A thank-you letter to Chicago teachers from some Georgia colleagues

Concise. Precise. Incisive. Well put. What can I do to support the Teaching Georgia Writing Collective?

• Link
• Report this comment

what a stupid, stupid, stupid , stupid letter.

to pretend the Chicago strike was anything other than them using the leverage they had to force monetary and workplace concessions is just plain ignorant. Chicago didn’t give a damn about anything beyond their own borders or they’d still be out.

“Collective” – a term straight out of the old Soviet Union while it may be generous, I’m going to assume a “collective” of teachers knows the power or words. the use of the term “collective” brings to mind the worst fears of Joe average, and plays dead into the hands of Fran Millar and his wannabe minions

the main thing this letter says is allegedly smart people can be amazingly stupid. crap like this butt kissing piece only works against us, and undermines any gains we could have made toward some sort of protection from idiot legislatures and petty administrators.

all that piece of propaganda crap is missing are slogans for long live the revolution, use of the word “manifesto”, and Cynthia McKinney’s endorsement.

worst of all, it reads like something written by a group of pseudo intellectuals writing out stereo instructions. poorly organized and ineffective in persuasion of topic.

did you idiots send Fran Millar a card and cake to go along with this present?

so a nice, big sarcastic “thank you” to the collective for making our situation that much worse. while its true you have the right to make fools of yourselves, please remember you are not obliged to exercise said right.

idiots. and not even useful ones.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The Chicago Teachers Union strike will go down as a significant event in history when educators stood up against the destructive powers of privatization and for workers’ job security and a strong middle-class in the United States.”

Unfortunately the unions do a lousy job of shaping the debate, and end up looking like hacks who want to keep their no good gubmit job.

If they would focus on restoring DISCIPLINE, and administrative BLOAT, things that RESONATE with John Q. Public they could perhaps turn the tide of public perception.

For example if they said “We will accept the pay proposal IF you cut central office staff by ten percent; we will accept the pay proposal IF you grant us the authority to remove chronically disruptive students” you put the SYSTEM on the defensive.

But when your complaints SEEM to center around pay in this economy…

• Link
• Report this comment

“Georgia teachers will not see a raise until folks realize that the republicans under the gold dome do not want to fund schools one more penny. They hate public schools and would love to get their hands on TRS.”

@Sissy they’re Republicans; the party of “rule of law” and “personal responsibility” and “limited government.”

So why aren’t GAE and PAGE absolutely HAMMERING them on supporting teachers in matters of discipline and cutting administrative bloat? If they won’t give teachers the raise they want, at least give them decent teaching (and LEARNING!) conditions by restoring discipline and letting teachers know the money isn’t being spent in central office.

Is it because GAE and PAGE get dues from that administrative BLOAT? Is it because restoring discipline would hold their dues PAYING administrative members accountable for THEIR lack of action in supporting the sanctity of the learning environment?

Hmm…yet Georgia teachers make them THEIR representatives? At what point do Georgia teachers, with their choice of representation, realize they are being ACTIVE co-creators in their own misery?

• Link
• Report this comment

How do you think John Q. Public might have responded if Chicago teachers had said, “You say there’s no money? Fine. We will take money off the table this year, if the school board and the Superintendent both agree to a 25% pay cut. ‘For the children’ of course.”

Think that might have put a little hitch in the giddy up of those who wanted to portray the teachers as only out for money?

• Link
• Report this comment

I agree with Michele and with the letter by the TGWC. Let’s look at the facts of the concessions.
-A 3% pay increase the first year, with a 2% increase every year thereafter
-Phasing out performance-related pay, or “merit pay”
-Hiring 600 teachers in the areas of art, music, world languages, etc.
-Up to $250 reimbursement of school supplies
-Only 30% of student test scores will be factored into teacher evaluations
-Laid-off teachers receive hiring-priority for charter school position openings

(http://www.care2.com/causes/success-heres-what-the-chicago-teachers-get.html#ixzz27IBbiF9G)

The salary increases barely keep up with inflation. At least, teachers won’t keep getting poorer in order to remain teaching. The “increases” look like cost-of-living-adjustments to me.

I don’t know how pay-for-performance is determined in Chicago. But if it’s tied to standardized test scores, then I certainly favor phasing it out. (See below.)

Hurrah for arts, music, and languages! There’s overwhelming research evidence that shows art, music, and second language learning are terrific not only for human development, but also for the profound support of other disciplines, such as math, language arts, etc.

School supplies–it’s about time that teachers who care enough to raid their own wallets for pencil, paper, and tissues for their students get reimbursed. Teachers shouldn’t be penalized for caring.

I’m for anything that reduces (or ends) the corporate-driven reliance on standardized testing. The tests are worse than useless (see all independent research…), for they consume teaching and learning time that our kids need and deserve.

I also favor the protection of the rights of laid-off workers, for this concession may help to keep the for profit charters from hiring only kinfolk or less credentialed teachers, or from other creepy practices by entities seeking to “make” money off our kids.

The CTU didn’t get everything it wanted. I didn’t see anything about school nurses, facilities, or poverty and racism-oriented policies. There’s still much work to be done. But the CTU made a good start, showing that when teachers stand with one another, we are not powerless. Way to go, CTU!

• Link
• Report this comment

“The Chicago Teachers Union strike will go down as a significant event in history when educators stood up against the destructive powers of privatization and for workers’ job security and a strong middle-class in the United States.”

ROFLMAO. What a boatload of crap.

The only thing this strike proved is Exhibit A as to why you do not want government employees such as firemen, police, garbagemen, and teachers to unionize. They care nothing about the taxpayer/citizens for which they serve. The only think these Chicago “teachers” walked out for was their own selfish greed. Period.

