Teachers Unions Exposed
TeachersUnionExposed.com is a new website (from the Center for Union Facts) focusing on teachers's unions role in blocking education reform, bargaining away quality, and protecting bad teachers.
They also have state profile pages - here is the PA state teacher unions profile.
3 comments:
Good luck. Many of us know just how bad this situation has become and most of us know "several" incompetent teachers. (I love competent teachers). But taking on teacher unions is a daunting task. Someone else that saw your TV ad noted, "I wonder how long they'll be on the air with these ads?" You have a huge upward battle and will face a ton of propaganda against your cause. Best wishes and in my heart I hope you can make a difference.
This is truely an issue. When my kids started school I was behind the teachers and thought that they were really there to teach for the love of teaching and the kids. I believed in the teachers and the system, and would side with the teachers above the kids just like my parents did when I was in school. It has changed alot since then. I saw friends enrolling their kids in private schools, or home schooling them. I even know of kids wanting to be enrolled in boarding school because of the school system. I have seen several private schools opening up in our rural community which I would have never believed would survive for any lenghth of time, but have and have prospered. I am on board with school vouchers because at least the good teachers would be rewarded and the bad ones would have to perform or change jobs, just like in colleges. I know of no other profession where you are guaranteed a job regardless of performance. I believe in merit pay and proving that you can teach your subject area by the success cases that come out of their classroom. I have seen teachers, especially math teachers not wanting to teach, but to prove to the kids that they are smarter than they are. I know that when kids go to college it spends the first few weeks teaching kids things that they should have been taught in high school, but weren't which makes college that much harder on them. I have seen on more than one occasion after being off for snow days the teachers show movies to their class. When I was in school we weren't allowed to see movies unless it pertained to the subject. My kids have watched all types of blockbuster movies which had no correlation to the subject. So we wonder what the problem is. I know there are truely wonderful teachers out there and they have to be lumped into the same pot as the bad ones and be paid the same amt. too. which is really not fair or enhancing our childrens learning. We see scandal after scandal about teachers and sex. It seems to me that teachers should be a valuable resource and put into an elite position, but on the other hand anyone can be a teacher. There should be a higher standard to meet to qualify for the esteemed position of training our children. I am so happy you believe as I do. Good Luck my prayers are with you.
There is some truth in what this website is promoting, however, the problems and issues are much more complex than to simply blame the teacher's unions. As a retired teacher with more than 35 years in the profession, I have concluded that the primary problem with the quality of public education is that the colleges and universities are and have for a long period of time done a very poor job in preparing education majors. Most college professors who are responsible for teacher education have no teacher training themselves. Also, most college curriculums are heavily slanted toware a general education and do not contain nearly enough specific course work for adequate teacher prearation. Secondly, most school administrators are less prepared for their jobs than the teachers are. Due to the fact that most administrative jobs are extremely political, the vast majority of administrators tend to block the efforts of the really fine teachers to avoid conflicts from parents who complain about the amount of work given. The third critical issue in our quality of education in the USA is government interference. Judges and lawyers have tied the hands of teachers when it comes to discipline to the extent that many teachers have too little control over classroom activities. Other countries still give their teachers adequate control over student behavior. Until these issues are addressed, the quality of public education in our country will continue to degrade and putting pressure on teachers unions will have little or no effect on the outcome
Post a Comment