politicalcivility.com Blog

In education circles (see NEA Foundation — Building A Profession — the NEA has decided not to call themselves a union anymore but by the more modern term: a teacher organization) I have heard talk about really ‘professionalizing’ the teacher function so that those working everyday to educate our children can be looked at on par with lawyers, doctors, accountants, engineers, etc. 

I think this is a wonderful idea.  I know this was topic (professionalizing a career for HR professionals) that came up a lot while I did HR for P&G.  I think it could do wonders to increase teacher pay, to afford teachers greater classroom autonomy, and to revolutionize and inject greater innovation into teaching methods as well as teaching evaluation method research.

But I have to wonder how serious the teachers’ union really is about all this professionaliztion talk, because what is the ultimate result of truly professionalizing the teaching career?  The end result is that the union goes away, because under labor law most full-time teachers would fall under a category of “professional employee” (National Labor Relations Act–NLRA–see NLRA (12) definition of “professional employee”) thus significantly reducing the number of employees that could be represented by a union.  So if professionalizing the teaching career path means the union goes away, how likely is the union to do what appears to be in the best interest of teachers?  History says that survival will out-trump what in the best interest of teachers.

And yes, I am assuming that the increased ability to individually negotiate pay is one major benefit of not having a union; there are the others I mentioned above.  There is a significant teacher shortage, just like there is a nurse shortage.  Guess who’s getting paid better and guess who has more flexibility in work schedules, etc.: nurses because if the hospital doesn’t give them what they want, there’s another hospital down the road that is willing to let them work weekends only. 

So here’s the dilemma of the day: where does the issue of professionalization leave Utah’s teachers and what’s in their best interest, when what’s in the union’s (as an entity) best interest is in direct conflict with that teacher beneficial end goal?

Ponder this quote from Allan Bloom, author of The Closing of the American Mind:

“Indignation is the soul’s defense against the wound of doubt about its own; it reorders the cosmos to support the justice of its cause…Recognizing indignation for what it is constitutes knowledge of the soul.”

Example No.1 from SLCSpin: http://www.slcspin.com/?p=408.

Last week I was at an education conference in Orlando and heard some very interesting presentations on a wide range of education reforms.  One of the most interesting sessions I attended featured the former Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent, Roy Romer (Romer is also a former Democratic governor of Colorado) and current NYC public schools chancellor, Joel Klein.  (If Klein’s name rings a bell for you it may be because he was one of the lead attorneys that represented President Bill Clinton during the impeachment hearings.)

Klein’s presentation centered on getting quality teachers into every classroom because that is where the most bang for the buck is in terms of improved student achievement.  This is no surprise.  What did surprise me, given Klein’s long-standing political affiliation, was his top three reasons (which Romer quickly seconded) why this isn’t happening, and they all point squarely to the union. Klein’s top three barriers to getting quality teachers:

1. Seniority
2. Tenure
3. Lock-step Pay

While the teachers’ union consistently claims to be real pro-education advocate, it appears that the chorus on both sides of the isle is growing ever louder that they are actually becoming the biggest hurdle to bringing about the types of change needed to deliver a quality education to Utah’s (and the nation’s) children.

I been reading through two education focused books recently.

1. Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind
2. Clayton Christensen’s Disrupting Class

The combination of reading the two books side by side got me thinking again about part of the education reform debate that keeps bugging me.  And until now I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it.  I think in the whole education debate we’ve been starting out with the wrong question.  The current question is “How can we reform, improve our system of education today?”

Here is the question I think we need to start with and I’d be interested in your thoughts regarding the answer: “What is the purpose of education?”  I think we’ve been operating under the wrong answer to that question for more than a century now, namely that education is to produce people, who are good workers and who can keep America competitive in the “global marketplace.”  To me there is something wholly incomplete in that definition of what the purpose of education is.

I’d be interested in your thoughts.

It looks like more Florida students are gaining greater access to school choice thanks to bipartisan support for real reform.  Hopefully Utah can learn from Florida’s example.

From the WSJ:

When Florida passed a law in 2001 creating the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program for underprivileged students, all but one Democrat in the state legislature voted against it. Earlier this month, lawmakers extended the program – this time with the help of a full third of Democrats in the Legislature, including 13 of 25 members of the state’s black caucus and every member of the Hispanic caucus. What changed?

Our guess is that low-income parents in Florida have gotten a taste of the same school choice privileges that middle- and upper-income families have always enjoyed. And they’ve found they like this new educational freedom. Under the scholarship program, which is means-tested, companies get a 100% tax credit for donations to state-approved nonprofits that provide private-school vouchers for low-income families.