• Link
• Report this comment

Look at Lee’s post and Wilbur’s post and you see how Chicago teachers failed to shape the debate.

They might have gotten something for THEMSELVES but for teachers as a whole, for teaching and LEARNING conditions as a whole, they got next to nothing.

• Link
• Report this comment

I agree with all the sentiments expressed in the courageious letter above. People are always criticized when they speak out. That goes with the territory.

In the following excerpt from the above letter, notice the words “. . .access to fully funded public schools that aren’t destroyed by for-profit charters. . .”:

“Thank you for fighting for the rights of children, youth and families to have access to fully funded public schools that aren’t destroyed by for-profit charters not held to the same level of scrutiny.”

Now, read of the sentiments of George Washington regarding profiteers in society, from the book, “Washington, A Life,” by Ron Chernow, page 352:

“Staying at the Chestnut Street home of Henry Laurens, Washington got a view of civilian life that would revolt him with an indelible vision of private greed and profligacy. Like soldiers throughout history, he was jarred by the contrast between the austerity of the army and the riches being earned on the home front through lucrative war contracts.

Ever since Valley Forge, Washington had lamented the profiteering that deprived his men of critcally needed supplies and he remained contemptuous of those who rigged and monopolized markets, branding them ‘the pests of society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America. . .”
===========================================

We must keep public schools truly public ones, paid for by public taxes to serve the public good. We must not allow public schools to become the vehicle for private market profiteers who might use school children for the profit purposes of private individuals or of private corporations, instead of focusing upon the common good for all students within society, and for the enhancement of society-at-large, via public schools, for all of society’s citizens. We must improve public education; we must not dismantle it for an educational delivery system which is based on private market interests.

• Link
• Report this comment

I do not have a problem with Teachers seeking better pay. They have homes and families to feed just like those who would deny them a fair wage. How soon we forget, it was and is, Teachers who were at the start of our Educational endeavors. Some, no none of us who are successful would be where we are, if it were not for a teacher. And, anyone who does not understand that fact, you do not understand because you choose not too. As you type your comments, and read other responses…think about the teacher who taught you to do so. Well wishes to all.

• Link
• Report this comment

Anyone who thinks this strike actually helped the image of teachers needs therapy. What we have seen is what we thought were the most educated among us stooping to the kinds of tactics once reserved for dock workers and welders. When pilots tried this they discovered how non-union Reagan was. Georgia teachers shouldn’t be patting strikers on the back while Georgia parents are worrying about sliding education results, cheating scandals and bloated school administration. A lot of parents are seriously questioning your talent in Georgia because home schooling groups are exploding. Thanks to shared resources they are demonstrating a level of dedication we haven’t seen in most teachers for decades. Yea, it’s all the fault of the parents.
Grobbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

• Link
• Report this comment

If you want to understand what really goes on in a teacher’s head, this is a good letter. She talks about the welfare of the kids. She has to. But she is only interested in the welfare of the teacher.

Breaking up the government run school system monopoly will do for education what breaking up AT&T did for communications in the US. Without the AT&T breakup, the internet would probably not exist.

Breaking up the government run school monopoly will induce efficiency and innovation. Forcing a government run monopoly on the people will protect inefficiency and stagnation.

If you want to know what is really going on in Maureen Downey’s head, look at the letters she publishes and the people she quotes. Any one who says the AJC is fair and balanced has not bothered to read this column.

• Link
• Report this comment

Any increase in pay is better than the decreases in pay that I and other Georgia teachers have received over the past 4 years. I love my pay cut each year. In florida, some teacher unions told their members not to write letters of recommendation, or sponser clubs. I had this past week off, with lots of work for school to complete, but since I worked my “odd jobs” to make up for lost pay I did not have time to complete it. I guess my school work will have to wait until Monday, while I am on the clock.

• Link
• Report this comment

Thanks for publishing this letter, Maureen. It was well written and demonstrates to me that there are others in our state who share my belief that public education funding is being plundered by greedy, self serving profiteers. I just don’t understand why the average citizen. whose child is supposed to be the benificiary of our services, stands by and lets the education system be dismantled by unfavorable (to say the least) working conditions and crippling austerity cuts for those of us in charge of teaching children.

The charter school movement is not about improving public education. It is about money. Corporate raiders do not care about the quality of service provided to their customers nearly as much as they care about profits. Your children will suffer if public education becomes privatized. It is sadly ironic that teachers in this state cannot participate in collective bargaining because that right is reserved for private sector employees and yet our schools are being turned over to the private sector to manipulate and plunder. Soon a teacher’s worth will not be based on anything more than how little pay is required to keep him or her in front of the classroom. It is also ironic that the far right is behind this movement since dismantling the intelligentsia has always been a favorite tactic of the Communist party when it overthrows a government. I’m not comparing the Republican Party to the Khymer Rouge, but if the shoe fits . . .

• Link
• Report this comment

Certainly, let’s applaud CTU’s pushback on, in effect, Obama’s education privatization polices implicit in Race to the Top and such.

That said, CTU settling for tying 30% of teachers’ evaluations to test scores is puzzling, if not alarming. That particular settlement can only continue to undermine what is truly important, which is to improve our public education systems for the sake of sustaining democratic ideals in service to the common good.

So, it’s hard to accept any percentage of test scores tied to teachers’ evaluations and it’s puzzling as to why CTU would compromise on such a terribly important matter.

Gosh, hopefully CTU’s settlement on tying 30% of teachers’ evaluations to test scores won’t spread to become an exemplar for others to adopt.

