DCPS teacher says she is burned out -- but there's more

[Anonymous]

Bust the unions as they do not represent the best interests of the children! Teachers are getting a meal ticket; working 190 days a year with long vacations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bust the unions as they do not represent the best interests of the children! Teachers are getting a meal ticket; working 190 days a year with long vacations.

you want very skinny teachers and year-round schooling?

[Anonymous]

At this point the WTU does not seem to be doing much for teachers. As for the meal ticket part- I know teachers who could qualify for food stamps based on salary. When all parents represent the best interest for children maybe things will change. But when parents refuse to be accountable for any part of their child's learning and or behavior the school system has no consequences for the children or the parents. How can teachers be expected to do all that they do without any support or protections?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bust the unions as they do not represent the best interests of the children! Teachers are getting a meal ticket; working 190 days a year with long vacations.

OH god. Such an ignorant line of thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At this point the WTU does not seem to be doing much for teachers. As for the meal ticket part- I know teachers who could qualify for food stamps based on salary. When all parents represent the best interest for children maybe things will change. But when parents refuse to be accountable for any part of their child's learning and or behavior the school system has no consequences for the children or the parents. How can teachers be expected to do all that they do without any support or protections?

Thank you. -- teacher and parent (who chooses to parent).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard that particular BS? Please enlighten me.

The B.S. is the rhetoric that suggests that empowering the teacher's unions in some way benefits students. It doesn't. It never has and it isn't designed to. Any suggestion that it does is complete and utter B.S. The quote from the Godfather of teacher's unions puts it right out there plain and simple. Shanker wasn't lying you know: he really didn't give a g*dd*mn about students and he didn't think that was the union's job unless the kids pay union dues.

There you go. There's your B.S. Frankly, unless you're a complete moron I think it's disingenuous to the point of being insulting on your part to pretend you needed to have those dots connected for you.

[Anonymous]

Want a textbook case of teacher's unions actively working against the best interests of students? Even poor, disadvantaged ones? Look no further than this WSJ article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204619004574318393190278188.html

[Anonymous]

FYI, before that link disappears, the text reads:

AUGUST 3, 2009, 3:49 P.M. ET
Pay Your Teachers Well
Their children’s hell will slowly go by.

The conflicting interests of teachers unions and students is an underreported education story, so we thought we’d highlight two recent stories in Baltimore and New York City that illustrate the problem.

The Ujima Village Academy is one of the best public schools in Baltimore and all of Maryland. Students at the charter middle school are primarily low-income minorities; 98% are black and 84% qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. Yet Ujima Village students regularly outperform the top-flight suburban schools on state tests. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Ujima Village students earned the highest eighth-grade math scores in Maryland. Started in 2002, the school has met or exceeded state academic standards every year—a rarity in a city that boasts one of the lowest-performing school districts in the country.

Ujima Village is part of the KIPP network of charter schools, which now extends to 19 states and Washington, D.C. KIPP excels at raising academic achievement among disadvantaged children who often arrive two or three grade-levels behind in reading and math. KIPP educators cite longer school days and a longer school year as crucial to their success. At KIPP schools, kids start as early as 7:30 a.m., stay as late as 5 p.m., and attend school every other Saturday and three weeks in the summer.

However, Maryland’s charter law requires teachers to be part of the union. And the Baltimore Teachers Union is demanding that the charter school pay its teachers 33% more than other city teachers, an amount that the school says it can’t afford. Ujima Village teachers are already paid 18% above the union salary scale, reflecting the extra hours they work. To meet the union demands, the school recently told the Baltimore Sun that it has staggered staff starting times, shortened the school day, canceled Saturday classes and laid off staffers who worked with struggling students. For teachers unions, this outcome is a victory; how it affects the quality of public education in Baltimore is beside the point.

Meanwhile, in New York City, some public schools have raised money from parents to hire teaching assistants. Last year, the United Federation of Teachers filed a grievance about the hiring, and city education officials recently ordered an end to the practice. “It’s hurting our union members,” said a UFT spokesman, even though it’s helping kids and saving taxpayers money. The aides typically earned from $12 to $15 an hour. Their unionized equivalents cost as much as $23 an hour, plus benefits.

“School administrators said that hiring union members not only would cost more, but would also probably bring in people with less experience,” reported the New York Times. Many of the teaching assistants hired directly by schools had graduate degrees in education and state teaching licenses, while the typical unionized aide lacks a four-year degree.

The actions of the teachers unions in both Baltimore and New York make sense from their perspective. Unions exist to advance the interests of their members. The problem is that unions present themselves as student advocates while pushing education policies that work for their members even if they leave kids worse off. Until school choice puts more money and power in the hands of parents, public education will continue to put teachers ahead of students.

[Anonymous]

That's not an article. It an editorial.

