no longer viable as failing schools across the country are finally being held accountable for the lack of student achievement. If you haven’t noticed, the educational system in our country is in major crisis. If we don’t start turning out a more well educated citizenry we will end up a second rate power before you know it. The status quo of poor teaching can no longer be accepted. So let me know if you think our schools are doing a good job.
The teachers in Central Falls were given every opportunity to negotiate. The superintendent offered them $30/hr for more after school PD but the teachers wanted $90 and guarantees of total job security. Instead of taking the opportunity to turn the negotiations in their favor by proposing their own plan for improvement and to focus on the children, they did the predictable thing that they always do – make it about money.
The fact is that the elementary teachers in Central Falls are doing very well. Eighth grade scores have been going up significantly for the past several years. But the high school scores continue to fall. Only the hs teachers were fired. Urban schools all over the country are beginning to figure out how to turn things around.
We can no longer sit back and accept the poor results we have been getting. So this is not about the enemies of public schools and teacher unions wanting to fight, as you would have some believe. It is only about trying to improve educational opportunities for our poorest children. There are a lot of wonderful teachers who do amazing things everyday. But there are way too many poor teachers, maybe a third, who shouldn’t be teaching. Why do you want to protect them? The teachers unions do themselves no favor by looking out for themselves and protecting their weakest members. They need to begin to raise their own standards, help their struggling members to improve, and focus more on the needs of their students.
Your tough stance about the need for tough politics is looking more and more like a pile of wet beans. I’d like to see you get tough about getting better results, holding people at all levels of education accountable, and being positive about our political process that is finally trying to improve the quality of life our country.
Thanks for the rant, Mark.
Party line? What party would that be, exactly? Like any good Marxist (Groucho, that is), I would never join a party that would have me as a member.
I love it when some guy who doesn’t know me questions what I’m aware of. We may differ on what qualifies as a crisis, though. Or what is the cause. Or if the point of sending our children to schools is to enlist them in a global battle for economic hegemony.
But you’re right Mark. Unlike other people who work for a living, when their employer wanted them to work longer hours and do more work, these god damn Central Falls teachers wanted to talk about money. That’s exactly what’s wrong with America these days!
My daddy use to say, “Y’know what they call work you do for free? A hobby.”
Actually, my daddy wasn’t that clever. But somebody said it.
Oh, and where exactly does your data come from when you claim a third of the country’s teachers are no good? Source please? Or did you just blow that number out of your ass?
Thanks for your suggestions. It’s always good to have a friend of labor giving us good ideas on how to do things better.
I am a friend of labor – when labor does the right thing. I have been a member of the teachers union for a long time. I get my data first hand from working in schools for the past 30 years. Many or them urban schools. The system is broken at all levels and there is more than enough blame to go around. Teachers in every school are fed up with poor teachers but are coerced into circling the wagons to protect their own. Ask any teacher any teacher and they will agree that 30% is conservative. When was the last time you were in a school, spoke with a teacher, or talked to a parent of a failing student? (not asuming – just asking)
I agree teachers should be compensated for their work and they are underpaid for the amount of work they do, but they can’t continue to have it both ways. Get highe and more pay for continued poor results. That’s just crazy. I am all for paying them more as long as we get better results and we can’t get better results with poor teachers in the classroom. When we fix that problem communities will be getting what they pay for.
But it’s good to keep the dialogue alive.
Marc
Marc,
To answer your question: I have been a teacher in a school with 20% of the student population Special Needs. Ten as local president of my union. Thanks for your responses. Time to move on.
-Fred
It’s always illuminating to listen to yet one more voice spouting the absurd view that teachers, and teachers only, are responsible for what happens in schools. As I read stories of charters that blatantly exclude kids who’d drag down statistics, and massive emails between Eva Moskowitz and Joel Klein that reveal Klein is basically in the business of doing whatever she wants, and the phenomenon of closing schools, with new ones opening and accepting none of the kids that would affect their stats, as I read Diane Ravitch’s blistering expose on this nonsense, I wonder how many people will persist in believing the nonsense in the tabloids, and indeed the entire MSM.
Any teacher would say 30% of our colleagues are incompetent? I’d bet two teachers on this thread would say no such thing. Telling others what they think is not precisely dialogue, and that’s particularly true when the speaker is so sorely deficient in mind-reading skills.