Otherwise, we’ll simply keep getting more of this…

http://www.ajc.com/news/cheating-our-children/district-bios/
http://www.ajc.com/news/cheat-playbook/
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/education/school-test-cheating-thrives-while-investigations-/nSHwF/

• Link
• Report this comment

“School supplies–it’s about time that teachers who care enough to raid their own wallets for pencil, paper, and tissues for their students get reimbursed. Teachers shouldn’t be penalized for caring.”

Amen! This unspoken expectation that teachers should be willing to spend their money to do their job needs to end. I received NOTHING this year for my class. Since I’m not core, the answer is, “you have a job”. Wow! No raises, have my own family to take care of, and I need to buy supplies like pencils, a pencil sharpener, markers, etc for the entire school since I teach everyone. It’s become exhausting fighting to do your job.

I find it funny that anyone would call teachers greedy. Yeah, these huge six figure salaries we pull in, and we’re asking for more huh? I really want to know how many people are expected to pay for basic resources to do their job. I’ve spoken to many people and nobody has said they do.

• Link
• Report this comment

The “letter” is pathetic. Just another collection of tired old excuses the union puts forward in opposing reform and parental choice in education.

Polling indicates that 58% of Georgia voters are poised to approve the constitutional amendment restoring extra authority to approve charters at the state level, So once again, teachers’ union money is being wasted here in Georgia on partisan politics.

Georgia Association of Educators members can take a look at where the rest of that extra $168 in yearly National Education Association dues they pay goes … by Googling “NEA” and “donations.”

• Link
• Report this comment

@ 10:10 am

“Polling indicates that 58% of Georgia voters are poised to approve the constitutional amendment restoring extra authority to approve charters at the state level. . .”
=================================================

It is my belief that those who conducted that poll, with those results communicated to the public, are as interested in swaying public opinion as they are in analyzing public opinion. This is a Republican polling group.

I urge eaders to check out information about this polling group at the following link:
http://www.mclaughlinonline.com/5

There, readers will learn not only that this is a Republican polling group, not a non-partisan one, but that Gov. Nathan Deal and Lt. Governor Casey Cagle are among its clients. On the polling group’s website are these words: “The Washington Times cites McLaughlin and Associates as one of the best Republican polling firms.” Furthermore, the CEO and Partner John McLaughlin writes on the “Home Page” of this website that his firm had been “working with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to help him win a majority in Congress.”

This polling group, evidently then, acts to help clients win elections, not simply to give them polling results.

Moreover, in previewing the questions that this polling group submitted to Georgians on the constitutional amendment (from the link provided on Jim Galloway’s thread of September 19, 2012, on this issue), I found the questions to be quite leading in promoting the value of this constitutional amendment to Georgians polled. That is my opinion. It is, also, my opinion that the Republican leaders in Georgia have actively engaged in establishing, within Georgia, educational policies that are very similar to those advocated by national Republican ideologues of power and influence, and that this poll helps in that effort.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The collective defines its goals as: 1) empowering educators to reclaim their workplace and professionalism”

What a joke. These people are employees – no different than anyone else – yet they want to put themselves up on some type of pedestal. Do your Jobs – you do not run the asylum (nor should you)!

More money and less accountability is what every educator desires. To claim this strike has anything to do with the “Rights of children” is pathetic.

• Link
• Report this comment

“While I support much of what the strike was about, we are in a period where the powers that be are using very powerful, negative public sentiment in a bad economy to make unions look like minions of the devil himself.”

In other words, teachers are ALLOWING the opponents to shape the debate. When have you EVER heard a GAE or PAGE representative say to Millar, Deal and company, “You claim to be the party of ‘rule of law’ and ‘personal responsibility;’ where are your meaningful proposals, with REAL TEETH in them, to support teachers in matters of discipline?

If GAE and PAGE were willing to hold the Gold Dome crowd accountable for upholding their own values, the debate could change in a way that would resonate with the public.

The question is, why won’t GAE and PAGE advocate for their teachers in this manner?

• Link
• Report this comment

“Do your Jobs – you do not run the asylum (nor should you)! ”

Trust me, we know that. It’s the ones who DO run the asylum that are the problem, but we as voters keep electing them and letting them do this crazy stuff.

If you actually knew and talked to any teachers for any length of time, you’d realize how ludicrous your sweeping generalizations of us are. Better yet, you should come into a school and spend some time watching it all happen. You’d be surprised how your views would change then.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The question is, why won’t GAE and PAGE advocate for their teachers in this manner?”

I’m beginning to wonder that myself. Both organizations are evidently pretty heavily populated by the management level, and they certainly don’t want lowly teachers getting any sense of empowerment. That would shake up the administrative downflow of decision-making, wouldn’t it?

• Link
• Report this comment

“I’m beginning to wonder that myself. Both organizations are evidently pretty heavily populated by the management level,”

Yes RonF and the fact that teachers have made them THEIR voice makes as much sense as chickens thinking Truett Cathy is their one true advocate.

At some point, teachers have to realize decisions like this are making them ACTIVE co-creators of their own misery.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Are we to believe the social environment of inner city Chicago is so pristine that discipline is no longer an issue?”

@Beverly F: Did you happen to see page 4 of the document I linked to???

Rahm’s administration wanted to eliminate Assault leave and change it to worker’s comp. for 2/3rd pay. Teachers in Chicago had to fight for assault leave.

Somehow I doubt the social environment is pristine if teachers have to fight for 100% paid leave for being assaulted.

Did anyone in the media even pick up on this little tidbit? Teachers had to push back to preserve Assault leave.

And we have the audacity to bash these teachers up the side of the head for standing up for themselves?

• Link
• Report this comment

From the beginning of this strike, I’ve thought that I don’t know enough to take sides; and I still think that those living outside Chicago don’t either. It’s a rough, gritty, though beautiful, city.

