OhManOh--Best Pro Public Education Post Award

After years of domination of the North County Times comment sections by our angry and truth challenged ANTI public education friends, finally we are getting fact based, pro-public education bloggers. The prize winner for best recent pro-public education post is the one below written by OhManOh.

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_b2a39fd6-a2d2-54e4-a042-22c3d319df47.html?mode=comments


OhManOh said on: February 19, 2010, 11:31 am
Why does everyone keep blaming teachers? Some of you are down right vitriolic.

From what I've read, they haven't had a raise in years, they've already given a pay cut this year in the form of a surrendered buy back day and they offered five furlough days for the next two years. They've been more than fair. They were just opposed to the District plan to make those 5 days permanent and the Districts proposed 2% cut on top of the 5 furlough days.

In my opinion, it sounds pretty stupid of them to even offer as much as they have. They're already among the lowest paid in the county. What's worse, the District Administration has not yet shared in any of the cuts. Not only have they not had any pay cuts, they been giving themselves double-digit raises while they been negotiating in bad faith and declaring repeated impasses with the teachers union.

Under the teachers current pay, after giving back buy back days, the teachers are already working for less than they did in 2007. Under the proposed 2% pay cut and five furlough days, it'll amount to a 4.9% cut in pay. They'll be working for less than they did in 2005, not to mention the increase in the cost of their benefits. This is because the District has not been passing on COLA nor have they given any other raises, to the teachers that is.

But, the Administration has been giving themselves raises, plenty of raises. Raises run from 14% to 25% depending upon position. It's time to roll back some of those exorbitant administrative pay and benefits.

If enrollment has indeed declined, than it's time for a smaller school system in response. That includes the district office and administration as well. At the school level, the district has already gotten rid of Vice Principals, Counselors, nurses, music, sports, etc. It's time for fewer administrators as well. Reportedly, Vista has one of the highest ratios of administrators to students. That sounds like excess to me.

So, cuts should be across the board and fair. If teachers are working for 2007 wages, then administrators should get their pay cut to 2007 levels as well. Take back those 14-25% raises. If there are fewer students, then there should be fewer teachers and administrators.

The next step should be contractual class size if more monetary cuts are needed. To that end, some layoffs or early retirements of teachers might be necessary with larger class sizes.

So, in my opinion, first cut the pork on the administrative side. Cut administrative pay so that it's in line with the cuts that the teachers have already taken. Eliminate unnecessary administrative jobs and eliminate the district pet projects. If that's not enough, entertain furlough days for both teachers and admin. But, the cuts resulting from furlough days needs to be equal on a percentage basis. 5 furlough days for a teacher amounts to a much higher percentage pay cut when compared to 5 furlough days for an administrator. This is because teachers are paid for fewer days per school year than administrators.