I actually don't think it's a stupid topic, I think it is timely. Our lawmakers spend a lot of time representing the interests of establishment administrators (school boards, superintendents, etc.) that the administrators ought to be in Urbana doing McDonald's runs. At some point, teachers are going to have to get an independent voice for their issues. The union clearly represents the union, and the administration represents its own self interest. My concern with the legislators in Urbana (especially since I am a registered Democrat) is they had control of the statehouse for years, and they moved no substantial education reform. Now, they are hiding out in Illinois because they care about teachers? They care about unions. They weren't on the run until big labor was threatened. Now, teachers are bundled in this mess, but they weren't trying to get out of town before the AFL-CIO had an issue.
So, at what point do we start having a conversation about what would really help us be effective educators as opposed to pawns of the administration or the union. If we oppose school reform as it has been proposed, why? Is it because we feel like we will all lose our jobs? Really? In the era of a teacher shortage, that isn't likely. Is it because we don't trust impotent administrators? Well, opposing reform won't help us with that problem? Are we concern about the destruction of the same union who mismanaged funds to the point that the national had to step in to rescue it? Do they need even more dues to not really represent the interests of teachers? So, where is the independent voice of the teachers? Who is doing that research? Who is crafting those policy positions? Or will we continue to get all of our information from tainted sources like: IPS administrators, the ISTA, and the lazy lawmakers who are cozy with those groups (who are incidentally hanging out in Urbana on my dime as a Democratic contributor since the state party is paying for their stay)?
Does it matter? I left the corporate world after 19 years to try and make a difference. I saw idiots and "friends" in high places calling the shots. When blame for low performance in the corporate world was obvious the wrong people were let go or blame was shifted elsewhere. We have let the media conveniently tell people that the corporate world, with it's free market/capitalistic ways, will always weed out the bad and that government is "bad." Those same people, though feel that for some strange way the government CAN handle the military, police and give their congressmen great health care. They either CAN or can't. The corporate world practices monopolies and collusion yet they tell you how GREAT you have it. I can eithter get Direct TV, Bright house, AT&T or Dish. Those are my choices. They all are over-priced, provide poor customer service and have monopolies against new competition. In two words- they suck! They only get worse. Our union exists only as a scapegoat for when management decisions go awry. Poor test scores- blame the union. Unmotivated students- blame the union. Poor working conditions- blame the union. We may have fools downtown but a corporate takeover won't guarantee that MORE fools won't take their place and micromanage us to do.
Have a great weekend my fellow IPS educators and good luck to you and your students on that travesty called ISTEP. WE KNOW we do MORE for our children than provide a stupid test score for the number crunchers in the media and DOE!
I don't love ISTEP+, but I still take my responsibility to get my students prepared seriously. If kids can't pass a test of minimum basic skills, how do we look them in the face and tell them that college is possible? Corporate politics that represent the corporation over the client will always fall short (despite the accrued benefits to the corporate leaders or the employees). Teachers need to have an unfettered source of information that gives them the truth about the conditions that will help us succeed with all of our students, instead of a few. I am inspired by the Arlington Woods teachers who are trying to turn their school around despite the fact that they don't have parent support or administrative collaboration from Central Office.
@ I don't really think it is a stupid topic. .......what you are forgetting is that the GOP has controlled the state senate for over 20 years and by a big margin. The house could have passed all kinds of reform package they wanted but the senate would have defeated them. The House did what it could to pass legislation that would pick up some GOP support in senate to become law.
Think back to a few years ago when the exact thing that is being proposed for all teachers in the state was a punishment for IPS and Gary. The right of the association to negotiate anything but salary and benefits was taken away...and it was a horrible situation..no grievance procedure, arbitrary decisions with no input from teachers, shoved down your throat. We are not like factory workers where the union protects you from unfair management decisions. We are professionals and need to be treated as such, and our association gives us a voice in policies and procedures in our classrooms and schools. Taking collective bargaining away from teachers takes away your voice...you can't be walked on if you don't lay down. I am not just a person who comes in an does a job and unfortunately that is the way IPS administration views teachers...not as professionals but as cogs on a wheel...and how is that really working for students?
Right now IPS is under the rule of an autocrat and no one is happy about that, imagine every teacher in the state in the same situation. Time to stand up for your association and your students.
