Hey ... Take That Back!!
by Donna Schoenkopf
A very fine and important letter from dear friend and fellow teacher, Darlene:
why would fourstory post a link for a story attacking california teacher's pensions?
the article from New Geography claimed there were 3 reasons for the collapse of the california economy and our high pensions and unlimited power as a union is one of them..
my understanding of the pension system is our retirees benefits are paid from the investments of the both the members contributions and the employer contributions. the empolyers would have paid the 8% either to a pension system or social security... so the benefits are not paid directly by tax payer dollars but by the fund's investments and ongoing contributions ..
am I wrong here?"
Dar, you are NOT wrong. I, for one, am sick and tired of being blamed for the destruction of the economy as well as the general failure of Western Civilization and whatever else Teacher and Union Haters want to pin on us.
Not only are our pensions well-deserved, we should be getting MUCH more in regular pay.
And don't you, Dear Reader, forget it.
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
Comments
Darlene and I thank you, Nathan.
And all the rest of the teachers out there do, too.
2009-07-20 by Donna SchoenkopfI spent many years writing a column that, among many other topics, extensively covered our local school district’s disasterous crack up and crash. It was an eye opener. A couple of critical points, at least here in CA.
1. The BIG money is in ADMINISTRATION. BIG money.
2. The Administration Organization and the School Board organization are joined at the hip and when new elected school board officials come on board they get to go to a convention (get acquainted, get indoctrinated, paid for by the taxpayers) and it’s held and presented by the ADMINISTRATION association (no teachers allowed). Guess who’s schmoozing new school board members, telling them, uh, how the system works, & etc.?
3. In CA, a San Luis Obispo school teacher (active) ran for school board a few years ago. It wasn’t against the law to do that then. After she was elected, the law was changed. No active school teacher can serve on the school board. Guess why? Yes, teachers actually know how things are run, and that knowledge is something the ADMINISTRATION doesn’t want made available to school board members.
4. I’ve watched carefully (endless hours sitting in school board meetings) and here’s the reality: School Boards are made up of elected voluntary citizens who often have NO education training, NO financial training. They’re often parents or regular people who want to serve the community. Very laudable. However, here’s the reality. School districts are multi-million dollar a year complex BUSINESSES with arcane accounting systems that only a trained CPA can figure out (if that). The result is that school board members soon turn the running of the district over to the experts—i.e. the ADMINISTRATION.
It’s foxes and chicken coops. MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR a year chicken coops. Guess who makes sure at salary negotiation/budget time, who gets the gravy and who gets the budget cuts. Yep.
So, it’s the system, stupid. And until the entire system is set up differently, you’ll end up with a wasteful mess. Plus, the EduSystem keeps thrashing around with New! Improved! EduTheories every so many years, so the kids end up being guinea pigs and often a whole generation is lost before people figure out that the latest EduTheory doesn’t work. Ooops, my bad. Well, let’s try the NEXT EduTheory. And so on.
Then add in that parents too often don’t/can’t parent so dump that on teachers in overcrowded classrooms as well. . . . sigh.
2009-07-28 by Ann Calhoun
As FourStory’s editor, I feel compelled to reply. The link was in our News section. All members of the staff are free to post links to articles they find on the Net that they think might be of interest to our readership. This in no way implies that the poster, or FourStory, necessarily agrees with everything the article states. We try to present all points of view here, and, though everyone on the staff happens to lean to the left, we don’t limit the stuff we post - or link to - to things we agree with.
Speaking as an individual, I agree with Darlene’s and Donna’s point. I too am tired of teachers getting blamed for society’s ills. I’m tired of the Los Angeles Times blaming everything on the teachers’ union. I’m married to a teacher who puts up with her profession getting blamed for everything from California’s collapse to the sinking of the Titanic ... so I know from whence I speak.
2009-07-19 by Nathan Walpow