From regularly visiting my close relative living in that city, I know that Chicago is de facto segregated (South side, generally black and North side, generally white), and so is its school system. A May 2012 NY Times article stated that Chicago Public Schools are the most segregated among large city school systems. I’ve also studied the phenomenon of South side gangs and their domination of the neighborhoods from which the South side school children come.

So I would like to know the extent to which the Chicago Teachers Union represents those teachers of the inner city South side. Is it primarily an inner-city teachers’ union? If so, what they’re demanding is “combat pay.” I also don’t know anything about the caliber of those teachers, and the training required to be hired in Chicago inner-city public schools.

And I frankly don’t think that educators in Georgia can know either.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Grob Hahn 09:55—If you are going to use a historical event to make your BS point then at least get it right. It was NOT pilots that went on strike, but air traffic controllers. I am sure you could ask any teacher and they could explain to you the difference between private industry employees and federal employees. Learn what you are talking about first before you run your stupid mouth.

Sincerely, A husband of a VERY dedicated school teacher.

• Link
• Report this comment

I wish all the teachers in Georgia who favor a union would move to states that have them. I could use the spot vacated by one of you morons. Teachers’ unions are the reason the entire profession gets a bad name.

• Link
• Report this comment

Union generated “letters” aside, education reform and parental choice is now a civil rights issue. Arguably the central one of our era.

Democrats themselves are divided between those seeking to stave off education reform and thus protect union dues revenues—and those, mostly inner-city parents, whose children actually pay the price for non-performing traditional public schools.

Vote “Yes” on the constitutional amendment.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ catlady,

now that you mention it, I do remember something about that. Sonny wanted our money, only to find that since that state of Georgia DOESN’T pay our pensions he had no legal access to them.

just goes to show stupidity and a lack of integrity is not the province of any one person, group, race, political party, ect.

it annoys the fool out of me that so many insist on trying to make this a democrat/republican issue when the problems are much deeper and more complex. neither side has clean hands

• Link
• Report this comment

@ 10:10

how one earth do you get that? a civil rights issue?
hardly.

no one is being denied education based on race/religion.
nor are they being denied to ability to homeschool, pursue private education, or move to a new location.

• Link
• Report this comment

[...] Teaching Georgia Writing Collective.  The letter was initially posted on Maureen Downey’s Get Schooled website on the Atlanta Journal [...]

• Link
• Report this comment

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I’d do is join a union. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

The City of Chicago schools are as unsafe as any, Factory you would find anywhere.

• Link
• Report this comment

Oh, I really don’t need a teachers’ union to bargain for better working conditions. I like buying toilet tissue, facial tissue, hand sanitizer, pencils, other school supplies, and xerox paper. I like that I don’t have any workbooks for the students. I like having 30 little ones in my class, especially when I don’t have enough seats. I like losing my duty free 20 min. lunch break. I love not having prep periods. I enjoy endless meetings till 5 or 6 PM, because I like staying up all night to grade papers and do my plans. I love being bullied by administrators and other central office flunkies. I think it’s ok that students with behavior problems can’t get written up. I don’t mind the pay cuts and furloughs. After all, Clark Howard says, who needs a new car anyway? And my mortgage lender will gladly foreclose on my house if I can’t make ends meet. Should I go on?

• Link
• Report this comment

“Not so for most inner-city Atlanta parents.”

Part of the problem in inner-city schools across the country is the lack of involved parents. Some are, and deserve better than they have, but it’s more than just teachers that need changing. You have to change the mindset of the community. When children come from homes that emphasize education, regardless of socio-economic level, they tend to do well. Unfortunately, in the inner city schools they are surrounded by those who don’t have that basic value at home. Are schools to blame for the proliferation of gangs? Are the schools to blame for the drug sales, prostitution, and street violence prevalent in so many inner-city neighborhoods? We can’t just teach them the curriculum and make everything fine. The schools are just a microcosm of the areas they serve, and until you get folks to teach all the children that education is as much a necessity as food, clothing, and shelter, you’ll never fix the problems that lead to the schools being in such a mess. Make the charter schools, give parents “choice” and you still have the same kids from the same homes with the same social issues they’ll have to face regardless of what the local school has for curriculum or management. How do we “fix” the communities and get more parents involved?

• Link
• Report this comment

“fully funded public schools that aren’t destroyed by for-profit charters not held to the same level of scrutiny.”

Wrong again–charter schools are NOT for-profit institutions. They are public schools. Like district schools, they are governed by nonprofit boards, which may sign a contract with a for-profit corporation to manage the school or provide educational and/or back office services and support. District school boards are elected, while charter school boards are formed by a founding group that includes parents, educators, and community stakeholders.

District public schools are free to do the SAME thing, and some have done so over the years, with varied degrees of success, depending strongly on the political climate in the district and the willingness to follow through on supporting the measures recommended.

Charter public schools are subject, at a minimum, to identical scrutiny as any other public school (if it’s a district-authorized school), ranging to increased scrutiny if it is a state-chartered school because it must report finances, governance, and educational information directly to the state department of education.

EVERY public school in the entire United States, district or charter, does business with for-profit corporations. Every single one of them. There are no textbook publishers, technology vendors, food suppliers, etc., that I am aware of who are not in business to make a profit.

The “for-profit privateers will dismantle the public schools” argument is tiresome at best. It’s utterly ridiculous and a smokescreen thrown up constantly by those who want to preserve the status quo at any cost.

No surprise that the professors of schools of education would sign onto such an obsequious letter–they threw their lot in long ago with the NEA and the AFT in the effort to avoid any form of accountability. The USDOE has been pressing for schools of education to be held accountable for producing graduates who can help students read and write at least at grade level in order to preserve their federal funding.

