Public Perceptions of Teacher Unions

I asked why unions are routinely blamed for "protecting" incompetent teachers when it was management who hired them in the first place and then let hang around for 3 or 4 years and then when they finally get tenure, it is the union's fault for supporting and protecting "incompetent" teachers.

Ms. Lynch really hits this one out of the park

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Chicago
• Teachers
• Union

[nmcnmb]

Somalia has the pirates...

Russia has the mafia...

Afghanistan has the Taliban...

The U.S. has the teachers union.

[hotelroyale100]

Wow! That was the best description of americas social problems. The teachers union is the very embodiment of them!

[MrRandyDick]

I guess you all know that Waiting On Superman has been totally discredited

since you saw it.

[ajatco]

@amartinek01 Your full of crap plus your smug. Your self importance is as clear as your lack of any real job expeirence. You can try and portray the teaching profession anyway you like, but anyone who has been to school in the last ten years knows better. I'm sure you have seen the movie Waiting for Superman and if you haven't then shame on you. 24/7 responsibility and our nations future? Your a fool plus I bet your sipping drinks at the beach like all the others just perfecting your tan. Idiot!

[amartinek01]

@ajatco Thank you for staying out of the teaching profession, given your attitude toward it, your students would have suffered. Actually, I am a teacher and am currently spending two weeks away from home and family in a seminar perfecting my craft through intensive research and curriculum writing. That is what we do while we are laid off each summer. The teaching profession is a 24/7 responsibility that deserves more investment than it is given for shaping our nation's future.

[ajatco]

@amartinek01 Do you really think anyone cares about teachers?We all know you get payed alot of money and get the summers off.Its an easy gig!All this bla bla bla about policy and rights is just you trying to sound important.I know that if the money started to run out in my town, teachers would start loosing their jobs regardless of the union.I see the College instructors in my school and most of them are just burnt out hacks.Maybe you are to.I was asked to become a teacher once and I said no!

[EasyEs]

@amartinek01 You are not getting the main point. That is that funding an education for everyone doesn't mean that they government has to run every school and that teachers and administrators are protected from the choices of parents by a huge wall of bureaucracy. It isn't a collage education that makes people create more wealth, it is the productivity that they get from learning new skills, in this day and age there are lots of people with educations who have no skills to be productive.

[amartinek01]

@EasyEs Public education was never intended to be strictly for well-heeled elites. It is a public service made freely available to all. Most people would recognize it as a basic economic right in America today. When college graduates are statistically likely to earn millions of dollars more in their lifetime than those who drop out of school, you can see why people consider this essential for their children. Insuring access to education requires societal investment in a public system.

[amartinek01]

@ajatco Where you are wrong again is that you want to use policy to limit the rights of a particular, although essential, class of worker in our economy. That is blatantly discriminatory and exactly the kind of oppressive thinking which requires protections against abuses in the workplace for all workers, not just teachers or public employees. If your elected officials made a bad deal, vote them out. However, government must honor its contracts or the entire system becomes invalid.

[amartinek01]

@ajatco Yes, I believe that teachers have the same right to due process and respectable compensation as every other red-blooded American worker. Just to be clear, schools are not factories. We are not mass producing good little workers for your fascist empire. We are generating thinkers that will create the new economy. This requires a skill and commitment that is beyond most people's comprehension. Failing to reward it appropriately endangers our nation's future and security.

[EasyEs]

@amartinek01 Why can't teachers have a private practice? They are not advocates of the children they serve as much as the parents. Yes I know we don't live in a perfect world and that lots of parents are not that invested but the same can be said of other professionals when dealing with customers and employers. In the end lots of great teachers are held back by the bureaucracy that gives them security, and can't act like real professionals.

[ajatco]

@amartinek01 I'm not name calling & I have been quite clear about my position.By your own admission teachers feel rightfully entitled to protection & compensation.However tenure & unionism is far beyond what most professionals get. I want teachers to do the job they are payed to do which is teach & leave policy &advocacy to others.Having the workers control the means of production is Marxism, being a teacher you know this.Expecting special status & protections while towns go broke is delusional.