Union
Busting- How Can You
Love
Teachers and Hate Their Unions? . . .
We've
been hearing the same lines for several years now. The ones where people claim to value and
support their public school, where they claim to respect the educators who work
with students and that claim unions have ruined our public schools by
protecting "bad teachers" and driving education costs up. Few who offer this rhetoric stop to consider
the full ramifications of what they are saying.
Often they are blindly supporting a politician or political ideology and
not really analyzing what their positions really mean.
In
a different era these comments and conversations could be responded to and a
discussion could be had about them. They
could even be ignored and the business of educating our students could
continue. Unfortunately, we live in a
climate where the anti-union/anti-educator rhetoric has been given power beyond
what it merits. The continuing attacks
on our public schools have expanded and become a part of our political
landscape.
A conservative group has accused Madison school officials of illegally
negotiating new contracts with the local teachers union.
channel3000.com|By Channel 3000
Organized labor has been under assault for decades in this
country, and if the...
news.vice.com
In June, a low-level judge in California caused a stir when he declared
unconstitutional a bundle of laws on how public school tenure works in that
state. Judge Rolf Treu swallowed whole the argument...
timesunion.com
The anti-public education
stances that our political leaders have taken have changed the landscape and altered
many aspects of public education significantly.
New pay models aim to reward good teachers but also to avoid
losing them to...
host.madison.com|By Lee Enterprises
2014 Wisconsin School Funding Study New study: Broken
Education Funding System Causes Growing Gap in Opportunities Among Wisconsin
Schools and Communities The Forward Institute is releasing an...
forwardinstitutewi.org
Even those who speak out
in support of public schools often inadvertently "bash" our
schools. In an effort to support public
education and speak out against the privatization movement we too often portray
our public schools as being in crisis and demean the accomplishments of our
students and staff. This ends up
undermining confidence in our schools and helps fuel the anti-public education
spiral that is in place in our state.
With this drastic defunding, Wisconsin's public schools have gotten worse
and worse. Programs have been slashed, staff has been cut, and class-sizes are
exploding. And if that is not bad enough, state political leaders have vilified
our educators, causing a mass exodus of experienced teachers.
germantownnow.com
Many who support the
economic and educational "reforms" do so out of a mistaken sense of
justice and equity. They have been told
that unions stand for bad policies, protect bad teachers and have acted to protect
educators interests over those of students and families. They truly believe that they can support Act
10, support Governor Walker and support "reforms" like vouchers all
while still being pro-public education and pro-public educator. They believe the rhetoric that Wisconsin's educator
unions have blocked changes that could close achievement gaps and improve
educational outcomes for all students. Add
to this the volatile political landscape and the intense emotions that the past
few years have generated, and these opinions become even more entrenched and
solidify into virtually unalterable dogma or "common sense"
arguments.
National Organization Intensifies Local Efforts to Boost
Educational Choice, Releases Poll MILWAUKEE
(Sept. 11, 2014) – The American Federation for...
federationforchildren.org
What these viewpoints
ignore is the reality that exists in our state's public schools. They ignore the efforts of educators to
support and enhance the educational opportunities that our students need in our
modern society. They stereotype
educators and are based on flawed logic and faulty arguments. In the end we must make it clear that to
attack educator unions is to attack educators themselves.
Educators need unions for
a number of reasons. One of the most
glaring is the fact that we work in an environment that is incredibly complex
and is heavily regulated. There are
layers of federal, state and local government that overlap in ways that are
often difficult to comprehend, even for veteran administrators and educators. Adding to this legal accountability is the
ethical and moral accountability that we have to our students and
families. All of these combine to create
an environment where educators need the support of a union to help guide them
through the legal aspects of our jobs and allow us to focus on the students and
families we serve.
It is also important that
our educators are protected and supported in other legal ways. There are many safety issues that arise in
our schools on a regular basis, and along with these are the many different,
and often conflicting, views about handling issues around discipline and
pedagogy. Unions serve the role of being
the last line of defense for an educator who has tried to do their best, but
who has become engaged in a conflict around any of a number of issues that can
arise in a school setting. Even in cases
where the educator's actions may have been questionable they are entitled to
representation, just like any citizen.
This is guaranteed in our Constitution.
To attempt to remove these rights from the workplace is to forget what
makes our nation a special place in the world.
To have these protections
means that educators can work, and speak in ways that promote the interests of
the students and families we serve.
Anti-unionists have focused on the benefits and salaries of educators
trying to divide and conquer the citizenry by creating the imagery of wealthy
teachers living off the labor of the taxpayers.
While this is such an obvious fallacy that it may seem laughable, the
fact is that the rhetoric has impacted the way that some see public educators
(and public employees in general as well).
This emphasis on the
economic impacts that unions have ignores the fact that the employment
protections that unions provide may be one of the most important public
protections that we have as a society.
