"And that's really the point. I think we've seen all the pictorial evidence we need to conclude that when something is really upsetting to a group of teachers...large or small...they'll get their faces in public and raise hell about it."
well sure they do.
I've already agreed with you that liberals in the majority.
And I think liberals tend to be more of the "demonstration" types.
Not only does it take them back to the glory days of the 60's, but they have more of a sympathetic ear in the media and democrat politicians are more likely to respond to their demands.
Conservatives, in my opinion, live more in the real world.
They are less likely to skip work to participate in useless demonstrations.
I say "useless" because I come from the viewpoint of living in NY state.
The republican politicians in this state are not sympathetic to the minority conservative teachers. The confiscation of wages occurred under liberal Mario Cuomo and continued under RINO Pataki. Is liberal Spitzer going to be any different? No - he's not.
So this isn't just a NEA problem in NY....it is a fight against the entire state government.
Even IF a few teachers took off work..travelled to Albany and protested....would it make the papers? the news?
I doubt it.
So...conservatives tend to pick fights that actually accomplish something...like fighting the illegal confiscation of dues.
This hits the NEA where it really hurts - in their funding.
Clearly they aren't up to your standards in the marching/demonstration/pr department...but it isn't like there aren't any teachers trying to fight the NEA.
"But I've seen no similar demonstration about teacher quality or to insist that the NEA stop protecting the abusive and incompetent teachers in their ranks"
Well...do you ever see policemen and women marching against corrupt fellow officers?
No...they have the Bureau of Internal Affairs.
And the police are often tight lipped with this agency as well.
It goes back to the tendency of not wanting to expose coworkers.
whistleblowers are never popular and they often lose their jobs - and their friends.
That doesn't mean teachers SHOULDN'T speak out - I'm just pointing out this has to do more with human weakness than it does with the notion that "teachers are bad"
I don't think you'll ever see teachers demonstrating against their fellow teachers.
I think it would take government intervention to bust the monopoly and set up an independent organization whose job it is to evaluate/investigate incompetence...the educational version of BIA.
Asking people to police themselves when the sole purpose of the NEA is to protect and fight for teachers doesn't make sense does it?
The people who ARE charged with weeding out bad teachers have had their hands tied with mountains of red tape, "procedures", and state laws that make it nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher who has tenure.
Basically...the administrators have only 3 years with each teacher to figure out if they're worth a hill of beans or not.
"From what we've seen in this discussion one may fairly conclude, I believe, that the percentage of teachers who disapprove of the NEA's tactics, their politics, and their protections of bad teachers is so incredibly small that they feel they're unsafe in making their views public, then perhaps those who say we should scrap the entire system are correct."
Agreed.
Now...how do you go about "scrapping" the entire system when politicians from both parties are on the dole from the NEA?
"Well...do you ever see policemen and women marching against corrupt fellow officers?
No...they have the Bureau of Internal Affairs."
Unions involved? Yes...?
Moreover, they do, certainly have the I/A department to enforce a set of standards. However, the typical cop is far more easily fired than is a P/S teacher.