A few points of interest from the article:
- Ed Klepeisz, chief negotiator for the teacher's union, confirmed the union arranged to meet with the board on Monday. Klepeisz would not say what the union plans to bring to the table.
According to Christopher Manlove at the state Department of Labor and Industry, if the union walks out it will become the eighth teachers' union to strike during the 2006-07 school year. Manlove also said that 103 of the state's 501 districts are working with expired contracts, more than 20 percent of Pennsylvania's school districts.
In 2005-06 Pennsylvania recorded 13 teacher strikes. The other 11 states that allow teachers to strike recorded a total of seven lockouts during the 2005-'06 school year.
It appears, unless there has been a change, the NAEA wants its offer accepted and is not willing to give in or concede on the pay raise they demand. Additionally, they not only don't want to pay for healthcare as a percent of salary or as a flat fee per month, but they also want to add benefits to the plan, such as well-visits. It would simply be irresponsible of the NASD to accept these demands. On meetings, I was actually serious the other day when I said settle at 2 per month, but make graduation mandatory for all. The NASD wants 4 over 9 months, this would be half way. I was also serious about moving the start of school after 9/1 to align the contract with the school year. The other issue is prep time. And again, if you can't get enough prep time during a 7.5 hour work day, go to 8 hours and grab an extra half hour. Eleven months this has gone on and it is really not that technically complex or challenging. We are not dealing with the Arabs and Israelies here, nor is it life or death. A bit of reasonable behavior and common sense ought to have this thing resolved in short order.
From the big picture perspective, does anyone else find there to be something seriously wrong with the system in PA when 20% of the school districts are working without a contract because they can't agree? Only 12 states in the US allow strikes, and PA leads the way having had more than every other state combined in 2005-06. Our state legislators need to take note of this, change the system, and stop the disruption in the schools.
8 comments:
I find it very disturbing that there are so many districts without contracts as well as the total number of strikes, but I am not surprised. PA is a union state, and the way they destroyed the steal industry they will also do to education.
There was an article in the MCall the other day talking about a federal bipartisan committee on education. Although it proposed some dumb ideas, there were quite a few around essentially the privatization of the running of our schools, paying teachers a higher starting salary, but also stripping a lot of the benefits as well, such as tenure, pensions and more. The overall goal was to improve education while reducing costs.
The entire system around how our school system works need to be reworked. Unions breed mediocrity where you reward the bad the same as you reward the good, so why try to be the best. We pay a lot of bad teachers a lot of money simply because we can't get rid of them.
I am personally tired of this entire contract issue. The teacher's are greedy, the administration wastes a lot of money, it is time we fire each and every one of them and start from scratch.
If only that were possible.
The article you are referring to and the actual executive summary of the commission is the focus of this article on NewsOverCoffee.
You really have to look at the entire proposal not small pieces as in and of themself they would seem odd/dumb.
Today is D-Day.
I dearly hope that the NAEA will see the offer for what it is. Fair.
I hope that they will stand behind their words that the students come first and not walk out on strike.
Regardless of the outcome, I think every poster on this site should fill out the epetition to outlaw teacher strikes, and you should also make it a point while attending holiday parties this year to encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Maybe then we can start to take control of our schools back and add some sanity to this process.
Thanks for pointing out the process.
You can't blame the teachers from the standpoint that they are following the process that has been given to them and using it to the best of their advantage.
I also agree it is broken and needs to be radically altered.
The biggest problem I see is that the school is now moving to where business went almost 10 years ago in regard to benefits contributions and it hurts.
I hope the NAEA understands that contributing to one's benefits is commonplace. It is not punishment or being mean, it is the only way companies can offer benefits to employees without breaking themselves in the process.
The situation has gone on way too long and both parties need to emerge tonight with a victory - NAEA take the pay offer and contribution, NASD give the prep time, meetings, and curriculum leaders requests.
Fair enough?
Definitely fair enough.
Too bad we are not the ones doing the negotiations. The fact finder was supposed to be the independent voice of reason, but alas, to no avail.
One thing I find I constantly remind myself of, and you state it quite clearly, is that the teachers union only know the system they are under.
Some, but a very small few, have ever worked professionally outside of the school system, and really don't have the perspective that the rest of us have.
Evolution (dare I use that word) is a continual process. The NAEA and unions as a whole need to evolve to the new economy where there no longer is such a thing as a free ride.
Hopefully this has been a wakeup call to them that you have to be realistic in your expectations.
I think the Express-Times oped title stated it the best. The public trough is not a bottomless pit.
To echo a poster on a different subject, hopefully we will get our Christmas miracle and sanity will prevail today, and our kids can continue their education without a work stopage.
Merry Christmas and hopefully a strike free happy new year.
I do not want a strike to happen, but I hope the school district does not give in to the teachers demands. I have been in the business world for 5 years. I still do not make the salary of what a first year teacher does at Nazareth. My employer doesn't give raises every year and my health benefits are nothing like the teachers are receiving. Stop being selfish and realize what an amazing job with benefits you have!!
As of 8:45 tonight, they were still negotiating. The VP (Butz) and union Pres were both sighted in and then out of the board meeting (probably during a break), but the unofficial word is that no agreement as of that time.
Scott
thanks to 10:10pm post, I been surfing about sites to see if there has been any movement. I guess everyone is going to do what they must do
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