About my post on the Wisconsin teachers, scribbled in high dudgeon this morning, I have received a good deal of mail. I will publish some of it in due course. I’d like to add just a couple of thoughts now.
One thing about all these teachers — 40 percent of the union — calling in “sick”? They’re lying. And it’s not nice to lie, yes? These are the adults, of course, who are expected to set examples for “the children”: those vaunted children in whose name the unionists pretend to be doing everything they do.
What’s little Susie supposed to say? “Good to have you back, Miss Brown. We heard you were sick. Are you feeling better? Did you go to the doctor?” What does Miss Brown say, in response? “I was just lying, honey: I called in sick to protest our evil Republican governor.”
Furthermore, the taxpayer, in his generosity, provides sick leave. It is not supposed to be used for making political protests and shafting your students.
Then there is the sheer lack of civic spirit being demonstrated by these teachers. Americans are seriously hurting now, economically. There are people who have been out of work for years. There are people who have taken pay cuts. Lots of people have had to suck it up.
Are members of public-employee unions willing to give a little? Willing to cut the taxpayer some slack? Not on your life. They expect the taxpayer to keep forking it over, in great wheelbarrows — wheelbarrows overflowing with cash. Well, it ain’t there: The wheelbarrows are getting low.
(I’m talking and ranting like a guy who’s seen one too many Chris Christie videos. Although, for my money, you can never get too many Chris Christie videos. For us righties, they are the porn of our time.)
In a previous era, long ago, teachers were rather like missionaries. You practically had to take a vow of poverty to be a teacher. Often, a teacher ate at students’ homes. And a teacher would do things like painting houses in the summer, to tide him over until the school year started.
And yet teachers were esteemed in the community, as people who were doing great things for us all.
I would never go back to the days of missionary-teachers. They ought to be generously compensated. (Shouldn’t we all.) But good grief: These grasping, lying, bullying unionists are enough to give the teaching profession a bad name. And they have done it now for years.
The teachers of Madison, Wis., are calling in “sick” on the parents and children of the community. I wish, somehow, the people could call in sick on them. I will repeat what I said this morning: I wish the public could fire them — and replace them with men and women who were willing to teach, and who would use their sick leave for sickness.
Well, why can't they be fired?
That is my question. Who says teachers or any other group of public employees have to be unionized? In fact, who says the government needs to run the schools? But, OK, one thing at a time.
The only groups that I would permit to be unionized are those old standbys Police, Fire & Prison Guards. I can justify those workers being in Unions because I am well aware that they often get caught in the middle and may well NEED union protection.
As for the rest, I say disband the unions and be done with it. I say this as a person who had two parents who were unionized civil servants, but my siblings and I all recoiled in horror when our mother told us that between holidays, sick days, personal days etc. she would be entitled to 60 working days off a year. I may not remember that number correctly, but I do remember our shock. And yes, my brothers and I were already paying her salary. That was NYC if anyone cares.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBreaking the government unions is something that needs to be done and a good first step. But by itself it won't solve the problem with the education system.
It is time to ask the more important question. Why do K-12 teachers get tenure? Seriously. Tenure is a system designed to protect free inquiry in the academic world of the university, where it serves an important role. But have you heard of a K-12 teacher publishing an academic paper, controversial or not? Probably not. And they should not be protected from controversy in the first place. We don't hire K-12 teachers to be outside the box thinkers, we expect them to teach a rigid state endorsed cirriculum using approved by committee methods. What part of that needs the protection of tenure? All tenure in K-12 education does is make a teacher immune to any worry about job performance.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJay write for NRO so therefore he is a knuckle-dragging Neocon troglodyte whose only mission in life is to help evil corporations......
I know that's not true Jay, but none of the things in your earlier post were true about my fellow Texas teachers and I either. As a side note I'm probably to the Right of you, but since your earlier post painted with such a wide brush you had it coming in a "good for the goose" kind of way.
Not every state is like New Jersey, and obviously Wisconsin. Why don't you ask a Texas teacher about our "powerful" Unions.
You may have heard that the Lone Star state has a bit of a budget hole this year. School districts across the state are laying off teachers and staff or preparing to do so this summer. It appears that the mandated 22-1 ratio in grades KG-4 will be out the window as well. You have not and will not hear a peep from any teachers union in Texas other than information about what to expect.
