CA: Teachers union wants dues raised ($60/year for 3 years to battle proposed reforms)

Sac Bee ^ | 3/20/05 | Alexa H. Bluth

[NormsRevenge]

The state's largest teachers union will ask its members to consider a $60 hike in dues in each of the next three years to help raise tens of millions of dollars to combat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's merit pay, pension and budget initiatives, union officials said Friday.

If approved by the California Teachers Association's state council in June, the increase would tack on a total $180 over the next three years to the $500-a-year dues that its 335,000 members now pay the statewide organization.

"We feel the need to defend public education and our students," said CTA President Barbara Kerr. "Our choice would obviously be to do what the governor does and have $10,000-a-plate (fund-raising) dinners, but our members cannot afford $10,000-a-plate dinners," Kerr said.

Schwarzenegger raised about $28 million last year from campaign donors for various committees to push his ballot measure agenda. He already has headlined several fund-raisers this year to support his latest, and most ambitious, initiative agenda, which ranges from merit pay initiatives for teachers to overhauling the way the state draws its legislative boundaries.

--snip--

Kerr said the union is seeking to raise more than $50 million through the dues increase, but she said she hopes the governor will back down from some of his plans that critics say will harm schools before the union's council even votes on the proposed dues increase. Union officials would not say whether the union would borrow against future dues in order to spend the money this year.

"The governor could solve this with the Legislature. He could save teachers the $60 a year," she said. "All he has to do is work with the Legislature and come to a fair agreement for our students."

[Publius6961]

Fortunately, we outnumber the tax grinders...

I will donate an additional $240 a year to support the proposed reforms...

[ken21]

the unions caused the decay of the public skool system.

if their jobs could have been out-sourced overseas, they'd be gone.

[river rat]

Hell, for all the good the union has done for "teachers", they should be HAPPY to give the damned union 50% of their salary...

Lord only knows that most of Kalifornicate's teachers produce the 2nd most stupid outcome from the 2nd most expensive Goobermint school system...

Only Washington, D.C. has a more stupid or more expensive outcome...

Semper Fi

[Tuefel Hunden]

If approved by the California Teachers Association's state council in June, the increase would tack on a total $180 over the next three years to the $500-a-year dues that its 335,000 members now pay the statewide organization.

That is $167,500,000 a year. The increase would add $20,100,00 a year. Where does all that money go?

[RightWhale]

merit pay, pension and budget initiatives, . . ."We feel the need to defend public education and our students

Somehow merit pay, pension and budget initiatives are equivalent to public education and our students. So hire some extra lawyers, no need to be melodramatic.

[John Jorsett]

If they're dumb enough to assert that the additional funds are for politicking, then teachers who are opposed can invoke the Beck decision to deny them the money. I hope a lot of them do.

[Balding_Eagle]

That is $167,500,000 a year. The increase would add $20,100,00 a year. Where does all that money go?

A lot of it goes to the fight to beat back parents' demands that their children be taught how to read.

[groanup]

"The governor could solve this with the Legislature. He could save teachers the $60 a year," she said. "All he has to do is work with the Legislature and come to a fair agreement for our students."

Unbelievable, so it's the Governor's fault that the union wants to raise more money from its members. HUH? I have an idea, take that 500 a year that the teachers are giving to the unions and put it into the classroom. I'm always hearing how teachers have to reach into their own pockets.

[Tuefel Hunden]

My daughters elementary school scored an 897 on the SAT9.
She is 7 years old and in the 2nd grade. She reads on a 7th grade level and does math on a 5th grade level. I wish all teachers were like the ones at her school. They truly care about the students.

[oldenuff2no]

This isn't about the students, or their education. This is about holding teachers accountable for their performance, or lack of.
My wife is at Chico State right now taking the CSET test. This is the test that Ca uses to make sure that all of their new teachers are, "Highly Qualified." This test is a monster with an extremely high failure rate. If you were awarded your teaching credentials after 2002, you must take and pass this test to get a job, or to keep your job.
OK, that's fine.
I strongly suggest that every teacher in this state should have to take and pass this test to continue teaching!!!!!
The problem is that we would have very few teachers left to teach, most would never be able to pass this test!!!
This is a fact based on the pass failure rate of those students who have just finished 6 years of college and are a lot closer to geometry and advanced algebra than those who haven seen a college text book in 10 or 15 years.
These teachers are running scared. They have failed to bring the level of student knowledge up to standards and are now scared shitless that they might be tested to see where their level of knowledge might be.
If these teachers were so worried about the students then they would have figured out a way to teach them what they need to know.
There are many adds out in the Ca media claiming that the schools were given less money for education this year than last. It sounds good, but it is a bold faced lie.
More money was spent on education this year than last year.
If the teachers union can't manage to tell the truth about simple well documented facts, what good are they?

