Public schools, public school teachers, their benefits, meager salaries and pitiful pensions are under attack in America today by billionaire bullies and the hired gun word thugs they employ on AM radio and FOXnotNews. These attacks are having success. The easily swayed and the poorly informed are beginning to believe the massive disinformation campaign of attack. Here is an example of one such CONfused person calling himself, "Person X" who posted on the North County Times website today:
Person X said on: May 4, 2011, 5:33 pm
It is too bad some kind of IQ test in concert with past performance criteria cannot be used to retain the best teachers during budget cuts, instead of the seniority system pruning, willy nilly, both good and bad teachers from the roster during budget cuts. It is not fair to the kids, the way it is now.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_c63a33ed-14ee-57e5-8e54-2247ba7528d4.html?mode=comments
Seniority rights do not keep poor older teachers at the expense of wonderful younger teachers contrary to the propaganda of the vast "right wing"* mind control machine's overwhelming media message saturation.
Seniority protects wonderful older teachers from being dismissed for partisan political reasons, corruption related reasons, and financial reasons because their increased cost of salary and particularly medical insurance.
In the recent past, good teachers were dismissed for these and many other terribly unfair reasons UNRELATED TO THEIR SKILLS AS TEACHERS.
As a young man my father-in-law taught music in the same Missouri high school with 20 year veteran female English teacher who was beloved by all--students, parents, fellow staff members. She was summarily fired by her principal because his nephew had just graduated from teaching college and needed a job. He gave her job to his nephew--a totally inexperienced brand new baby teacher. The principal made his relatives happy, but did no service for the students in his high school.
In the time before salary schedules and seniority, female teachers of the forties and fifties were almost always paid less than male teachers because 'a man has to support a family.' When lay offs were required due to budget problems again female teachers were laid off first for the same reason.
Teaching jobs were also used by politicians as gifts to their political supporters. Don't believe that happens? Think of horse breeder, "Heck of a job, Brownie" being made FEMA director under our previous president.
Salary schedules, seniority (first hired, first fired) were systems put into place to stop these outrageous abuses. They are a good thing for students and for public education.
The propaganda that teachers are difficult to fire is just that propaganda. It is nearly entirely false. Other than a very few examples, two or three teachers in LAUSD and a few more than that in New York City, the vast majority of good principals and good school districts have no problem getting rid of poor teachers.
In fact they seldom need to as teaching is one of the most challenging and difficult jobs in our society, the burn out and quit teaching rate approaches 50% of all teachers in their first five years. Teachers leave to get more pay, fewer hours, and more respect that nearly any other profession provides.
The respect part is very new. It has to do with this same massive, dishonest, vicious smear campaign being directed at school teachers in our country organized and paid for by billionaire bullies. There goal to destroy every base of power of the workers of this country so the political parties only give them more rights, more tax breaks and less safety and work regulations that protect ordinary Americans.
Don't be fooled by the propaganda! Fight for teachers rights!
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*The terms right wing and conservative have been co-opted and re-defined by the elite corporatists, aka the billionaire bullies, using the sophisticated propaganda machine of FOXnotNews and the AM radio con man especially hired gun distorted, Rush Limbaugh. I used the term here to gently mock Hillary Clinton mis-labeling of this ANTI American ANTI middle class group of the selfish extremists who happen to be billionaires. Terms like "Right wing" or "conservative" in today's America have little to do with Barry Goldwater or other traditional patriotic conservatives.
Seniority rights do not keep poor older teachers at the expense of wonderful younger teachers contrary to the propaganda of the vast "right wing"* mind control machine's overwhelming media message.
Seniority protects wonderful older teachers from being dismissed for partisan political reasons, corruption related reasons and for their increased cost of salary and particularly medical insurance. In the recent past good teachers were dismissed for terribly unfair reasons. As a young man my father in law taught with 20 year veteran female English teacher who was beloved by all students parents fellow staff members. She was summarily fired by her principal because his son had just graduated from teaching college and needed a job. He gave her job to his nephew.
