http://utla.net/node/2826 The district was trying to cut teachers pay by 12% plus 5 unpaid furlough days this year, and 7 next year which ended up being in effect a 16.5% pay cut for teachers. That's a huge cut. They were going to lay off more than 2000 teachers. Also class sizes were going to increase which would have been horrible for student's education. Well the Union came in and worked hard to get a deal done. Teachers still will have the unpaid furlough days, so we had to give up some things, but the jobs are saved. That's most important thing.
Teachers unions do a good job for the teachers and for the kids. Conservative'libertarians and the GOP hate teachers and their unions because they tend to vote Democratic. In general public school teachers see things differently since they are on the front lines with kids and their families all the time. Their views on education are not formed by the media, conservative think tanks or the experiences of wealthy conservatives who send their kids to private schools or public education in upper class neighborhoods. Are teachers unions perfect? No. Just better and more realistic than conservative schemes to end public education and blame all the problems of American's vast lower class on the schools rather than the increasing income inequality and thus the breakdown of family structures right wing conservative/libertarian economic/political polices cause.
I've been a part of 3 different unions. One, I felt was worthless and counter-productive to the good of the community they were supposed to help. Even then they did have some good points. The second was about half and half. They did a lot of good, but also wrote a lot of frivolous waste into their contracts. This is the best union I've been a part of, and they are not perfect. But they genuinely do care about doing a good job not just for their members but also for profession of education. There are problems they have, but overall they've been very hard working. I can't believe the district was going to fire over 2000 people or cut salaries by close to 20% after factoring in the furlough days, and there was a way around it. The union did a good job looking over the budget and the numbers and figuring out an alternative, that ended up being good for the teachers, the students, and budget. Yes we are still taking a small pay cut because of the furlough days, but it's much better than losing all of those jobs. In tough times we all have to sacrifice.
Wow, I had no idea. I think teachers are underpaid, but there is also a certain percentage of teachers who are not very good or do not do their best work. It kind of spoils it for the great teachers who bust their butt, special inner city, to get the results, while other teachers just drag them down. That's what makes it seem like teachers are overpaid.
A lot of teachers aren't suited to the jobs they are at. The low income schools require a lot of extra effort to see students bridge the gap. There are teachers who could be at wealthier students and still have their kids see good results, but in the title I schools, it's a bad match for them. However, most teachers care a great deal, and with the right professional development they can improve. But almost no teachers deserves that huge of a paycut. They already aren't making a lot, and to cut what they were making was hard. The UTLA union had been asking for concrete budget numbers for a long time, and the district was slow in getting the numbers out. Finally once they were out, this tentative deal was reached. The members just have to vote to finalize it, and I can't imagine it won't pass almost unanimously.
That's good that the jobs were saved, but I don't see how they get the same savings . The school district would still need to raise taxes 18.5% to make up for a 16.5% pay cut that they were planning.
The thing is that the school district wasn't really hadn't done everything they could with their numbers. The taxes aren't going up. It's almost impossible to get a real tax increase here. Anyway they had already made plenty of cuts, but all they knew is that with the budget shortfalls they had to cut more. They were going to have to fire all the teachers or do the huge pay cut and increase class size. The Union had to have an audit of the budget numbers, and the district took a long time getting the numbers to the union, who somehow figured out a way to save enough money at least in the short term to avoid the worst of the salary cuts, and save jobs. I don't really know the particulars of where the flaws were, or where else they found room to cut budget.
Geez, do you want to blame the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Great Chicago Fire on Republicans too while you're at it? And by "increasing income inequality" I'm guessing you're a believer in the old "redistibution of wealth" canard?
Why bother? There's plenty to blame Republicans for that they actually did. See the Open Letter to Conservatives thread for an abundant accounting.
Yeah, it would be good to redistribute the wealth back to that say of the Johnson or Nixon years when we did not have such a mean society. You know, "socialism" as you and Palin would call it.
The administrators were cut back last year. Administrative offices were cut 50%. On site administrators at our school were cut by more than 2/3.
Too bad you have no idea what you are talking about. Our school just recently grew above the state average and guidelines, and is also above the national average. There are plenty of CA schools that are way below standard, that doesn't mean that all CA schools suck, or that it doesn't matter to students. Would you like it if people came up to you and told you your kid's education doesn't matter?
