I’m sure Democratic strategists are pouring over the just released horrific numbers regarding school districts, devastated by Scott Walker’s cuts, trying to come up with a list of short but memorable talking points to use in the upcoming recall petition drive. Amazingly, the following are bragging points for the Walker administration.
Jsonline: A new survey of the majority of the state's school districts shows many of them were forced to make staff reductions and increase class sizes as a result of school aid cuts in Gov. Scott Walker's state budget, according to the state DPI and a school administrators association.And this statistic stood out for me, having just blogged about business leaders lamenting the loss of “shop classes” and the need for vocational/tech training:
Nine of 10 students in the responding school districts attend a district that had a net loss of staff "in one of four staffing areas" - teachers, administrators, aides and support staff.
Four in 10 students attend districts with increased class sizes in the elementary grades.
Two out of three responding districts reported that they expect to have as deep or even deeper cuts next school year.
WSJ: Three out of four districts reported having fewer staff positions this year than last year. Two-thirds reported fewer teacher positions. A quarter of districts with increasing enrollment reduced staff.
Districts with union contracts in place this year — about 63 percent of all districts — were just as likely to cut staff and increase class sizes as those without contracts.
20 percent of districts eliminated entire sections for vocational and technical training. That was higher than all other types of classes, including art, music and physical education.
The teacher union staff reduction shouldn't surprise anyone.
ReplyDeleteWEAC has been a dysfunctional organization for years and locals were largely broken years ago.
Sure, tommie's QEO was part of the problem, but WEAC and locals also became social clubs that did not represent the best interest of anyone but a handful of members with a gazillion years of seniority at the tippy-top of the pay scale.
They did this by dumping on and then running out new teachers year after year after year - it wasn't administrations that actually created the problems here, it was union members.
Of course teachers under contract do not have any more support when it comes time to cut, WEAC and locals became nothing more than a cash cow for a few, fully exploiting newer teachers that were paying the exact same union dues and deserved some protection or representation.
But what they got was:
(crickets chirping"
Not true. What you don't know is what's going on behind the scenes. It's not like they organize events all year long. They negotiate contracts.
ReplyDeleteThey also allow teachers input in their work environment. I know a teacher, she's filled me in on the good and bad.
Yes, there are bad teachers...just a few. But then, does that mean there aren't bad teachers at private schools? Conservatives seem to think government must be perfect, but it's just as prone to bad actors as the private sector, where businesses are run into the ground by idiots. Guess we don't talk about that much.
Thanks, but as a former union member who thought they did little if anything, a lot like you, I now realize that it's what you don't see or notice that is just as valuable.