Please also note that the Texas map is mighty red these days.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe problem is that there are ridiculous rules for becoming a teacher that were created to keep the most useless department at the University level in business. I have two master's degrees in Education and they're both worth about a plug nickel. Let people with an undergraduate degree jump in and do their best--the certification process only serves to keep qualified and willing people out.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy are you surprised when public employees call in "sick"?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnder most DROP plans, they can put in their required 20 or 25 or 30 years, call in "retired", but immediately go back to work (without accruing further pension rights, but having the skipped employer pension contributions deposited into 401Ks) - - now ya' get a better than private sector defined benefit pension AND a nice farewell gift.
RudyG - thanks for the reminder.
To me that's a reason to get education as much away from the government as possible, so that individuals can prioritize for themselves in tough times how much they want to spend on their child's education. It may well be more than what TX is currently spending.
Problem in WI is you don't have that option, you only have the choice how much you want to spend on union slush funds AKA "defined-benefit" pension schemes and cadillac health plans.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I know that's not true Jay, but none of the things in your earlier post were true about my fellow Texas teachers and I either."
Here's hoping you don't teach English. (From what I have observed, you very well could.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOK, that was harsh. I should have found some way or other to say that more gently. My apologies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo Hardcastle......after years of coaching I now teach PE at an elementary. You can tell I haven't had to worry about some pri@* correcting my sentence structure in some time.
If it caused my thoughts to be hard to interpret for you, I apologize.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, that's good. I was hoping you were a coach.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm a teacher, and a reluctant union member. I don't support tenure, although barring profound readjustments in compensation and portability, I don't see any better alternative.
All that said, I don't see why all this absurd outrage about the "sickout". If the coordination offends you, so be it. And of course, their outrage over the cuts is equally absurd.
But teachers are allowed to take three or four days a year as "sick" days. Most sick days have to be used for an actual illness or medical appointments. However, teachers are allowed a few days a year that they can use just to take the day off. Those days are called "sick" days.
So lighten up on all the hyperbole. The teachers didn't lie, nor did they do anything unethical by taking the day off. Yell at them for coordination and wreaking economic havoc, by all means. But lying about being sick? Please. It's not only hypocritical (like corporate America doesn't take "sick" days?), it's simply inaccurate.
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Schools generally only allow for so many teachers to call in sick/personal day (someone on another forum said one particular school in Madison allows only 5 teachers to be out per day).
In the private sector, you usually have to give notice if you're taking a personal day (a week per day in advance is what I was told, generally). And increasingly, the private sector is clamping down on sick days by sending out private detectives. All this to say that it's not necessarily "acceptable" to just call in "sick" whenever you like.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a California state employee with over 37 years in the job, I can only say that in California, unions are not that powerful. We took a 14% pay cut with the furloughs, lost two holidays, and increased our contribution to our retirement from five percent to eight percent.
California is a very Democrat state because of illegal immigration (we have 13 percent of the population and 30 percent of the welfare costs, for instance). Yet state employees have little power. Workers in the city and county of Sacramento didn't suffer furloughs as we did, and enjoy higher pay.
That said, I always felt we were paid fairly, if not lavishly or even very well (no COLAs for years). So, why have a union?
My fear is the conservative hatred of public employees, whipped up by talk radio hosts such as Michael Medved, who claimed public employees were 'raping' the taxpayer, will hurt public employees even more in their desire to 'get even'.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Most sick days have to be used for an actual illness or medical appointments. However, teachers are allowed a few days a year that they can use just to take the day off. Those days are called "sick" days."
Care to cite your contract language which states that teachers are given sick leave "just to take the day off?" Something tells me that this idea of a "day off" as sick leave isn't actually allowed by your contract but rather a practice that teachers within your district engage in out of habit or custom. If your district operates like most, you fill out a form and sign your name affirming that 1. you were ill; 2. an immediate fmily member was ill; or 3. you or an immediate family member required hospitalization. I seriously doubt that there is a "just needed a day off" option.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFighting to retain the basic right to collective bargaining as a deficit of civic spirit? 9/10 for creativity.
Histrionic pearl-clutching over the dire atrocity of teachers calling in sick? Sorry, only 6/10 for drama - NEEDS WORK.
Morphing your wish to put more Americans out of work into a high-minded desire for justice? 8/10 for artistic merit. Those salad days of warblogging have really paid dividends.
Too bad none of those subjects can redeem the utter eye-stinging pungency of the actual content itself. You get a D-, & may God have mercy on your soul.
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