The Sun Post newspaper had a front page headline on the April 1, 2010 edition about the unopposed re-election of Tom Dooher as the President of Education Minnesota for three more years. If you thumb back to pages 16-17, you’ll find that Dooher wastes little time whining that education needs more of your money. Check out some of these “highlights;”
First, Dooher claims that educators have made “historic sacrifices” and “accepted low or minimal salary increases” because of the state’s budget.
Oh really Mr. Dooher? That sounds like what everyone has had to do the past two or three years. What are educators (who are being paid for nine months of work) any different? What exactly are they entitled to? Might I remind you that the unemployment rate among government workers is 3%! Keeping your job and getting “minimal increases” while other sectors of the economy are being decimated doesn’t sound like a “historic sacrifice.” Here’s another one;
Dooher said that if “we really want to attract and keep the best educators, we need salaries and benefits to keep people there.”
No Mr. Dooher you are 1000% wrong. We need to pay GOOD EDUCATORS competitive salaries and benefits. The BAD EDUCATORS can go collect garbage for a living. This is exactly what is wrong with this union system. You can’t reward good work. Just think Mr. Dooher, the easiest, simplest, and most practical solution is the one you are opposed to doing. Here’s the kicker;
Dooher claims we need a new system that is sustainable and predictable, and have a revenue stream from the state to make sure programs go on.
I’m sorry, what exactly is “sustainable and predictable?” It sounds like Dooher wants to isolate education from any and all economic forces. Exactly how is that even possible? What is predictable revenue (meaning taxes)? What source should that come from exactly?
People like Tom Dooher are exactly why we need to support charter schools, vouchers, and tuition tax credits. These things would take the power out of the hands of Dooher and his union cronies and put power into your hands. You decide where and by whom your kids will be educated. It won’t happen any other way. We don’t see how the system can be tweaked or fine tuned without still leaving the union in charge. SUPPORT SCHOOL CHOICE!
281 Exposed 
September 14, 2010 at 4:09 am |
Wait a minute! I faithfully logged over 70 hours working at school every week during the school year, skipped family gatherings, corrected papers until 2 a.m. and on weekends, and missed my own children’s school events because I was dedicated to my school job.
I never had a real summer vacation as I enrolled in and paid for expensive college courses during the summer. 45 of these graduate credits did not count toward a raise, either. I also wrote and revised curriculum without pay during the summer.
Should I also mentioned that I suffered two major injuries at school and have had to battle to get medical bills and prescriptions paid for? One time I was attempting to protect a student who was being attacked by another student and ended up with a concussion, cuts, and a back injury but was still obliged to attend parent conferences that night.
How does the union help and protect a teacher who is injured on the job? It doesn’t! Can a good teacher be terminated while a member of the union? Yes. Can a teacher who disagrees with the union be dropped by the union? Yes
Being a teacher is not an easy job. There are many teachers bound by curriculum they felt was inferior but were obligated to follow if they wanted to keep their job. Some of the experts have never taught in a real classroom or got caught up in trendy ideas that don’t work.
I would love to start my own charter school but have not been able to garner the finances or board members to get it off the ground. There are many super teachers I would love to bring with me. I do believe the vast majority of our teachers are doing the best they can with the resources and regulations they are given. Please give them the credit they deserve.
Thank you.
September 14, 2010 at 4:14 am |
P.S. Please excuse the typo. My passion for teaching flew faster than my proofreading.
September 14, 2010 at 4:53 am |
Create your own charter school? Sounds great to us. Good luck to you in doing that someday. Let us be clear; our issue is not with teachers, it is with their union bosses and their bought and paid for politicians.
September 16, 2010 at 5:28 pm |
I am glad to hear that your issue is not with the teachers. I, along with many other teachers, am not totally convinced that we can count on the union to make the right decisions. One of my former coworkers who criticized the union was threatened with losing his membership in the union. He is now very careful about expressing his opinions. If he lost his membership he would still have to pay “fair share fees.”
I understand that there is a congress member who was going to look into education union activities. White Chalk Crime is a lengthy book written by a former teacher who expressed a concern about the education unions and the educational system in the U.S.
I hope to be able to make positive changes to the educational system. I feel the education I received was in many ways superior to that offered in school today. I am unclear about how the union has affected the change. I do believe that having over 35 students in classes in the Robbinsdale District can only hinder the educational experience of many students who can benefit from more individual feedback and attention. I haven’t heard the union give much attention to this issue.
What would you suggest that teachers could do to institute change? I recently met with a legislator about my concerns. When I mentioned my concerns about the union, I felt that our conversation was redirected.
I would like to hear more about your stance.
Thank you.
September 20, 2010 at 5:58 am |
Excuse the length of this….
The problems with the Unions are that anytime the purpose of a school is to employ “X amount” of people you lose sight of what is really important. The schools are not jobs programs.
I’ll put it to you this way; say we have 30 kids in a class and each are bringing in $10,000 in “revenue” or as we call it “tax dollars.” That makes $300,000 in a class. If the teacher is pulling down with benefits say $70,000, where is the other $230,000 going?
We understand there are bus drivers, principals, kitchen staff, and operating costs but we constantly hear about putting money in the classroon, so where that money is going or how it is being allocated needs more accountability.
We have named millions of ideas for reforming schools. We favor expanding on-line options, combining school districts, more charter schools, ending federal funding and their unfunded mandates, ending tenure, a merit pay system, and ending choice is yours. What are the ideas of Education Minnesota and the education establishment? Two words; more money!
We MUST also have vouchers and tuition tax credits. To anyone who opposses this I ask the simple question; if you are in school to get a great education, then why does it matter if it is a public employee or a private employee who is teaching?
We’d also like to see tax credits to encourage home schooling. It’s funny that we have tax credits to throw your kid in daycare but if you want to stay at home and teach you’re on your own. The irony is that a home schooled kid costs the taxpayers nothing, but on a public school kid we can’t spend enough!
Above all else we need to defeat the Unions and their sell-out politicans. No change is possible without that.