Posted on 05/19/2012 7:11:47 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
California's education tailspin has been blamed on class sizes, on the property tax restrictions enforced by Proposition 13, on an influx of Spanish-speaking students. But no portrait of the schools' downfall would be complete without mention of the California Teachers Assn., or CTA, arguably the state's most powerful union and a political behemoth that has blocked meaningful education reform, protected failing and even criminal educators, and pushed for pay raises and benefits that have reached unsustainable levels.
The CTA's power dates back to September 1975, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Rodda Act, which allowed teachers to bargain collectively. Within 18 months, 600 of the 1,000 local CTA chapters had moved to collective bargaining. In the years since Rodda's passage, the CTA has launched more than 170 strikes.
The CTA's most important resource, however, isn't a pool of workers ready to strike; it's a fat bank account fed by mandatory dues that can run to more than $1,000 per member. In 2009, the union's income was more than $186 million, all of it tax exempt.
The CTA's size, financial resources and influence with the state's Democratic Party are enough to kill most pieces of hostile legislation. Nevertheless, there are some encouraging stirrings. Parents in groups such as Parent Revolution are starting to revolt against CTA orthodoxy, and unlike elected officials, parents are hard for the union to demonize. The state's many excellent charter schools have demonstrated that another way is possible, and they are growing in strength by the day.
These efforts have reframed the education question in starkly humanitarian terms: In the California public school system, are anyone's interests more important than the students'? It was a question that the CTA itself might have asked back when teachers entered the classroom to "teach good citizenship."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Why would I go on about the state educational system without having a lot of knowledge of it? It sounds stupid to flap my gums about the system unless I HAD the experience, doesn't it?
It ain't perfect but then I DIDN'T say that the system was perfect. It's ISN'T better than private schools but then private schools can pick and choose and eliminate by money. The California system is STUCK with every child, rich, poor, stupid, smart, obnoxious, decent, retarded, etc. If it WEREN'T stuck with everyone, think how even BETTER it could be.
1. "Just fine" is above horrible and below really good. It's an acceptable measure of education, considering the MILLIONS and MILLIONS of students the system HAS to take.
2. I'm with you there.
Teaching in California for 43 years AND seen most of the world.
You have my boundless admiration. That's AWESOME!
I raised three kids starting in 1960.
I worked in private industry 47 years.
I have not seen every country in the world, but a dozen countries on three continents (extensively; families there) is my modest achievement.
AND, I was ranting 30 years ago too, because all my children had been educated and I was still paying for an education system that that produces functional illiterates and ranks California what? 26th in the U.S.A.?
My main point is that the teacher's union approach to the problem is so long as they get twice what the job should be worth, they can put up with the hell of schools, so long as they also get special perks, tenure, andunconscionable retirement benefits. The problem starts there.
Just for grins... has any teachers union gone on a protracted strike to protest the leadership of the educational system, and the impossibility of teaching under those conditions? Even ONE? Anywhere?
Thought not.
Also, I am NOT in my teacher’s union. NO ONE says a word to me because I have my “ammo” for them.
Time to pull your head out of the sand...or wherever it’s stuck.
Dumb us.....
You may or may not be in any "teacher" union...but you have the same sound bites.
Not true. There are non-public schools that the students who the public schools can't educate or manage can be sent to. I know - I teach at one.
I raised three kids starting in 1960. I worked in private industry 47 years. I have not seen every country in the world, but a dozen countries on three continents (extensively; families there) is my modest achievement.
AND, I was ranting 30 years ago too, because all my children had been educated and I was still paying for an education system that that produces functional illiterates and ranks California what? 26th in the U.S.A.?
Well, California schools may stink to you but they don't to me. If they stank so much I wouldn't have stayed in the system so long. Functional illiterates aren't the fault of the schools, they are the fault of parents who
just don't give a damn,
are divorced and fighting over the kids,
are working so many hours that they just don't have the time for their own children,
think that giving their kids a cell phone is enough parenting,
don't have the time because they are single parents, and
are so darned spoiled themselves that it'll be a cold day in hell before THEY grow up.
I could add several more reasons, but you get my point.
My main point is that the teacher's union approach to the problem is so long as they get twice what the job should be worth, they can put up with the hell of schools, so long as they also get special perks, tenure, andunconscionable retirement benefits. The problem starts there.
I agree with you 100%. Spoiled teachers. They work 180 days a year and moan. My husband worked 254 days a year with ONE lousy week off. He NEVER complained. In ARAMCO he worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. That was the job, take it or leave it.
I work even less than 180 days a school year and I never, never, never, never complain and BLESS the day I got this job and plan to keep it until I can't walk anymore.
Just for grins... has any teachers union gone on a protracted strike to protest the leadership of the educational system, and the impossibility of teaching under those conditions? Even ONE? Anywhere? Thought not.
As I wrote, I am NOT in my teacher's union. I abominate it but don't criticize. Why should I? I'm delighted with what I'm doing and those union folks can just do their own thing. I don't care. Nothing I say or do has ever changed anything in the system. I don't look for my two cents to do anything now either.
By the way, I agree with your last statement. Protest the leadership? Lol. They would be biting the hand that fed them.
CHOMP!!
The public schools THROW THEM OUT? I never heard of that in California. Expelling students is one thing public schools don't do too often. They rotate the students from one school to another but DUMP them from the public school system? Does the public sector therefore PAY for the private school, or as you say "non-public schools"?
Interesting...
If you are at a "non-public" school, then you are in a PRIVATE school. That is choice, isn't it? There aren't TOO many irreclaimable students in this world. They ARE children. Do the parents have any part of this or is it ALL the fault of the schools??
I guess that explains the hogwash
You, of course, also have the long experience of a teacher and speak from your own experience in the system.
YOU have the sound bite of someone who ... oh, never mind.
YES. They don't like to, because the district has to pay for it.
It's called a non-public school because it's not the same as a private school. We're at the other end. It's NOT a choice, except for some parents who are so fed up with the ineptitude of the public schools AND who somehow manage to find out that we exist AND jump through the district hurdles to get their child here.
You can't handle 'em? Send 'em to me. I can.
Oh, and we don't have a union either.
Hogwash: usually people insult others with what bothers them the most about themselves.
So anything above "horrible" is "just fine"? No wonder it a freaking mess.
You're the real heroine here.
I haven't been in our teacher's union for 35 years. Got fed up with them a long time ago.
Too bad the parents associations don't get on those inept teachers. It IS the ineptitude of the individual instructors who turn off the kids.
Well, I know what YOU do for a living....you are on the stage as a drama king.
Please, put things in perspective and grow up. You know darn well what I meant, drama-prince.
Excuse me if you are female.
Parents have FAR more power than they realize. It takes some time to fight with the school and district, but it CAN be done.
Non-public schools are where the "expelled" students go - they don't just disappear into a vacume; the law requires that they go somewhere.
And I'll tell you - it's a LOT of fun to teach history to a kid who's every answer is to shout "NO" at the top of his lungs. No is a perfectly good answer - now, tell me why.
We need more people in this country who can say "NO".
God forbid the the people paying for it should be able to have any expectations about what they ought to be getting for their tax dollars. When you want their opinion, I guess you’ll give it to them, eh?
If you can make a case that they have a higher student-to-teacher ratio than other states that produce better results, or that they spend substantially less per pupil then you have the basis for an argument. That there are millions of students is not, in and of itself, any basis to explain the problem.
Let's see you make that go away with insults.
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