[Anonymous]

Still the facts of the case, and one can infer that the best interests of these high needs students were not taken into consideration;

To meet the union demands, the school recently told the Baltimore Sun that it has staggered staff starting times, shortened the school day, canceled Saturday classes and laid off staffers who worked with struggling students. For teachers unions, this outcome is a victory; how it affects the quality of public education in Baltimore is beside the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard that particular BS? Please enlighten me.

There you go. There's your B.S. Frankly, unless you're a complete moron I think it's disingenuous to the point of being insulting on your part to pretend you needed to have those dots connected for you.

nasty post. tut tut

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's not an article. It an editorial.

It's an editorial, expressing opinions about certain facts. If you are aware of some material misrepresentation of the facts by the WSJ then by all means share them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI, before that link disappears, the text reads:

AUGUST 3, 2009, 3:49 P.M. ET
Pay Your Teachers Well
Their children’s hell will slowly go by.

The conflicting interests of teachers unions and students is an underreported education story, so we thought we’d highlight two recent stories in Baltimore and New York City that illustrate the problem.

The Ujima Village Academy is one of the best public schools in Baltimore and all of Maryland. Students at the charter middle school are primarily low-income minorities; 98% are black and 84% qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. Yet Ujima Village students regularly outperform the top-flight suburban schools on state tests. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Ujima Village students earned the highest eighth-grade math scores in Maryland. Started in 2002, the school has met or exceeded state academic standards every year—a rarity in a city that boasts one of the lowest-performing school districts in the country.

Ujima Village is part of the KIPP network of charter schools, which now extends to 19 states and Washington, D.C. KIPP excels at raising academic achievement among disadvantaged children who often arrive two or three grade-levels behind in reading and math. KIPP educators cite longer school days and a longer school year as crucial to their success. At KIPP schools, kids start as early as 7:30 a.m., stay as late as 5 p.m., and attend school every other Saturday and three weeks in the summer.

However, Maryland’s charter law requires teachers to be part of the union. And the Baltimore Teachers Union is demanding that the charter school pay its teachers 33% more than other city teachers, an amount that the school says it can’t afford. Ujima Village teachers are already paid 18% above the union salary scale, reflecting the extra hours they work. To meet the union demands, the school recently told the Baltimore Sun that it has staggered staff starting times, shortened the school day, canceled Saturday classes and laid off staffers who worked with struggling students. For teachers unions, this outcome is a victory; how it affects the quality of public education in Baltimore is beside the point.

Meanwhile, in New York City, some public schools have raised money from parents to hire teaching assistants. Last year, the United Federation of Teachers filed a grievance about the hiring, and city education officials recently ordered an end to the practice. “It’s hurting our union members,” said a UFT spokesman, even though it’s helping kids and saving taxpayers money. The aides typically earned from $12 to $15 an hour. Their unionized equivalents cost as much as $23 an hour, plus benefits.

“School administrators said that hiring union members not only would cost more, but would also probably bring in people with less experience,” reported the New York Times. Many of the teaching assistants hired directly by schools had graduate degrees in education and state teaching licenses, while the typical unionized aide lacks a four-year degree.

The actions of the teachers unions in both Baltimore and New York make sense from their perspective. Unions exist to advance the interests of their members. The problem is that unions present themselves as student advocates while pushing education policies that work for their members even if they leave kids worse off. Until school choice puts more money and power in the hands of parents, public education will continue to put teachers ahead of students.

So if I am understanding correctly, you are upset because teachers/ teacher unions want to be paid a fair wage for a days work? Does that mean that even though whatever job you have (not only teachers, because there are plenty of other jobs with unions and without that treat it's workers better than DC does with a union) you should have to give up time and perhaps income in order to put the needs/wants of others ahead of your own family and their well being. Also, if the schools are doing the hiring is there something that says they have to hire union members, they should hire the people with the best experience. If it happens to be a union member than so be it the same goes for a non union member.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have worked for charter schools in the past and I would rather have WTU protections, weak as they are, than work in a charter school. At least our union is fighting to maintain due process. Also DCPS teachers get liability insurance through the union.

The charter schools I worked for would arbitrarily increase the work day, require teachers to attend daily staff meetings, and require additional duties, such as leading clubs and coaching sports, without additional compensation. Many of these additional demands would be made during the schoolyear with little or no notice.

The two charter schools that I worked for had turnover rates much worse than what I've experienced in DCPS. There was also a very high rate of absenteeism.

Rhee will continue to attract all kinds of enthusiastic young people to teach in DCPS through Teach for America and DC Teacher Fellows. Some will be smart, creative, and highly motivated, for a year or two. I don't think she cares about retention.

Wow! This actually sounds like a job.

[Anonymous]

Wow! This actually sounds like a job.

What kind of job does that sound like?