Stand up for your association? How does the union do one blessed thing for kids. Bad teachers don't need protection. Teachers haven't seen a real pay raise in years while administrative pay in the district has grown exponentially? What does your union do for you except collect dues? And why don't unions try to organize in charters. Seriously. If the charter teachers are treated so grossly, and they are so underpaid, why doesn't the union try to organize with those public school teachers? It's legal (charter law allows for teachers to organize within the charter schools if they choose thanks to the unions). That would be hard. The union would have to actually work, they would have to meaningfully negotiate, they would have to perform a real service. Teachers need to stop being bullied by central office and they ought to stop being bullied by their union. When I paid dues to the union, we actually got real salary increases in my district. We got better working conditions and better insurance. What IPS teachers get is shameful. How do you defend an organization that is so clearly not defending you. Isn't strange that there is never any angst between the Central Office and either the local NEA or the ISTA. Hell, when they go lobby the statehouse, the IPS lobbyist often sits next to the ISTA. Are your interests the same as those identified by school district administration. Get a grip. Get your own group that is doing fact-finding on behalf of teachers. If you have to organize, start a group that really is negotiating for folks who care about kids. Teacher collective-bargaining is only relevant if there is a real agenda, and folks are actively bargaining for that agenda.
The union is only as good as its members. IPS knows that IEA has no teeth, and ISTA is in about the same boat. IEA couldn't even pull off a strike. The union is not suppose to do anything for kids, it is suppose to do something for teachers so they can do something for kids. And how can you hold IEA culpable for administrative raises? Dealing with IPS is dealing with a dishonest organization, we are told and shown budgets with no money for teachers, then suddenly money appears when administrators are give raises.
It may not be great, and certainly the appearance of a too close relationship between IEA officers and IPS hasn't helped, but it is the only organization we have.
Monday go into your school and try and organize your teachers into a powerful block to change things in your school, negotiate wages and benefits with your principal, then Tuesday let us all know how that worked. With out the union we will be given what they choose to give us...
In the five years that I have been working in IPS, I have yet to see one year that we have an actual current contract. I only joined the union a year ago not for the union benefits, but the fact that if you want to be on any type of committee like SBDM you have to be in the union. I am however going to change that, because if I want to waste $ 800 a year I think I can find better ways to do that. Since being a member of the union I haven't seen a shred of evidence that this union works for us, the IPS teachers, not the national Democrat political agenda. The only e mail I ever get from the union is to defend itself against any reform ideas or to go to the statehouse and support this or that democrat voting against new policies never anything to do with IPS. I believe if IPS teachers want real changes and solutions we need to get rid of the IEA and create our own IPS Teachers Association.
Our union sucks! I keep hearing the union is only as strong as it's supporters. Well, I have been asking for a year now how do we get rid of the president of our local union and noone will tell me. Ann is a terrible president. As far as I am concerned she has helped White and yes Bennett tell us how bad the teachers are.
ANN Wilkens is a horrible president. I think she checks with Eugene White before she says or does anything. She must have a nice Ed. Center job promised to her by Eugene.
Re: get rid of the IEA and create our own IPS Teachers Association.
Many years ago, I proposed this very idea. Someone both older and smarter pointed out that the people who are active in IEA and ISTA are the same people who will support any new association. True, that. If I'm not willing to sacrifice my time and talents for our current representative group, will I step up in a new organization? Probably not.
I'm thrilled to learn that I am not the only one that thinks the union is terrible. The union has an agenda of its own and does not act in the best interest of the students or even the teachers. I have seen the union stir up problems among teachers and add tension to schools. The union makes tons of money and uses it to help itself. The union is only for teachers who need to be protected. Those teachers need to be protected because they are not doing their job as well as they should be.
The union is only for teachers who need to be protected. Those teachers need to be protected because they are not doing their job as well as they should be.
You've not been around for very long have you, some of these crackpot administrators will go after someone simply because they can. I've seen people spout the same view until a new principal goes after them. And I am so sorry to tell you this but as a teacher I have seen administrators not go after teachers who aren't doing their jobs because they coach, because they are in the same mafia, or because they are well liked in the faculty. Sorry but none of these reasons are valid for keeping a bad teacher. And quite frankly in the last three schools I was at there was only one where the administrators even knew what was happening in the building. Marzano said, "Principal and teacher quality account for nearly 60% of a schools total impact on student achievement, and principals alone for a full 25%" (Marzano, etal, 2005) The two schools where administrators were lacking, one the principal never left the office, and the other he undermined the teachers in the classroom, every time he did leave the office.