• Link
• Report this comment

As a former CPS teacher, I remember being treated awfully by those teachers who grasped on to the union, because I actually taught my students and they showed significant gains-everyone of my 38 students for the 6 years I taught there. Union thug teachers aren’t concerned about good teaching or providing a good education, they are concerned about what they can get for themselves. The 5 hour work day (1/2 hour for lunch, at least a 1/2 hour for a prep, and ten minutes for a bathroom break) with the average teacher making $80,000 wasn’t good enough.

Tenure CPS teachers who lose their job at their school because of enrollment, it closing or another reason other than bad teaching, do not go to the unemployment line. They get to be part of the sub pool or wait at the Central Office for a job to open up and be assigned to it. Teachers have the choice of looking for a job to replace the one they lost, or wait around and be a substitute. They keep their salary and benefits. These displaced teachers aren’t hurting or struggling, if they choose not to look for another teaching job.

Teachers don’t understand the free market, and how others receive their salaries and benefits. Many that I know have had to take pay cuts to keep their jobs, as the businesses they work for have taken in less revenue and employers could lay a few people off or keep everyone employed, but belts would have to be tightened.

For those saying that teachers are the only jobs that have to pay for their own supplies, that is utter hogwash. There are people who have to pay for their own uniforms or protective work gear, tools if you’re a mechanic, etc. Teachers have it pretty good in terms of the number of days worked. Yes, many do work at home, but so do so many other professionals (which is what a teacher wants to be thought of as) that don’t have unions or pay scales or pay even if their students don’t show any growth.

I see nothing wrong with paying a teacher $100,000 a year, if she/he is actually producing students that are making significant progress, enjoy learning, and have critical thinking skills that they can use in the real world. I do not want to pay even $25,000 for a teacher who realizes that the product she is a part of is lousy and sends her children to private school, and continues the problem instead of being part of the solution.

Teachers are quick to blame parents for the state of the schools. I blame teachers and parents, as both are not willing to demand a better quality of education for the children attending the public school system.

I taught on the South Side of Chicago. I had 38 children or more in my class. ALL of my kids were on welfare and few had a father figure in their home. I, a white girl from Philly, required my students to read and write proper English. I demanded of myself, the same quality of education that I received in school and that I would demand for my unborn children to receive. We wrote every day. We read every day. I read to them every day, and I had NO MATERIALS. Not a reading book or math book, and this was before the internet made finding materials so easy. We did lots of work off the chalk board because I was limited to the number of copies I could make. I gave only meaningful homework, hoping and praying that parents would take their children to the library. I fought parents who told me that I was making their child white and made them see how much their children were learning and how what an education could do for their child. I respected my students and their families and in return got that same respect back. I never joined the CPS teacher union. I had the union due fee taken out of my checks, but I did not join, as I was a child in public school and had two strikes happen during my 13 years. I saw teachers unions as caring only about the teachers and not about the children. My teachers wouldn’t coach sports, or write a letter of recommendation for me to send to a college, because it was against the unions. I fought becoming a teacher, because of what I saw with teacher unions. They are not what people think they are, and they are not about making education better. They are all for getting what they can for the teachers that they represent, even when the community can’t afford the teacher demands.

This letter disgusts me, as does any teacher who supports the teacher strike of Chicago. Working less than 5 hours a day and making $80,000 is pretty darn fair if you ask me. My husband graduated from an Ivy League university, worked for Lehman Brothers when he graduated and made less than I did as a first year teacher in CPS. He worked in NYC, which more expensive than Chicago. He worked longer hours and more days a year than I ever did as a teacher in any district that I worked in.

• Link
• Report this comment

All this is; is manipulation and pressure for teachers to get their way. Students are not in this picture. What are our adults of the future going to look like? Cry babies or mature people who can solve challenges. Take a quick guess!

• Link
• Report this comment

One more thing about unions in Illinois. There are different unions/districts for elementary and middle schools than high schools. High school teachers get paid significantly more than elementary and high school teachers outside of Chicago.

Georgia teachers, need to do their own homework and get all of the facts and stop relying just on what they read and see in the news. There is much more to unions than meets the eye, and good teaching isn’t a care or concern for any union member that I’ve ever met.

• Link
• Report this comment

i keep going back to the taxpayer—the taxpayer funds all of this —the taxpayer receives none of the excessive salaries of ga. high school administration nor of chicago teachers—nor do they receive similar benefits (retirement/insurance,etc)—still these people want the taxpayers to pay more and more and will even strike to insist they do. More of our politicians should follow ronald reagan’s idea when the air traffic controllers went on strike— simply put—fire their asses and put new people in their jobs. it will work with chicago teachers also and ga. high school administration as well. if you want to see what is wrong with education in chicago (52% graduate) –then watch this video—it is self explanatory….. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YXOSaMZzs&feature=related

• Link
• Report this comment

Grob Hahn knows what’s what:
“Georgia teachers shouldn’t be patting strikers on the back while Georgia parents are worrying about sliding education results, cheating scandals and bloated school administration. A lot of parents are seriously questioning your talent in Georgia.”
This parent questioned the talent and considered it worth little. My little children are in private school and thriving and I’ll be voting with that in mind. You rob me of my taxes and hand me a shoddy product and you think I should be thankful to you? He)) to the no!

• Link
• Report this comment

Well expressed, Dr. Johnson, at 6:33 pm.