The program already serves some 20,000 students. The expansion will allow it to assist an additional 6,000. It’s no surprise that poor families would embrace educational options, given that their government-assigned schools are clearly failing their children. The high school graduation rate for black students in Florida is 45% overall, 38% for black males. The 52% graduation rate for Hispanics is also nothing to brag about.

What’s encouraging is that these parents have managed to convey their pro-choice sentiments to their representatives, who are responding even though voucher programs infuriate powerful liberal special interest groups like the teachers unions. Given that 70% of the program participants are black or Hispanic, you’d think Democrats would be taking the lead on a measure that mostly benefits their traditional constituency. Apparently they needed a little prodding, but we’re glad to see they did the right thing.

I went to the Utah Foundation’s Utah Priorities lunch today, which included remarks by the Governor.  I have to say that there should be a general rule that politicians should be limited to 20 minute speaches, because that’s about the time people started tuning out the governor and started chatting quietly with their neighbor.  Anyway the length of political speeches is not the reason for this post.

A couple of takeaways for me from the Foundation’s report. 

1. Education has been subplanted by concerns over energy (gasoline, utility prices, etc.).  I found this interesting because we had the voucher debate in November and given the level of contention I would have thought that education would have held onto the top spot.  It is also interesting to note that in Southern Utah, education came in at #5.  The survey results seem to indicate that voters are most interested in what hurts the most and if the economy continues to struggle and gas & utility prices remain high, I think voters may not pay much attention to candidates running on an education platform, which does not bode well for those looking to gain momentum on the voucher defeat.
2. Economy: Our governor has a one track mind and that is “creating and growing the best economy in the country.”  I was sad and disappointed that it appears that the governor doesn’t get that more important priority for Utahns (even if it didn’t show up on the survey) is not creating the GREATEST economy on the planet but is strengthening the natural family.  When a growing number of Utah’s families are in trouble (divorce, addiction, abuse, etc.), the resulting lack of health will undermine any attempts the governor may make to build the best economy on the planet.  When families are sick it impacts almost every aspect of our society and exponentially grows the cost to maintain any semblence of a civil society.  Not only is the family, the most fundamental economic unit in an economy; it is also the best and most cost effective mechanism in creating productive citizens that add rather than subtract from the economy and the public coffers.

If the union is to be judged on its intended purpose: working conditions and pay for its employees, then Utah’s teachers should ask for a refund.

Most Recent Case: There is a bill (HB212) being considered right now up on the Hill to give Utah’s teachers across the board $2,500 raises to improve salary competitiveness.  Guess who testified against the measure because it wasn’t EXACTLY they way they wanted it?

THE UEA. (http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695253672,00.html)

So much for representing the best interests of their union members.  Memo to new teachers: think twice about joining a union that thinks more about tenure than capability.

Our blogger discussion this morning with the Lt. Governor left me with a nagging question: What does fully funded look like in education?  The Lt. Governor talked about the record increases in public education funding in the state over the past two years and highlighted the nearly $600 million increase to occur this year.  In total, education has seen an increase of 45%, according to the Lt. Gov’s numbers, yet all I hear and heard during the voucher debate was that education is “underfunded.”  So my question to state office of education is what does fully funded look like?  Please just give me a dollar figure.  If it’s not $7,500 per pupil, what’s the number?  The follow-up question is this…If we get public ed to fully funded, what are you committing to deliver for our investment?  What can I hold you accountable for?  And if you don’t live up to your end of the bargain, can we close you down and send our money to those schools who are now giving a better education for less?

A bill up at the state legislature currently proposes to change the makeup of the state school board, which I favor.  The current bill is not one that will work for a variety of reasons not the least of which is the sheer size of the board, which will create an unruly body.

What about the following changes to the board?

1. Keep the same amount of board members at 13. 
2. Create four governor appointed members who rotate as chairman for 1-year each; these members will serve a four year term
3. Establish appointed members qualifications as follows: 1 member from the homeschool community, 1 member from the charter community, 1 member from the public school community, and 1 member from the private school community.
4. Create 9 generally elected members based on districts drawn up by school-district boundaries, meaning you couldn’t split a school district; these members will serve a two year term.

Just my thoughts on the issue.

“You just can’t have a system that is all Republican or all Democrat,” Wayne Crabb said. “There is a reason the government has been set up the way it has with both Democrats and Republicans.”

(http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695242527,00.html)

I’d like to ask Mr. Crabb to show me where in the constitution of our country or of any state that has been set up for two parties.  I can’t seem to find that “check” in the document.  What’s more is that many of the founders actually warned about the problems the country could face if we had a two-party system.  Mr. Crabb’s comments are just one more example of the impact of an education system that is failing to teach and prepare citizens to participate effectively in our society.