Poor administrators cannot be stopped or stymied by a union (at least not the one in Indianapolis). A union ought to mean that the quality of life for teachers should improve across the district.
I was an IEA member for 4 years, then I dropped my membership because I could see nothing positive from my paying dues to a group who did little, for students or for teachers. I felt like it was a benign scam. I've not regretted my decision to drop the membership.
I am a member of the union but haven't had an e-mail, newsletter, or any kind of notification from them all year. I have no idea what they are doing for me or for that matter why I should continue to belong. I guess I need to reconsider my membership.
"A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the Tea Partier, and says,"look out for that Union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."
In the case of public employees (like teachers), there is no CEO. There are only taxpayers and tax-paid employees. The union is the only power/greed entity involved.
Power-hungry school superintendents/top level administrators, mismanagement of public funds by School Boards, money-grabbing teacher unions that do nothing...the only solution is to 'close it all down'...start over from scratch...it cannot be tweaked and fixed as it stands. We've been half-heartedly revamping, reforming, and reorganizing for the past 30 to 40 years. Folks, it's not worked!
"Power-hungry school superintendents/top level administrators, mismanagement of public funds by School Boards, money-grabbing teacher unions that do nothing...the only solution is to 'close it all down'...start over from scratch...it cannot be tweaked and fixed as it stands. We've been half-heartedly revamping, reforming, and reorganizing for the past 30 to 40 years. Folks, it's not worked!
The status quo is simply unacceptable!"
However for-profit charter schools, teacher evaluations based on what an 8 year old wants to do on one test, merit pay and corporate takeovers is NOT the answer either. They are disguised as being "for kids" when it's all about lobbyists and paying back your corporate pals.
1. Most charter schools are not for-profit. And in most charter schools, more money goes to the classroom than in IPS. 2. Teacher evaluations are based on several factors, including student improvement. 3. There are for more corporate pals and lobbyists making money off of IPS than in Indianapolis charter schools.
You debate issues assuming everybody is as uninformed as you are, and that's obviously not the case.
Just a friendly FYI, if you want to drop out of the union. You have to jump through their hoops and become even more familiar with both non and miscommunication. If you want to drop, you must send a letter in writing (I recommend certified mail) that can only be postmarked between June 1st and August 1st. Received any later and they will not drop your membership.
stupid topic. Next!
ReplyDeleteI actually don't think it's a stupid topic, I think it is timely. Our lawmakers spend a lot of time representing the interests of establishment administrators (school boards, superintendents, etc.) that the administrators ought to be in Urbana doing McDonald's runs. At some point, teachers are going to have to get an independent voice for their issues. The union clearly represents the union, and the administration represents its own self interest. My concern with the legislators in Urbana (especially since I am a registered Democrat) is they had control of the statehouse for years, and they moved no substantial education reform. Now, they are hiding out in Illinois because they care about teachers? They care about unions. They weren't on the run until big labor was threatened. Now, teachers are bundled in this mess, but they weren't trying to get out of town before the AFL-CIO had an issue.
ReplyDeleteSo, at what point do we start having a conversation about what would really help us be effective educators as opposed to pawns of the administration or the union. If we oppose school reform as it has been proposed, why? Is it because we feel like we will all lose our jobs? Really? In the era of a teacher shortage, that isn't likely. Is it because we don't trust impotent administrators? Well, opposing reform won't help us with that problem? Are we concern about the destruction of the same union who mismanaged funds to the point that the national had to step in to rescue it? Do they need even more dues to not really represent the interests of teachers? So, where is the independent voice of the teachers? Who is doing that research? Who is crafting those policy positions? Or will we continue to get all of our information from tainted sources like: IPS administrators, the ISTA, and the lazy lawmakers who are cozy with those groups (who are incidentally hanging out in Urbana on my dime as a Democratic contributor since the state party is paying for their stay)?