Moreover, that there had been such intense debate on the constitutional amendment in Georgia’s last legislative session, that there have been such large amounts of money coming into Georgia from out-of-state donors to support passage of this amendment, that state Superintendent of Schools, Dr. John Barge, has received such heightened criticism by politicians for voicing that he cannot support this amendment because public school funding is already underfunded in Georgia, that polls have been conducted regarding this amendment by a group that has been known to advocate for Republican causes all suggest that delivery of public education, as we have known it, may be on the line in Georgia because of this amendment.

I will vote NO to this amendment because I wish to improve public education from within, with the help of charter schools which will work with school districts. I do not wish to see traditional public schools possibly dismantled. It is my opinion that traditional public schools were not designed for profit purposes, but were designed to serve the common good.

• Link
• Report this comment

Mary Elizabeth thank you so much for your informative well sourced comments.

• Link
• Report this comment

d, the CRCT is one of the worst standardized tests that I have seen. Tests should be nationally normed and students should have to show at least a year’s growth. Parents need to know where their child stands with the children of the US, not Georgia. As they will be competing with kids from the US, not just Georgia.

It’s easy to find student growth in tests like the IOWA, CAT, and other nationally normed tests, if the same type of test is given each year. Most state tests are BS and junk. Teachers don’t need to be making standardized tests. Teachers don’t need to be teaching to a standardized test. Teachers need to provide our children with a quality education.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Oscar, 8:29 pm

Thank you, Oscar. I very much appreciate your words.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Clearly Georgia has its own fair share of the same shameful, and virtually worthless, parasites.”

Then become one of the new breed of worthy teachers and help fix the problem. Replace the “parasites” by putting yourself in the classroom. It’s easy to judge and spout opinions. Put feet to the words and become part of the “solution.”

• Link
• Report this comment

@Teacher Reader, I agree with your opinion on CRCT, Iowa, etc, but my basic question still stands. Were these tests designed to measure teacher performance? I don’t think so, and, as such, I don’t believe they should be used in that fashion.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ behind

interesting: teachers are parasites.

quite telling

• Link
• Report this comment

@Teacher Reader…. DeKalb currently has high school class sizes “capped” at 36+ depending on the content area. Problem is, unlike how you said CPS classrooms are built for that, I have yet to see a DCSD classroom built for that many. I am a GAE member, and I have seen them counsel teachers out of the profession. None of us want to be next to the proverbial bad teacher. It makes our job much harder. Several years ago, for 3 semesters, I was. I constantly had to stop what I was doing to handle that, and I was grateful when that ended. That teacher is no longer teaching.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Ron, I was a teacher in DeKalb, but now homeschool. I never taught to a standardized test, even the CRCT. A good teacher understands the research and knows that private schools don’t teach to a test. They provide quality instruction. Quality instruction and high standards will get a teacher good test scores.

In Chicago, working in an all black school being white, I had to prove myself time and time again. I had NO materials. No reading series. No nothing. Just the standards that I was to teach to. I taught my students to the standards or above, as I was taught in grad school when I received my teaching certificate that the standards were a minimum of what the students should understand not everything. My students were usually the low end of the students coming out of kindergarten (I taught mostly first grade). These kids barely knew their alphabet letter names and forget about their sounds. I taught them how to read. We wrote stories. We worked on math skills. My kids always made a year and half to well over 2 years of instructional growth on the IOWA.

You see, I never made excuses for my students. I taught them were they were and kept on going. I knew that being one of two or three white teachers in an all black school, I had to prove myself. I taught my students the way that I would want my child to be taught.

Study after study shows that homeschooled children out perform public school kids on standardized tests. Why? Because they are taught and not taught to a test. There is such a difference.

It’s very easy for any teacher to analyze the data of a standardize test and know a child’s weakness and strengths. I did this back in the mid-90s-early 2000s, without a computer program to analyze the data for me. I read about it in a journal and decided to give it a try. It worked.

Sorry, there is nothing wrong with a good standardize test. We need to be sure that children are learning and making progress. There is something wrong with a poorly written test, which the CRCT is, as it provides teachers with no data and wastes children’s precious time.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ d, the problem with class size in DeKalb is very different from the fight of the Chicago Public School teacher (I’ve taught in both places). DeKalb County teachers speaking up against large class sizes that are too big for the rooms is something that the public would get behind. Asking for a huge pay increase when our home values are dropping each time DeKalb County Schools is in the news is not something that the population at large will get behind DCSS teachers.

Also complaining about the class size, shows that you care about the quality of education/instruction you are providing the students. Complaining about your salary makes one look greedy and selfish. There is a difference.

• Link
• Report this comment

Ed Johnson, come on down and see me at 100 Edgewood Avenue downtown and take a good, close look at how we are executing our school’s mission, vision, and values. Attend one of our governing board meetings. Take a look at our books. Read our contract with our for-profit education service provider. Look at our purchasing & procurement processes.

After you do that, I dare you to find a single thing in any of the above that isn’t “doing does business with for-profit corporations to support the purpose, mission, goals, etc. of the public school or district.” Further, I double-dog dare you to find anything specious or fraudulent about any of it.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ bootney Farnsworth, Until teachers demand to teach and stop sitting back and teaching a boxed curriculum or to a stupid poorly written test, they will never have the masses behind them. Teachers need to start demanding to be able to do their job, which is to provide children an education that teaches them basics, excites them into life long learners, and gives them many opportunities to problem solve.

The general public is tired of teachers complaining about their salaries. As a former teacher, I am tired of hearing teachers complain about their salaries. I want to hear teachers complain about not being able to teach. Or about the lack of discipline in our schools. Or teaching to a test. Or other problems that generally affect the quality of education our children are receiving.

