TEACHER STRIKE
So here I am writing about what I studied in official school
again. More on the ‘crisis’ in the
public schools, the teacher strike and money allocation….
I am against teachers striking. I participated in a short strike once and it
had long term detrimental effects in the school district. The schools stayed open but ‘scab’
substitutes filled in and no educating took place, except that the kids maybe
learned something about the adults going at each other. A teacher strike is inappropriate.
In Arizona, the educational edifice already commands a large
portion of all the state revenue, while producing mediocre overall results, high
administrative salaries and perks, teachers and students shorted in salaries
and materials, giant high schools far from the students, expensive busing and a
paucity of programs using internet classes below the Community College
level.
The ‘traditional’ high school is rigid in structure, time
and attendance, but is not rigid in teaching the students to think for
themselves instead of expecting them to regurgitate liberal Pablum. These schools are too large, creating crowd
control problems and difficulties in defense.
Why not have very local small high schools with excellent internet
classes, on site classes, tutoring and assistance? Break up those huge schools into manageable units
that don’t require a giant bus system, and close enough students could walk or
bicycle to school. Charter schools are
operating all over the state in private quarters and the public schools should
also. Existing huge schools could be
turned into community centers, vocational education centers, clinics, apartments…..They
have nice grounds and space and are valuable properties. Take those monster schools out of the public
domain and privatize, generating tax revenue instead of gobbling it up. Just think of a school budget without a
Maintenance and Operation budget, but with a lease instead, a fixed cost free
of costly repairs. A predictable,
negotiable cost rather than a wild card 50 year old building with corroded
plumbing.
Right now, school boards are controlling the spending in
each designated school district and some are abusing the privilege of managing
tax money. Some punky little shits
called superintendents are raking in huge salaries and benefits, while the
students go without equipment and materials and teachers are not paid enough. The school board travels to Washington DC for
a conference from little Tucson Arizona
while the kids suffer a high dropout rate, discipline is difficult and the
infighting on the school boards prove the distress in the system. Free day care for all employees comes out of
district money while students fight outside the high school while
administrators are nowhere to be seen.
The mismanagement of received funds, the boondoggle of ‘bond issues’ to
build huge edifices expensive to maintain at taxpayer expense while kickbacks
flow and some ‘superintendents’ get huge payouts for being incompetent. These fools on the school boards will sign any
goddam contract anybody puts in front of them.
And this ‘bonus’ crap! If
somebody signs a contract to do a job, a bonus should not be required
ever. Budgets need fixed costs, not some
jerk deciding whether to give employees a bonus or not based on who bent over
the quickest. The system is corrupt and
needs mandated spending guidelines passed by the legislature. The waste is enormous and the taxpayers are
being asked to give the school districts even more money, at the expense of the
rest of the state.
I am in favor of
school choice. Charter schools are great
and they allow parents to choose a focused program and offer small class sizes
and other social benefits for students.
The original public schools were built at community government expense
because there were no schools. Now there
are many schools and buildings but the main stumbling block is the lack of a
state curriculum.
The state of Arizona is responsible for high school
graduation requirements and a curriculum to match. I say the state is responsible, but that does
not mean they fulfill that responsibility.
We do not need common core. We
need educators in Arizona to write a basic curricular framework for the high
school subjects basic to a college education and basic for community college
and basic for the high school graduate who will be a functioning citizen. Government and citizenship must be taught and
no student should graduate without a basic Constitution test.
This leads to another problem. The validity of the High School Diploma must
be maintained. I recommend several types
to avoid the attendance versus achievement hassle. Do not give the same diploma to a student
who is in special programs and who cannot read very well to a normal student
who actually passed the state requirements and graduated with skills. I knew
a kid once who could read very little but could take an engine apart and repair
it. Why not a vocational diploma?
The teacher walkout will strip the schools of their
substitute budget if they stay open and will hugely inconvenience parents who
will have an instant babysitting problem. Education will be disrupted. A strike is a bad idea and the parents will
suffer. It’s not fair to the parents or
the students.
I am amazed that the teachers are taking the side of the
existing order when a change would so obviously assist them and their
students. The school districts should
cut spending in the nonacademic areas and reallocate the funds to the
classrooms and teacher salaries. No
more free cars, no more administrative travel, no more free memberships, no
more free insurance while others pay, just come to work like the rest. Pay for your own expenses. I think no more than 20% should go to administration: after all, that is one fifth of the whole
budget to how many people? Maybe that’s
too much.
I have heard board
members state that good administrative candidates are expensive, while ignoring
the local dedicated professionals who would do the job better for less money
because they actually care about the job, rather than commanding excessive
money in a display of puffery and greed.
Whatever happened to dedication?
Hire the dedicated, rather than the social climbers and the kickback
takers from huge building deals brokered with tax money. The teachers are being manipulated to support
a position detrimental to their own stated goals.
Is it the unions?
Professional agitators? I think
the unions push for the status quo where their reps get free time, a gift of
public funds to do union ‘business’ and it has been my experience that the
teachers’ unions work closely with administration while maintain their own
perks and status. The teachers need to
accept new leadership and understand that their position will be augmented by a
new spending formula.
If some changes in the spending formula are not implemented,
the Charter School Movement will gradually overtake the public schools,
siphoning off students until the size of the districts will be diminished.
A few suggestions:
·
Divest of the huge schools and form smaller,
safer, local schools.
·
Use private enterprise buildings for schools
·
Cut out busing and use the local bus system,
which needs financial support
·
Expand course offerings through internet classes
·
Institute a State Curriculum without which a
school may not receive state student funds
·
Phase out the top heavy administration and limit
administrative salaries and perks
·
Institute a school district spending formula
that assures the money gets to students and teachers
The educational scene has changed considerably due to the
rise of Charter Schools and school choice.
The voucher program should be available to all students, however I know
it is a pilot program but the choice should be available to all, even in a
pilot program. It smacks of favoritism,
otherwise. If it’s not for everyone, it
will not pass. The unions are afraid of
the voucher idea, because they think it will cause a flight from the public
schools.
The public school teachers are going to get a spending
formula imposed and they may end up with a voucher program that will cut enrollment
in the public schools due to parental dissatisfaction. If they’re looking for a job, then they can
apply to the nearest politicized school to continue working…..they may find the
parents are actually interested in their children learning to judge for
themselves, rather than repeating adult slogans. –Dorothy
Prater Niemi
