Lists | ARN-L: January 2008: [no subject]

[MONICALUCIDO@comcast.net]

The New Accountability

	 I sat down trying to think of something witty to say in order to start off this piece, but I couldn?t. Let me just say it straight from the heart then: teachers need to be more accountable to their profession. 
	Now, before anyone gets upset by my use of this rhetoric, hear me out. In a recent article in the Fresno Bee, it was reported that Fresno Unified School District superintendent Michael Hanson was to get a 35% raise, thus upping his salary from $205,000 to $277,000 a year. He was also to receive a  $35,000 ?bonus? for whipping the teachers into shape under a regime that supposedly has raised test scores. His total package, including benefits, has amounted to a whopping $336,700. The teachers themselves just got an 5.5% raise, but only after 3 years of negotiation and haggling that has left our community with concern. When the news came out in the paper about Hanson?s raise the response was raucous, to say the least. On average, six to seven letters a day were printed by the Bee from mostly teachers who were incensed by the outrageousness of the increase. These letters have continued to come in even up to this point, over a week later. 

	Needless to say, I was shocked and angered by the raise, but something else got my ire too. It was this: Where have these people been? How is it that year after year of continual abuse by administrators, lawmakers, and the media for not ?raising test scores? for the almighty mandates of NCLB that these folks have NOT showed up to write letters in opposition of the law? Blocks have been taken out of kindergartens, hourly intrusions into the classroom on a daily basis have taken place, curricula have been manipulated, and expert decision making has been replaced with corporate experimentation. The solidarity to teach children humanely that once thrived in our profession is being pushed by the wayside, and the community's trust is going with it.

	Are the ?anti-unionites? right? Are we as an educational community focused so much on the financial disparities between ?us? and ?them? such that it appears teachers are greedy and only want a secure employment position? In Texas, out of 16,000 eligible employees who are tied to its performance pay program, which bases rewards on test scores increases, only 44 opted to not to take the money. Only 44! Nearly half in Denver are also accepting these types of incentives. What does this say about teachers? How could it be that they see the damage standardized testing does to kids, day in and day out, and yet not protect the innocent? The public has believed that many teachers agree with this stuff by their inaction, as they plug along in their rooms unwilling to put forth the effort to fight something abhorrent. Some teachers are selling their morals out big time and it needs to stop. Thus, I have some suggestions for the future generation of teacher education schools and current educa
tors:

1.) No teacher is to be granted their credential until they have taken a course on the history and development of the public education system in our country---including the research that shows who is trying to undermine it.

2.) Every teacher must sign a document and take an oath that if they ever feel the content and manner of teaching in which they are being asked to dispense is damaging to children, they are to stop immediately and seek support from others to change the conditions. Part of the document must also contain language that states teachers will not accept incentive pay for what is known to hurt children?s learning.

3.) Teachers unions must begin to address the need to protect the ?teaching rights? of its members from the invasion of corporate greed. If they can?t do it, allow teachers to form their own professional support system and get rid of the original union. Money cannot be the focus. Learning and teaching must be.

	I always read opposing views of education with relationship to mine. Neal Boortz, a political celebrity who is an enemy of public education, says that teachers unions threaten the future of this country. He cannot be allowed to be correct. The teaching community must realize that the sanctity of the learning compact between teachers, students, and parents is number one. Be accountable: protect it at all costs.