Teachers are "Union Bosses"????

The following was written in response to a conservative praising the "Parent Trigger Bill" and trying to say that teachers are "union bosses", deliberately disparaging educators:  

I read, with disgust, your latest diatribe about the Parent Trigger Bill working.

Your use of language is intriguing.  You describe union leaders as "union bosses and their shills", and you describe teachers pushing for more pay increases with "zero accountability".

You sir, have obviously spent no time around the public education sector.  None.  You work for a think tank, an intellectual center based on researching pubic issue.  

But you have researched zero regarding real educational politics and issues.  None.

I spent 35 years in the education business.  I am currently a President of the Board of a Charter School.  

One, why do cons always used "union bosses" to describe teacher union leaders.  They don't boss anything.  Every CTA local Chapter has at its head a teacher, and a executive committee of teachers, who are full time teachers!   There is a professional staff in CTA "Service Centers" who provide advice and coordination to help with the endless regulations and laws in a thing called the Ed. Code (which you probably don't even know is).

And "zero accountability".  Really?  Really?  Do you know what a parent teacher conference is?  

As a 16 year teacher, I sure do.  A parent can request a conference and grill a teacher on a variety of topics ranging from classroom order to what is on the blackboard.  Every year there are at least two nights when parents come to school, and check the accountability of the school.

Most failing schools have very poor parent involvement and support.  For every "horror story" that prompts a "Parent Trigger" process, there are thousands of elementary and secondary schools chugging along, turning out educated children, that have done a pretty decent job running the most robust economy on earth.

And, yes, in the late 1970s California unionised  its teachers.  Since then salaries have gone up, pensions are better, and a whole host of repressive laws (like pregnant teachers being fired!) have been stopped.  

I can remember when I was a kid, wondering why 70 year old and plus retired teachers hobbled into the classroom, to substitute.  I found out later, it was because their pensions were so low, they had to sub to eat.

But privatise it and it will work better, right?  Wrong...Do that and the poor and the disadvantaged will get nothing, no education at all.

Public education is the bulwark of freedom and democracy in this country.  It needs help, not your constant right wing criticism.

You must be pretty happy, having a job that requires no real research, just sit and write unsubstantiated blather and get paid for it.

I dare you, I dare you to go to a regular public school and observe for one week, full time, eight hours a day...that means staying after and watching the teachers prepare...go to an elementary school, sit in the teachers room, go to the copy room, sit with the Principal.

You might learn the truth, because your "union bosses is bullshit".

Finally, the "union bosses" are not bosses of anything, they are teachers!   

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