[bigsigh]

My wife is in the powerful, corrupt correctional officers union in Cal. When Davis was in she told the union she wanted them to deduct the amount of money they were spending on politics. They pissed and moaned and took a week to find the form (I think they had to design one). She did it because they gave money to Davis and she told them he supports killing babies.

The problem with Beck is that I don't think it requires the union to tell employees they don't have to pay that part of their union dues. And God-forbid the employer would tell them.

[Serenissima Venezia]

"My wife is at Chico State right now taking the CSET test. "This is the test that Ca uses to make sure that all of their new teachers are, "Highly Qualified." This test is a monster with an extremely high failure rate."

Your wife will do just fine - it's actually a very easy test. I think it's designed for education majors - who have one of the lowest SAT scores of any major! That's why there's a high failure rate, I imagine. The test has been dumbed down over the years to match our schools (I took it several years ago and studied with a book printed in the early '80's - the test I took wasn't even close in the difficulty level.)

And I heartily agree that all teachers should have to be retested regularly - maybe not the CSET, which I read was at a 10th or 11th grade level, but the subject competency tests for sure!

And as far as the $500 dues teachers pay the union - soon to be $560 - anyone can get the liability insurance from another source for about $100/year. So I have to assume that the extra profit the union gets goes into political contributions and/or someone's pocket!

[bigsigh]

Your wife can have the union deduct that portion of her dues that go toward union political activity. They won't tell her that, but it's federal law, since I think the Beck decision. My wife did that with the correctional officer's union in Cal.

[seastay]

The National Education Association spends $5 million annually for its media campaign fund, I don't know how much the California teachers assc. spends, but it must be a lot, since every time I turn the radio or TV on I hear them complain that they want more money , seems like they should take the money away from their Hollywood producers and their lame drama scrip writers and gave it to the teachers.

But then again Speaking as mother who has had her child in one of these schools, more money isn't the problem, they need to change their whole agenda if they want to be effective, one of which should be education for US citizens only, as the reason the average scores for students in not improving is the failing scores coming out of Los Angeles district and other areas where in some cases the majority schools parents are not even us citizens. No more money unless it comes from Mexico City!


http://home.earthlink.net/~mantonucci/archives/20040703.htm

[John Jorsett]

The problem with Beck is that I don't think it requires the union to tell employees they don't have to pay that part of their union dues. And God-forbid the employer would tell them.

During the Clinton administration, the Labor Department actually forbade employers posting information about Beck on company bulletin boards. Presumably the Bush Labor Department has rescinded that order. If I were an employer with unionized employees, I'd send out a mailer to every one of them. I'm guessing that Californistan won't be doing that for the teachers, however.

[Bullish]

If we could have started seriously reforming this 20 years ago we could have saved ourselves alot of problems. Problems now and in the future.

Teachers unions want to continue the gravy train on the peoples' dime. They have been running radio ads here in Cal. that are shameless lies.

Typical democrat crooks.

[ken21]

at some point people are just going to have to demand that schools be de-unionized.

if not, it's over for public education, except for the affluent areas where parents discipline their kids.

changes:

1. get rid of all consultants
2. reduce the administrators to a minimum
3. require parental involvement in their kids' education; fine them if they don't get involved
4. get rid of the unions.

[ReagansShinyHair]

My wife is at Chico State right now taking the CSET test.

I passed all required tests to get my CA teaching credential in 2002. I found them all to be laughably easy. The high failure rate is a result of the low intelligence level of the average wannabee-teacher.

I'm now pursuing a law degree at night, and going from one hated profession into another.

[ReagansShinyHair]

Your wife can have the union deduct that portion of her dues that go toward union political activity.

I tried that. They told me that the amount each month was $6. Out of the $75 that was forcibly taken from my check each month. To opt completely out of the union, I would have had to pay the entire dues up front, before school started. I took an $8000 pay cut to start teaching and didn't have the $900 my old union is allowed to steal from a teacher's paycheck, since I was busy paying back the $5000 in tuition it cost me to take the worthless "teacher training classes" to become a teacher in the first place.

Want to break the unions? Support legislation that makes it really possible for teachers to opt out of unions, and that doesn't let the union steal the money anyway.

I moved to Indiana, and since that legislation passed here, union membership is extremely low. It's only 10% at my school. I would never join.