The Union Has Never Been At War With The District, Winston
By Mitch Berg
Imagine how much better criminal justice would be if prosecutors and judges worked with defense attorneys to speed up the judicial system?
Or if accountants and auditors were on the same team?
Or if the President, Congress and the Supreme Court spent less time checking and balancing each other, and more time working on ways to help each other increase their power?
Well, no. They are all terrible ideas. The whole point of having adversarial systems built into government is to ensure there’s accountability, or at the very least a speed bump in the way of unlimited power on the part of CEOs, Presidents, Governors, Congresses…
That’s why of all of Jesse Ventura’s mind-dissolvingly stupid ideas in his time-warpingly stupid administration, the dumbest of all was his constant lobotomized yapping for a unicameral legislature, so government could “get stuff done”. Of course, keeping government from getting “stuff done” with impunity is one of the great virtues of both the bicameral legislature and the two-party system.
Of course, the Minnesota DFL has never understood this. Their primary frame of historical reference is the period nationally between 1933 and 1980, and in Minnesota until about 2003;
This is a good thing; it means everyone’s working to hold everyone accountable.
Which may explain a lot why Doug Grow thinks this is a good idea:
The relationship between Mary Cathryn Ricker and Valeria Silva stands in sharp contrast to the common education confrontations that have dogged public education in Minnesota in recent years.
Ricker, head of the St. Paul teachers union, and Silva, the St. Paul school district’s superintendent, meet often and banter easily.
“Mary Cathryn asked me to attend a workshop (sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers),” recalled Silva.
“It was on a weekend,” Ricker said.
“I told her I’d go, but if I’m going on a weekend, it proves I must love you,” Silva said.
The two women laughed.
In other words, after years of saying that the Saint Paul Superintendent’s offices were subordinate to the Teachers’ Union, we see we were wrong. It’s more of a “Lapdog/Master” relationship.
And Doug Grow thinks it’s a good thing:
Listening to the two talk is a night-and-day contrast to the ego-laced bouts waged between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Education Minnesota leader Tom Dooher. Those two excelled at name-calling, door-slamming and political points-scoring with their respective constituencies. Unfortunately, they weren’t so good at sitting down in the same room and trying to understand each other and, in the end, Minnesota was not a player in Race to the Top money or any sort of meaningful K-12 education improvements in the state.
Hey, Doug Grow – do you suppose Valeria Freaking Silva will share an unguarded, giggly moment with me, a mere Saint Paul taxpayer who is alarmed by the district’s ballooning costs and tailspinning achievement?
Do you suppose that if the district’s chief executive needs to hold the Teacher’s Union accountable for its endless demands, she can stop painting Mary Rickert’s toenails long enough to stand up for the taxpayers for whom she supposedly works?
Clearly that’s not the purpose here:
Silva said she believes she was the only superintendent at the workshop, but quickly added that it was worthwhile.“What I got out of it was the teachers’ perspective of pay for performance,” she said. “From the teachers’ standpoint, it’s really how do we measure a teacher’s performance. If we all have the right training, then, we could agree on a system.”
Ah. As long as we mere parents and taxpayers are cut out of the system!
An alliance between the union and the superintendent’s office is no easy thing to maintain. Silva admits that even some members of her high-ranking staff are leery of how quick the superintendent is to pick up the phone and call Ricker.
Well, I’m glad someone at 360 Colborn is doing their job…
And Ricker suspects that at least some teachers are uncomfortable with a union leader who spends considerable time at district headquarters.
Which may be the most depressing commentary on the mentality in public education today that I’ve ever heard.
Silva is distressed by the public attitudes toward teachers — and the teaching profession. It’s hard enough, she said, to attract people into the profession, given the relatively meager starting paying, compared with other professions. But after years of bashing, fewer and fewer people even believe the profession deserves respect.
“Any other culture,” Silva said, “a teacher is greatly valued. That’s been lost here.”
Ms. Silva: get back to me about this episode, which your district has been trying to ignore for five years. Until you have an answer that wouldn’t insult my dog’s intelligence, I won’t value your “profession”.
Maybe Mary Rickert will ask on my behalf?
June 21st, 2010 at 12:26 pm
“Meager starting pay” is a relative term.
If you’re comparing entry level salaries for elementary school teachers against medical doctors, you’re comparing apples to oranges.
If you compare starting teacher pay against the pay for jobs those individuals otherwise would be qualified to do – Starbuck’s Barrista, Soft Goods Retail Clerk or Mary Kay Saleswoman – they’re vastly overpaid.
The slightest research would show a 10-year teacher with a Master’s degree in rural Minnesota commonly makes more, has better benefits and works fewer hours than a 10-year attorney in the same town. Is that meager, or lavish?
.
June 21st, 2010 at 12:58 pm
“It’s hard enough, she said, to attract people into the profession, given the relatively meager starting paying, compared with other professions. ”
I’m trying to understand the comparison of salaries of say a starting teacher with a BA working about 9 months a year, or a starting engineer with a BS working 12 month a year. I wonder how the comparison (entire wage/benefit package) works out when adjusted for the desparity in months worked per year?
June 21st, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Substitute “Oil company executives” and “Mineral management regulators” for “Teacher’s union rep” and “School superintendent”. Watch Doug Grow’s (substitute any progressive sock puppet you like) head explode.
June 21st, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Regarding meager pay; where I went to school, engineering students typically outscored teaching students by 200 points on the SAT. I tend to differ with the idea, therefore, that teachers’ pay ought to be comparable to engineers’–especially gven that teachers have far better job security and three months off each year.
You want comparable talent to the School of Education, you go somewhere between Liberal Arts, Communications Arts, and the Athletic Department, not Engineering or anything related to the hard sciences, law, or medicine.
June 22nd, 2010 at 5:25 pm
I teach to engineers who use my tools at work and to teachers who use my tools in the schools setting. Smarts, ability to learn, desire to learn absolutely no comparison. Teachers are dumb and have no intention of actually learning anything that could be useful.
I used to think it was only the shop teachers but now that my tool is used in many different classrooms. I find the problems are not confined to the shop teachers.
June 28th, 2010 at 2:17 am
just wanted to let you know, the new teacher’s contract, in place retroactively to January 2010, sets the starting wage of a fresh out of college teacher at 40,000$ in Saint Paul Public Schools….
At our school, now closed down on the west side, a list of salaries was placed into the wrong mailbox and fell into our hands… two teachers were making 86,000$ a year, and they were considered the worst teachers at the school.