Teachers and Teachers Unions Are the Same

Since retiring last year, former NEA executive director John Wilson has been writing a blog for Education Week, entitled "John Wilson Unleashed". Provocative as always, Wilson is not afraid to ruffle feathers or call out those with whom he disagrees. In today's posting, Wilson responds to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's attacks on teacher unions.

Teachers and Teachers Unions Are the Same
By John Wilson on August 30, 2012 7:15 AM

There they go again--trying to divide teachers from their union. Do they really think teachers will choose the unfilled promises of a politician over their union? Teachers know New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is no friend of theirs and that the New Jersey Education Association and the National Education Association have been tireless advocates for their interests and the interests of their students.

Listening to Governor Christie deliver his keynote speech to the Republican National Convention was a fairy tale moment. He said, "They (Democrats) believe in teacher unions. We (Republicans) believe in teachers." As we say in the south, "That dog won't hunt."

Governor Christie, diminishing pension benefits does not demonstrate a belief in teachers. Raising class sizes so that the rich can have lower taxes than the middle class--which includes educators--does not benefit teachers. Freezing or, even worse, cutting salaries is not a gift that teachers welcome. Refusing to fund education for our kids and claiming that money does not matter is not a believable argument for teachers. No, Governor Christie, you and your fellow Republicans have not shown the respect for teachers that they deserve.

Teachers are not in the pocket of Democrats. The National Education Association is about 40 percent Democratic, 30 percent Republican, and 30 percent unaffiliated. Republican policies that undermine public education by using public dollars for private schools while starving the public schools of adequate funds turns teachers toward the Democratic Party. If Republicans want teachers to respect them, they must change their policies and change their votes in Congress and state legislatures across the country.

It is obvious that 2012 will not be the year that Republicans show the love and respect for teachers; therefore, teachers must be united in sending their standard message. Our students deserve a world class education with the best teachers, who are well-paid, empowered to teach, and supported by politicians and parents.

Until the Republican Party gets it, teachers will believe in the few Republican politicians who get it, but not in those Republicans who follow a party platform and politicians that disrespect their profession and their right to free association.

The best way to retain good teachers

Kudos to Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, for writing this opinion piece in the Washington Post (published 8/20/12) 

 
Keeping the best teachers in the classroom requires a more comprehensive plan than the oft-used, yet naive and unsuccessful, “just fire the bad ones” strategy. Both The Post’s Aug. 17 editorial “Letting good teachers get away” on the New Teacher Project’s report on teacher retention and the report itself ignored the things that teachers consistently say they need to make teaching a long-term career, not a short-term job: evaluations that include regular feedback and continuous professional development (which have yielded positive outcomes where they are in place); resources to help them do their jobs and help all students learn; collaboration and shared responsibility among teachers, administrators and the community; safe and vibrant schools; and effective parental engagement.

Until lawmakers, school officials and others talk and work with teachers to fully understand what is required to retain great educators, we’ll continue to have the expensive turnover crisis, in which more than half of all new teachers leave within their first five years and other frustrated teachers, who have so much to offer our students, give up and quit.

Catching Up

We've been a little quiet here at the School Notes Blog this summer but things have not been quiet at the MCEA Center. We've been working on a number of projects as the new school year approaches.

* MCEA staff and leadership spent several days in June reflecting on the happenings of last year and started planning for our programs for the upcoming year.

* Our President, Doug Prouty spoke on a panel about teacher evaluations at the NEA Convention and many of our members were at the Convention as delegates representing the Association.

* We've been busy getting ready for New Educator Orientation to welcome hundreds of new colleagues into MCPS next week.

* Last week, MCEA hosted and led trainings for new teachers and this week we have the launch for this year's class of National Board candidates.

* With the November election rapidly approaching, we have been planning our community outreach events for the fall. There are several campaigns that MCEA is involved with this year including the Marriage Equality Act and the Maryland DREAM Act.

* As always, school funding at the state and local level is a major concern for MCEA and we will be working to ensure that the state and county maintain their commitments to the world-class education our members provide.

* Doug, Chris and all of the UniServ Director's will be out visiting schools during the pre-service week to catch our members up on the changes coming from the recently ratified contract and our plans for this year's negotiations (which is only on financials) and member engagement.

With the return to school only two weeks away, we hope you have a restful remainder of summer!!

Defined contribution plans won't save taxpayer dollars

July 26, 2012
Baltimore Sun
Letter to the Editor

The Sun's recent editorial on public pensions ("Prudence and public pensions," July 20) misses the mark in several respects.

Readers should be forewarned that The Sun's proposed solution — a switch to defined contribution plans — is a recipe for increased costs and decreased retirement security. Walking away from the fiscal efficiencies of defined benefit plans and closing one plan while opening another serve to drive up the state's costs. Moreover, moving to a defined contribution plan typically leads to a drastically decreased benefit and an increased reliance on social services by retirees, again driving up state costs.

States pursuing this swap have quickly come to wish that they'd done their homework beforehand. West Virginia froze its pension plan to move to a defined contribution plan only to encounter these very problems. The negative repercussions were so endemic that West Virginia decided to return to its pension plan.

So how can we further stabilize Maryland's pension fund? Last year's significant increases to employee contributions and decreases to benefits put the fund on a quick path to a higher funded status. The best way to accelerate the fund's stability is to eliminate the corridor funding method which has caused the state to under-fund the pension system for years. Leading pension experts have called for an end to the corridor method, and momentum seems to be building. The Joint Committee on Pensions has decided to work with the State Retirement Agency and the Department of Legislative Services to explore the feasibility of getting out of corridor funding. We look forward to this conversation, which has the best shot at providing long-term stability to Maryland's pension fund.

Let's hope that this conversation focuses on solutions that address the root causes of the problem rather than ideas which would only exacerbate our challenge to provide adequate retirement security for educators and public employees.

Sean Johnson, Annapolis
The writer is managing director of political and legislative affairs for the Maryland State Education Association.