Having collective bargaining agreements, grievance procedures and Just
Cause protections allow educators (and once again all public servants) to speak
out against inequities and injustices that are a part of our educational
landscape. Without these protections,
employees in a school are virtually powerless to stand against the tide of
"reforms" that too often are even more discriminatory and inequitable
than the current system. Handbooks and
At-Will Employment silence those who would speak out and force employees to
weigh their own employment against the needs of their students and
families.
Many educators are hoping that through the Common Core State
Standards, teaching and assessment can focus more on problem-solving and the
process...
blogs.kqed.org
'My student had trusted me and jumped through hoops for me
all year long, but...
washingtonpost.com
A teacher is refusing to give her students a standardized
test. Here's why.
washingtonpost.com
When Dr. Walter Stroup showed that Texas’ standardized testing regime is...
texasobserver.org
Those who attack educator
unions often insult the independence and intelligence of the educators they
claim to support. By saying that
educator unions are controlled by "big union bosses" and that members
are being manipulated into political actions, anti-unionists ignore the fact
that unions are democratic institutions.
Our leaders are directly accountable to the membership, and need the
full support of their members to engage in actions of any type. Here in Madison
and across Wisconsin,
that means that our resistance to Conservative policies, and our political
efforts came from a majority of union members, not from our
"bosses."
The anti-union movement
hides behind patriotism and masks fear with aggressive attacks that are
designed to silence the voices of workers.
It also has roots in the economic and political elite's efforts to
maintain their control of our social, political and economic environment. In reality, there are few examples of
democracy and equity than those found in the labor movement. While there are the inevitable flaws that any
human endeavor has to be found in organized labor, at the same time, the
potential for a more socially just society must be recognized in the movements
that attempt to increase the power of any groups voice.
It is in these efforts to
reclaim the vision that America's
founding documents espouse that unions can begin to rebuild their strength, and
regain their place as a voice for the common citizen in our societal
discussions. Fighting to hold on to what
we have and to engage in an economic or political debate using existing
structures will be increasingly difficult in the post Act 10 landscape. Instead, unions must change their tactics and
move their efforts back to the streets and neighborhoods. There is more common ground to be found
between the "everyday taxpayer" and the labor movement than the
current extreme Conservative movement would like us to see. It is up to us to find that common ground and
to call attention to the similar vision that a majority of citizens, no matter
what their demographic categories may be, share.
The
Good, The Bad and
The
Ugly. . .
The Good . . . This November's election is critical for the short term survival of
organized labor in Wisconsin. A Walker
victory will set the union movement and worker's rights back after decades of
slow, hard fought progress. We need to
see an effort from labor equal to, or greater than the one that drove the
recalls in 2011-12. Remember that the
unions in Wisconsin
are one of the last lines of defense against a state totally dominated by
special interests and big money.
Union members hit the streets and the phones over the
weekend to educate...
wisaflcio.typepad.com
At the same time we can't
forget that this struggle is not just about Scott Walker. He is only a symptom of the problems that
threaten our democratic traditions. To
make the struggle only about defeating Walker
is to miss the bigger picture that exists in our society. Defeating Walker
shouldn't be personal, it should be about making Wisconsin a better place for all citizens
and restoring a heritage of good government and progressive policies. Overt anger and bitterness will solidify the
opposition to our efforts and make moderates (the few who are left in Wisconsin) less likely
to really hear our positions.
“We have a score to settle with Scott Walker,” said AFSCME
president Lee Saunders.
washingtonpost.com
The Bad . . . While the publicity about the failures of the Walker administration to
live up to their promises of economic stability and job creation helps our
efforts to unseat him, at the same time these failures have had a negative
impact on the citizens of Wisconsin.
These kinds of headlines, and this type of failure is bad for all of
us.
The public-private economic development agency, put in place
when Gov. Scott Walker took office, continues to generate the wrong kind of
headlines.
host.madison.com|By Lee Enterprises
Yesterday, Wisconsin
received more evidence of Scott Walker’s fiscally irresponsible approach to
governing...
wisdems.org
I was not a good student in economics at UW-Madison. I
regularly skipped that 11 a.m. class because I wanted to finish watching The
Price is Right. I justified it by...
isthmus.com
The Ugly . . . The wider the income gaps become the more difficult it is for us to
achieve the vision of a socially just society that fulfills the true promise of
our nation's ideals. Liberty and Justice for ALL is virtually
impossible to realize when most of the all is struggling to make ends meet, and
the few are living in a totally different reality. All of the recent struggles around voting
rights, campaign finance and economic policies have their roots in the efforts
of the economic elite to preserve their status and power.
A new study from the Federal Reserve finds that the
wealthiest 3% of American households control 54.4% of the nation's wealth.
money.cnn.com|By Emily Jane Fox
We need to prepare for
November and make sure that everyone has what they need to exercise their right
to cast a ballot.
"I just can't imagine that this could be implemented by
the November election without creating a huge mess," Daniel Tokaji, an
election law professor at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, told...
jsonline.com|By Ernst-Ulrich Franzen
for the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board
Election Law Blog - Rick Hasen's blog
electionlawblog.org
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