If the public heard teachers complaining about things that genuinely put the kids first, they would get behind a pay increase and wouldn’t mind paying higher taxes for a superior product. Right now, the public doesn’t care that teachers work after hours, many of them are are well. They don’t care that they can’t afford their health care insurance, as most families are struggling to get by as well, why should a teacher be any different?

Teachers have lost sight of the children and appear laser focused on themselves, and until the reverse happens, the public won’t get behind the unions or the teachers that complain and say that they are for the children when their actions clearly show something else.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ d, the city of Chicago is broke, like many municipalities, and you can’t get blood from a stone. It would be cheaper for the city to close all of the schools and turn them into Charter schools, making the teachers use the charter school salary scale, often much less than that of CPS. Many Americans have had to take pay cuts to keep a job, and would love to have a 1% pay increase, or even the security of a tenure teacher. The day before election day, many hard working engineers and workers for Lockheed Martin will get a pink slip. Where will they go to get a job? Who will hire them? I am sure that if you talked to these individuals that they would gladly do without a raise to keep their job. Teachers really don’t understand the economy and what many others are going through to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. I have no sympathy, as $80,000 goes a long way in Chicago even with a family.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ teacher

ok, you fall in the troll category.

if you haven’t heard us yelling about the constraints and policies which interfere with teaching, its simply because you haven’t bothered to hear it.

and for the record, I don’t give a damn about the masses. the masses didn’t want the American Revolution. they did, however, lynch Leo Frank. brutally put, the masses have done squat for me-I reciprocate.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Teaxher Reader, I did not get into this profession to become wealthy, but at the same time, I don’t intend to enter the poor house because of it. We have reduced the number of teachers in classrooms around this country, and both students and the teachers left behind suffer. Classrooms aren’t able to handle this number of students. How can science teachers really do labs with 40 kids? How can English teachers really grade 180 essays the way they should be? Who suffers? Not superintendents who make more than the governor and state superintendent combined or the one who will get about $320,000 from TRS annually when he finally retires. I, on the other hand, will state my salary case bluntly. I still show up, I still do my best, but there’s a lot I can’t do when I can barely move around the classroom or buy supplies for interesting activities. I am in my 8th year teaching. I make $300 more than a brand new teacher who walked in the door this year with my same credentials. I earn about 3 or 4% less than I did in 2008-2009 before furloughs started. Inflation since then has been about 8%. My benefits are nearly 30% higher, my TRS contribution has increased. DCSD has not provided any retirement or social security payments to me ever. Am I frustrated, absolutely. Have I changed jobs? No. There is something more important to me. It’s the student who was on his own at graduation and didn’t have any appropriate clothes for graduation day thanking me for helping him get the appropriate attire. It’s the student who drove me crazy when he was in my room knocking on my door to tell me he did better than most of his peers in a college level economics course because of the foundation I provided to him in high school economics. It’s the students who come to me and say they want for me to write them a recommendation to my alma mater because they come to appreciate how I developed there. How long can one be expected to keep this up when money is being wasted by central offices, funding out of state corporations for work that can be done locally and inject much needed money into the local economy?

• Link
• Report this comment

Dr. Monica Henson, at one moment you generalize then the next moment you get defensively specific. Yours is an interesting behavior.

Kindly schedule a day and time for me to visit 100 Edgewood Ave sometimes after mid-December. I will be much unavailable until then. Please e-mail your invitation to me at edwjohnson@aol.com with a cc to edjohnson@qisincorp.com.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Teacher Reader, who says I haven’t and won’t continue to do so. My current moniker here dates to times before I had the protection of fair dismissal, but believe me, I have spoken many times about these sues and will continue to do so.

• Link
• Report this comment

And, @teacher reader, if pay doesn’t start going up, who are you going to expect to teach children at any school, public, private or whatever. Basic supply and demand will keep the highly qualified people from ever entering the field and will drive the experienced out. Do you honestly think if there weren’t a minimum wage, anyone would pay the cashier at McDonalds $7.25 an hour? Does that job require that much education? Of course not, but mine does. If you want highly qualified people in front of any classroom, you have to pay based on the human capital that person has developed. Do you think new teachers will enter the field in 2020 if pay is still at 2007 levels? So forgive my BS argument, But I can fight for both children and myself and still be a great teacher.

• Link
• Report this comment

RAMZAD: Are you ready to become one of the new and improved teachers in the state run charter schools system that is coming? Are you willing to get in there and make a difference or just sit back and offer more opinions of who’s to blame? Get in there and do the job and show us how to do it better. If you succeed, you can make a fortune off the books and professional development conferences once you prove your expert level of ability.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ d, private schools pay significantly less and manage to hire quality individuals just fine. I’m really not concerned about raising teacher pay, until quality comes up.

If you understood how to show growth, you’d know that you take a look at the child’s scores from the previous year and see how much growth they made at the end of the next year. It’s a very simple calculation to do, and EVERY child should show growth. Trouble is that we keep passing kids on with no expectations, and that is a very different problem. In Chicago, students were automatically held back for missing a certain number of days of school. Also, students were held accountable for their test scores and kept back in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grade when their scores didn’t make the cut off. When is the last time that has happened in DCSS?

Teachers should be concerned about the profession of teaching and speak out time and time again. Go to board meetings, get to the media and talk about quality of education and not teacher pay.

You really don’t get it. I DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU MAKE. I CARE THAT MY CHILD AND ALL CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT AND RECEIVE A QUALITY EDUCATION. This isn’t happening and hasn’t happened from what I can tell for some time in many parts of the country. Until the quality of the product comes up, than the pay can increase.

Teachers receive a very nice pension for their service after 30 years. Not many people have this perk. I know, I know, you paid into your pension fund-not nearly enough sir, not nearly enough. This is not your fault, but if you consider yourself smart, than you should be able to do the math and realize that this isn’t sustainable and be concerned about your future, especially if you are young (under 50).

