A lottery was used to select which students get in to PCC in Santa Cruz, CA — one of the best schools in the nation.
Which students should be denied? Those teachers who collectively through their unions have made the mess public schools are in should be denied access of thier children to PCC. (more…)
“Residents of California are now confronted with the long-term costs of running a large state for the benefits of its public employee unions… President Obama seems intent on fostering the growth in the number of government employees …” This is from the Wall Street Journal 2/12/201- page A 22, letter by John Henderson
So, let’s focus on what to do:
One way to save money re the school teacher unions and change how decisions are made: 1) every child has a “representative” (typically their parent) and these “representatives” sit down at the bargaining table able to decide education costs.
Does Aptos High “need” 6-8 custodians to pick up the garbage that the kids strew around? Parents like me would vote require students to clean the campus. And keep “clean up” cots to a minimum.
Let the “education dollars” follow the child to private, charter or public schools. And let competition improve the quality of the schools. Let schools hire who they want — with or without credentials so long as the teachers can pass general tests that show competency.
written by Dr. Cameron Jackson www.DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
Only 1 in 13 worker in the private sector pays union dues. In contrast, 51.4% of U.S. union members work for the government. That’s over half!
Government unions offer what is close to lifetime job security and benefits, subject only to gross dereliction of duty. Once a city’s or state’s workers are organized by a union, the jobs almost never go away.
Today, government is the main playing field for modern unionism. As union membership in government has grown so has union clout in pushing politicians for higher wages and benefits. This is why Andy Stern (SEIU) and Rich Trumeka (AFL-CIO) could order Democrats to exempt unions from ObamaCAre’s tax increase on high cost health care insurance plans.
The union’s main goal now is securing a larger share of the overall private economy’s wealth, This means pitting government’s employees against middle-class taxpayers.
It used to be that most Democrats opposed public sector unionism. Such 20th century liberal heroes as New Your Mayor LaGuardia and Roosevelt believed feverently in industrial unions. But they believed that public employees had a special social obligation and could too easily exploit their monopoly position.
Look at the current desperate economic woes of California, New Jersey, New York and other states. All these states have dominant public unions.
Yes, it’s time for reform. The public-union ascendancy needs containment. We need to break the power of government unions to take an ever larger share of private income.
Unions sue state for more school funds
By Sharon Noguchi, Mercury News
“To secure billions of dollars in additional funding for education, two school employee unions filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Thursday.
“The lawsuit argues that the state must repay schools the amount it’s taking away — and sooner than other funding schemes would allow.
“Faced with a state budget crisis, Sacramento has taken $8.6 billion from K-12 and higher education over two years. The lawsuit argues that the state must repay much of that, and cites a 1988 voter initiative that guaranteed minimum funding for education.
This week, the state Department of Finance suggested that schools may lose an additional $3.6 billion.
That threatened reduction “made it imperative to file” the suit, said Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which filed the suit in San Francisco Superior Court. It was joined by the Service Employees International Union Local 99, in Southern California, which represents janitors, secretaries and other support staff. The CFT represents about 100,000 teachers, librarians and other credentialed school employees, and is the smaller of two unions representing public school teachers in California.
Hittelman denied that the CFT filed the suit after polls showed most of the six propositions on the May 19 ballot badly trailing. Two of those, Propositions 1A and 1B, are key to funding education. Prop. 1B sets how much the state owes education and outlines a repayment schedule.
Even if 1B passes, the teachers union argues that schools would be shortchanged by freezing the repayment amount at $7.9 billion and deferring repayments until 2011-12.
The lawsuit argues that the state uses the wrong formula to determine whether schools will be reimbursed in the future for reduced funding.
H.D. Palmer, deputy director of the state Department of Finance, said the state owes school districts money for 2007-08, but not the current school year. “The Constitution is straightforward in this regard.”
Contact Sharon Noguchi at snoguchi@mercurynews.com or 408-271-
Vote YES on IA if you want 2 EXTRA years of actual income, sales and vehicle tax increases. Vote NO on IA if you believe the legislative analyst – who says the measure is incomprehensible.
Vote YES on IB if you want a multi-billion increase in education spending. Vote NO on IB if you dislike the grip of unions on government. In California, 57 percent of government workers are unionized compared to 37 percent nationally. CA teachers make 25 % more than elsewhere and are highest paid in nation.
Vote YES on IC if you want more people buying CA lottery tickets. Vote NO in IC if concerned about the poor – who overwhelmingly buy the bulk of all lottery tickets. Vote NO if gambling money away is particularly bad during these economic times.
Vote YES on ID which grabs the tobacco money. Vote NO on ID because that tobacco money currently is dedicated to children’s services which you do not want cut.
Vote YES on IE which takes the so-called millionaire tax money. Vote NO on IE because that money is currently dedicated to health services. Vote NO because The biggest cut in Santa Cruz County will be the health services. Vote NO because swine flu, T.B and other infectious diseases must be kept in check.
unionize students?
So who represents the students’ interests? The administrators? Half the people employed by California schools are not in the classroom. The administrators cannot unionize. They do have their own interests: to keep their jobs.
So, who really cares about the students’ interests? Parents of course. Well, most parents, not all parents. But parents have little power relative to the teachers’ unions. What collective power has the parents ever exerted over Pajaro Valley Unified School District? None.
The school board Trustees are supposed to represent the students. But if the Trustees, or some of them, are in the hip pocket of the unions, then the students are not represented by those Trustees.
One solution might be to unionize the students. Yes, I’m serious. Every student could be represented by one parent (or other adult of their choosing) and those adults choose representatives to sit down collectively with the teachers’ union. At the same table with the administrators. Together they could create “goal focused cooperation” – necessary in school districts where systemic change has lead to impressive advances in student achievement.
Bruce Woolpert, home grown in Santa Cruz County and President and CEO of Graniterock, wrote an article titled, “Unions exists to support teachers, not students”. Woolpert cites an article by Terry M. Moe published in the current issue of the American Review of Political Science. Moe’s article argues that unions are detrimental to student achievement particularly so in large districts that are predominantly minority. Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) is large (about 20,000 students) and predominantly minority (78 percent).
In response to Woolpert’s article, Sandra Nichols, 8 year school board Trustee for PVUSD, wrote 4-19-09 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Her article is ” Teachers are in it for the good of society”. Yes, Sandra, some individual teachers do seek the good of society Whatever that is.
But, the PVUSD teachers’ union does not seek other than what is good for their members. Sandra, over the last 8 years have you ever seen as a union priority that teachers’ salary increases will be tied directly to student achievement increases? What a novel thought.
Sandra Niichols side steps Bruce Woolpert’s thesis that collective bargaining harms student achievement particularly in large districts with large minority enrollment. Districts like PVUSD. Nichols has been on the PVUSD board for 8 years. What objective evidence does she offer that the PVUSD teachers’ union has helped students to excel? Had she any objective evidence she would have offered it.
Since it is highly unlikely we can get rid of collective bargaining in the near future, let’s unionize the students and have parents sit across the table from the teachers’ union. And together let them work towards “goal focused cooperation”. Let them work together that all students achieve regardless of family income.
written by Cameron S. Jackson, Ph.D., psychologist living in Aptos
(831) 688-6002 P.O.Box 1972, Aptos, CA 95001-1972
Monterey Bay Forum, www.freedomOK.net/wordpress