In the time before salary schedules and seniority, female teachers of the forties and fifties were almost always paid less than male teachers because 'a man has to support a family.' When lay offs were required due to budget problems again female teachers were laid off first for the same reason.
Teaching jobs were used by politicians as gifts to their political supporters aka horse breeder, "Heck of a job, Brownie" being made FEMA director under our previous president.
Salary schedules, seniority (first hired, first fired) were systems put into place to stop these outrageous abuses. They are a good thing for students and for public education.
The propaganda that teachers are difficult to fire is just that propaganda. It is nearly entirely false. Other than a very few examples two or three in LAUSD and a few more than that in New York City, the vast majority of good principals and good school districts have no problem getting rid of poor teachers.
In fact there is seldom a need to fire teachers as they usually quit long before a principal even notices a problem. Teaching is one of the most challenging and difficult jobs in our society, the burn out and quit teaching rate approaches 50% of all teachers in their first five years. Teachers leave to get more pay, fewer hours, and more respect that nearly any other profession provides in far greater abundance. (Sanitation workers are treated and paid better than most teachers.) The quiting over lack of respect part is very new. It has to do with the vicious smear campaign being directed at school teachers in our country.
*The terms right wing and conservative have been co-opted and re-defined by the elite corporationalists, aka the billionaire bullies, using the sophisticated propaganda machine of FOXnotNews and the AM radio con man especially hired gun distorted, Rush Limbaugh. I used the term here to gently mock Hillary Clinton mis-labeling of this ANTI American ANTI middle class group of the selfish extremists who happen to be billionaires. Terms like "Right wing" or "conservative" in today's America have little to do with Barry Goldwater or other traditional patriotic conservatives.
Seniority rights do not keep poor older teachers at the expense of wonderful younger teachers contrary to the propaganda of the vast "right wing"* mind control machine's overwhelming media message.
Seniority protects wonderful older teachers from being dismissed for partisan political reasons, corruption related reasons and for their increased cost of salary and particularly medical insurance. In the recent past good teachers were dismissed for terribly unfair reasons. As a young man my father in law taught with 20 year veteran female English teacher who was beloved by all students parents fellow staff members. She was summarily fired by her principal because his son had just graduated from teaching college and needed a job. He gave her job to his nephew.
In the time before salary schedules and seniority, female teachers of the forties and fifties were almost always paid less than male teachers because 'a man has to support a family.' When lay offs were required due to budget problems again female teachers were laid off first for the same reason.
Teaching jobs were used by politicians as gifts to their political supporters aka horse breeder, "Heck of a job, Brownie" being made FEMA director under our previous president.
Salary schedules, seniority (first hired, first fired) were systems put into place to stop these outrageous abuses. They are a good thing for students and for public education.
The propaganda that teachers are difficult to fire is just that propaganda. It is nearly entirely false. Other than a very few examples two or three specific individuals in LAUSD and a few more than that in New York City, the vast majority of good principals and good school districts have no problem getting rid of poor teachers.
In fact there is seldom a need to fire teachers as they usually quit long before a principal even notices a problem. Teaching is one of the most challenging and difficult jobs in our society. Teacher burn out and quitting the profession rate approaches 50% of all teachers in their first five years.
Teachers leave to get more pay, fewer hours, and more respect that nearly any other profession provides in far greater abundance. (Sanitation workers are treated and paid better than most teachers.) The quitting over lack of respect part is very new. It has to do with the vicious smear campaign being directed at school teachers in our country.
*The terms right wing and conservative have been co-opted and re-defined by the elite corporatists, aka the billionaire bullies, using the sophisticated propaganda machine of FOXnotNews and the AM radio con man especially hired gun distortionist, Rush Limbaugh. I used the phrase, 'vast right wing conspiracy' here to gently mock Hillary Clinton's mis-labeling of this very real ANTI American, ANTI middle class group who in reality are financed by a few selfish extremists who happen to be billionaires (Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, etc.) The use of terms like "Right wing" or "conservative" in today's America have little to do with Barry Goldwater or other traditional patriotic conservatives of a previous generation.
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