I don’t care what workers in Mc Donalds are paid. I have a choice to pay the price for food there or not. I don’t have a choice in paying my taxes. I work hard for my money, and frankly am tired of sending them to DCSS and seeing the inferior product our children are receiving at even the “good” schools.

I don’t think you understand that the public really does not care about your salary. Until you and other teachers realize that constantly talking about how much you make while saying that you care about the kids but are much less vocal and tenacious about showing how focus on improving the education children receive, you will never have the majority of the public backing you up.

The real issues are the lack of education our children are receiving not the size of a teacher’s pay check. I know many people with a teaching degree but are not able to get a job, who would gladly take your job just to do what they went to school for. That is what you and other teachers need to know. There is no teacher shortage and there are many that are just as qualified as you, to take your place.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Until the quality of the product comes up, than the pay can increase.”

If you really ever were a teacher, you’d know how ridiculous and oversimplied that statement is. Makes a nice bumper sticker, but how can the “quality of the product” be so set and determined when the materials to create it are of such varying quality? Teaching never has been or ever will be that simple. Every kids deserves a quality education; they should have the right to that. But does every kid want it? Does every kid choose to be educated and see the absolute necessity of it? No, and there’s no method yet that has reached 100% of them. Once again, you can’t put all the blame on teachers when the communities themselves have so many real, immediate needs. You can’t ignore those needs and problems. Those are not excuses- those are realities. Just as it’s a reality that some schools are just plain bad. Some, not all, but we’ll do away with even the good ones in favor of charters and taxpayer funded vouchers soon enough anyway. And doing away with them all and touting “choice” isn’t the whole solution and you know it.

• Link
• Report this comment

Teacher Reader: just so you know, I’m actually grateful to have my taxpayer funded salary, as good or bad as it gets, and that changes year to year since the recession hit. I don’t think I “deserve” anything if my kids aren’t succeeding. I demand the best of myself first and then the kids. I’m not entitled to anything but the privilege to spend my days with some of the most challenging and most wonderful, loving kids you could ask for, despite their behavior some days and puzzling lack of abilities most days. I don’t just go to work to teach, I live to teach. Sadly, I don’t know how much longer that will continue as the pressure to perform builds. More tests, more goals, more tightly controlled curricula, and less and less chance to just get kids thinking and problem solving about things they can relate to and value. But I keep trying and believing the possibilities for my kids while I prepare for the often painful reality of the choices some of them make that ruin their lives. It’s like losing a member of my own family, but sooner or later they have to head out there and make those choices, and a few do.

It’s a calling by the way, not a job, but like any profession you’ll lower quality if you lower pay too much. That’s a tough balance to find.

• Link
• Report this comment

I love the part where T/R says she doesn’t care how much we make, she wants results.

capitalism 101- you get what you pay for.

• Link
• Report this comment

*strike

• Link
• Report this comment

I can see that some of the teachers here are living a professional illusion. How can a young person graduate high school and not be able to build or recognize a decent sentence in the English language? This is a student who has been coming to school day after day. Forget the poverty argument that you all have on repeat play. They show up!

Just how can that be? We are also talking about thousands of cases in one school district who can’t break down an argument and take out the piece that we need to answer a simple question.

In any other profession we would have declared a national emergency or start a war to deal with this problem. Forget math and history and civics. Just teach them to read and write. The teacher profession is a very honorable calling, but it is clear that for too many of you it is just a paycheck to produce illiterates. My respect for public school teachers is disappearing below zero.

• Link
• Report this comment

It seems that there are many people dissatisfied with public education in Georgia. Some people have claimed that teachers here want to maintain the status quo in education. These people want radical change to our education system here. Wouldn’t repealing the laws against collective bargaining for teachers be a radical change. Georgia would then join the ranks of many of the states whose standardized test scores exceed ours.

• Link
• Report this comment

“QSo be careful implying, insinuating, or otherwise suggesting John Q Public is too stupid to know or to learn what’s going on.”

@Ed, John Q. Public might not be too stupid to know what’s going on, but they ARE too ignorant to know what’s going on. WILLFULLY ignorant, seeing as more of them will take the time to know the judges on American Idol than take the time to know the ones that sit on the Supreme Court.

And that’s why teachers need to SHAPE THE DEBATE. They need to counteract the Rhee/Duncan/et al rhetoric with their own easily understood soundbite, just to have a fighting chance to get people to the nuance of it all.

And if a TEACHER can’t put a message in a bite sized chunk, easily understood by the masses…

• Link
• Report this comment

Oh dear, Mr. Johnson, it looks like you are a computer information systems expert. That may explain your difficulty in following my nonlinear thinking. Please be patient with this old maid schoolteacher. I do think that when you take a look at our school, you’ll be pleased with what you see.

• Link
• Report this comment

Reading back through Teacher Reader’s comments, I notice that his/her style changes from one of commiseration with teachers to that of the same old teacher-bashing that has become so familiar–and dull- on this blog since the out-of-state paid trolls discovered “Get Schooled.” I also notice that he/she has been absent from the discussion since last night at 11:31 pm, and isn’t answering any of the retorts by local teachers.

• Link
• Report this comment

Invitation sent. Thanks for the link, and I look forward to meeting you!

• Link
• Report this comment

How many awsuits does Atlanta Public Schools have pending under Erroll Davis? He is clueless and worse than Beverly Hall. He is horrible and costing taxpayers greatly while the dysfuntional board of education stands by doing nothing as before. Enroll needs to good home to rest. That is why he is so gouchy in old age. At least Hall was a knowlegeable educator.

• Link
• Report this comment