ReplyDeleteDoes it matter? I left the corporate world after 19 years to try and make a difference. I saw idiots and "friends" in high places calling the shots. When blame for low performance in the corporate world was obvious the wrong people were let go or blame was shifted elsewhere. We have let the media conveniently tell people that the corporate world, with it's free market/capitalistic ways, will always weed out the bad and that government is "bad." Those same people, though feel that for some strange way the government CAN handle the military, police and give their congressmen great health care. They either CAN or can't. The corporate world practices monopolies and collusion yet they tell you how GREAT you have it. I can eithter get Direct TV, Bright house, AT&T or Dish. Those are my choices. They all are over-priced, provide poor customer service and have monopolies against new competition. In two words- they suck! They only get worse. Our union exists only as a scapegoat for when management decisions go awry. Poor test scores- blame the union. Unmotivated students- blame the union. Poor working conditions- blame the union. We may have fools downtown but a corporate takeover won't guarantee that MORE fools won't take their place and micromanage us to do.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend my fellow IPS educators and good luck to you and your students on that travesty called ISTEP. WE KNOW we do MORE for our children than provide a stupid test score for the number crunchers in the media and DOE!
I don't love ISTEP+, but I still take my responsibility to get my students prepared seriously. If kids can't pass a test of minimum basic skills, how do we look them in the face and tell them that college is possible? Corporate politics that represent the corporation over the client will always fall short (despite the accrued benefits to the corporate leaders or the employees). Teachers need to have an unfettered source of information that gives them the truth about the conditions that will help us succeed with all of our students, instead of a few. I am inspired by the Arlington Woods teachers who are trying to turn their school around despite the fact that they don't have parent support or administrative collaboration from Central Office.
ReplyDeleteNot so fast. Arlington Woods does have parent support, just not every parent (like every other school, even the magnets).
ReplyDelete@ I don't really think it is a stupid topic. .......what you are forgetting is that the GOP has controlled the state senate for over 20 years and by a big margin. The house could have passed all kinds of reform package they wanted but the senate would have defeated them. The House did what it could to pass legislation that would pick up some GOP support in senate to become law.
ReplyDeleteThink back to a few years ago when the exact thing that is being proposed for all teachers in the state was a punishment for IPS and Gary. The right of the association to negotiate anything but salary and benefits was taken away...and it was a horrible situation..no grievance procedure, arbitrary decisions with no input from teachers, shoved down your throat. We are not like factory workers where the union protects you from unfair management decisions. We are professionals and need to be treated as such, and our association gives us a voice in policies and procedures in our classrooms and schools. Taking collective bargaining away from teachers takes away your voice...you can't be walked on if you don't lay down. I am not just a person who comes in an does a job and unfortunately that is the way IPS administration views teachers...not as professionals but as cogs on a wheel...and how is that really working for students?
ReplyDeleteRight now IPS is under the rule of an autocrat and no one is happy about that, imagine every teacher in the state in the same situation. Time to stand up for your association and your students.
Stand up for your association? How does the union do one blessed thing for kids. Bad teachers don't need protection. Teachers haven't seen a real pay raise in years while administrative pay in the district has grown exponentially? What does your union do for you except collect dues? And why don't unions try to organize in charters. Seriously. If the charter teachers are treated so grossly, and they are so underpaid, why doesn't the union try to organize with those public school teachers? It's legal (charter law allows for teachers to organize within the charter schools if they choose thanks to the unions). That would be hard. The union would have to actually work, they would have to meaningfully negotiate, they would have to perform a real service. Teachers need to stop being bullied by central office and they ought to stop being bullied by their union. When I paid dues to the union, we actually got real salary increases in my district. We got better working conditions and better insurance. What IPS teachers get is shameful. How do you defend an organization that is so clearly not defending you. Isn't strange that there is never any angst between the Central Office and either the local NEA or the ISTA. Hell, when they go lobby the statehouse, the IPS lobbyist often sits next to the ISTA. Are your interests the same as those identified by school district administration. Get a grip. Get your own group that is doing fact-finding on behalf of teachers. If you have to organize, start a group that really is negotiating for folks who care about kids. Teacher collective-bargaining is only relevant if there is a real agenda, and folks are actively bargaining for that agenda.
ReplyDeleteThe union is only as good as its members. IPS knows that IEA has no teeth, and ISTA is in about the same boat. IEA couldn't even pull off a strike. The union is not suppose to do anything for kids, it is suppose to do something for teachers so they can do something for kids. And how can you hold IEA culpable for administrative raises? Dealing with IPS is dealing with a dishonest organization, we are told and shown budgets with no money for teachers, then suddenly money appears when administrators are give raises.
ReplyDeleteIt may not be great, and certainly the appearance of a too close relationship between IEA officers and IPS hasn't helped, but it is the only organization we have.
