Reply to Public sector unions and their political influence

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I personally think the teachers’ interests are almost perfectly aligned with my kids‘ interest.  If all the teachers quit because they are afraid of getting sick, my kid is going to be up a creek.  We did have a ton who retired or left.  I don’t always agree 100% but the views of teachers are extremely important to me. [/quote]
I feel the same way.  I'm not 100% aligned with the WTU, but close enough to have a healthy tension.  I would work collaboratively with them any day.  The Mayor on the other hand... she's gotta go.[/quote]

how are you going to “work collaboratively” with any union? you’re not a stakeholder - that’s been made very very clear. OTOH you actually elect a mayor and have specific ways to give feedback or can campaign against her.

I think all public sector unions should have less influence, period. The fact that police unions & teachers unions can disrupt the ability of citizens to have properly administered public services is a huge problem. Look how WTU supporters manage to silence public criticism here. [/quote]

Can I ask what about the WTU you are interested in criticizing? Specifically?[/quote]

Do you have to ask?  School closures, for one. That taught me that every WTU advocacy item is primarily about teachers, not about children. I am glad that WTU seems more conciliatory now (eg not fighting the end of the mask mandate). I follow WTU on twitter, and it seems to me that their primary advocacy points that they put muscle behind all have to do with strengthening their bargaining unit - their main campaign this year was librarians in every school.  I mean that's great an all, but there's absolutely no reason to believe that libraries, among all else, are the most important additional staff we need in each school.  [/quote]

Oh, and they are against accountability (IMPACT) - that's probably their primary political ask, since DC law (correctly) says that Impact cannot be part of the contract. Once the WTU gets to negotiate teacher evaluation system, just see how hard it is to remove failing and even dangerous teachers. [/quote]

I'm a parent and I hate Impact / PARCC[/quote]

Same same same[/quote]

Schools & teachers have to be accountable and measurable in some way. [/quote]

When I was growing up, it was through classroom observations and failure/graduation rates. It worked pretty well, and we didn’t spend a week-plus of class time each year taking a bunch of standardized tests. The idea that data is the answer for everything is one of the great cons of the 21st century.[/quote]
+1
Just because you can measure it doesn't mean it's what you should value.

I also think every school should have a librarian, and a school nurse.  School libraries are so important, especially for disadvantaged kids.    [/quote]

I don't really think anyone is OPPOSED to school librarians or nurses.  Just that budgets aren't infinite and sometimes you have to make choices.[/quote]

Right. And those of us who oppose IMPACT and PARCC testing would say that we should prioritize investments in staff (e.g. nurses and librarians) over administering tests. It’s not like PARCC is free, and who knows how many central office staff are spending time crunching numbers and monitoring scores to implement IMPACT. [/quote]

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