Monday go into your school and try and organize your teachers into a powerful block to change things in your school, negotiate wages and benefits with your principal, then Tuesday let us all know how that worked. With out the union we will be given what they choose to give us...
In the five years that I have been working in IPS, I have yet to see one year that we have an actual current contract. I only joined the union a year ago not for the union benefits, but the fact that if you want to be on any type of committee like SBDM you have to be in the union. I am however going to change that, because if I want to waste $ 800 a year I think I can find better ways to do that. Since being a member of the union I haven't seen a shred of evidence that this union works for us, the IPS teachers, not the national Democrat political agenda. The only e mail I ever get from the union is to defend itself against any reform ideas or to go to the statehouse and support this or that democrat voting against new policies never anything to do with IPS. I believe if IPS teachers want real changes and solutions we need to get rid of the IEA and create our own IPS Teachers Association.
ReplyDeleteOur union sucks! I keep hearing the union is only as strong as it's supporters. Well, I have been asking for a year now how do we get rid of the president of our local union and noone will tell me. Ann is a terrible president. As far as I am concerned she has helped White and yes Bennett tell us how bad the teachers are.
ReplyDeleteANN Wilkens is a horrible president. I think she checks with Eugene White before she says or does anything. She must have a nice Ed. Center job promised to her by Eugene.
ReplyDeleteRe: get rid of the IEA and create our own IPS Teachers Association.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I proposed this very idea. Someone both older and smarter pointed out that the people who are active in IEA and ISTA are the same people who will support any new association. True, that. If I'm not willing to sacrifice my time and talents for our current representative group, will I step up in a new organization? Probably not.
I'm thrilled to learn that I am not the only one that thinks the union is terrible. The union has an agenda of its own and does not act in the best interest of the students or even the teachers. I have seen the union stir up problems among teachers and add tension to schools. The union makes tons of money and uses it to help itself. The union is only for teachers who need to be protected. Those teachers need to be protected because they are not doing their job as well as they should be.
ReplyDeleteWhether you start a new union or not, you still need a way of getting information from some group that shares your interest.
ReplyDeleteThe union is only for teachers who need to be protected. Those teachers need to be protected because they are not doing their job as well as they should be.
ReplyDeleteYou've not been around for very long have you, some of these crackpot administrators will go after someone simply because they can. I've seen people spout the same view until a new principal goes after them. And I am so sorry to tell you this but as a teacher I have seen administrators not go after teachers who aren't doing their jobs because they coach, because they are in the same mafia, or because they are well liked in the faculty. Sorry but none of these reasons are valid for keeping a bad teacher. And quite frankly in the last three schools I was at there was only one where the administrators even knew what was happening in the building. Marzano said, "Principal and teacher quality account for nearly 60% of a schools total impact on student achievement, and principals alone for a full 25%" (Marzano, etal, 2005) The two schools where administrators were lacking, one the principal never left the office, and the other he undermined the teachers in the classroom, every time he did leave the office.
Poor administrators cannot be stopped or stymied by a union (at least not the one in Indianapolis). A union ought to mean that the quality of life for teachers should improve across the district.
ReplyDeleteI was an IEA member for 4 years, then I dropped my membership because I could see nothing positive from my paying dues to a group who did little, for students or for teachers. I felt like it was a benign scam. I've not regretted my decision to drop the membership.
ReplyDeleteI am a member of the union but haven't had an e-mail, newsletter, or any kind of notification from them all year. I have no idea what they are doing for me or for that matter why I should continue to belong. I guess I need to reconsider my membership.
ReplyDeleteYou could always visit their site, printing and distributing paper is costly and the money is needed for all the grievances that are in process.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.iea-in.org/
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete"A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the Tea Partier, and says,"look out for that Union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."
ReplyDeleteI wish they had taken the old relic, Mary Busch, with them.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of public employees (like teachers), there is no CEO. There are only taxpayers and tax-paid employees. The union is the only power/greed entity involved.
ReplyDeleteIf you dont think Eugene White functions as a bloated, greedy power hungry monster then you don't know IPS.
ReplyDeleteBut the unions don't do a darn thing to keep public employees from abusing power mismanaging funds. That's up to the schoolboard.
ReplyDeletePower-hungry school superintendents/top level administrators, mismanagement of public funds by School Boards, money-grabbing teacher unions that do nothing...the only solution is to 'close it all down'...start over from scratch...it cannot be tweaked and fixed as it stands. We've been half-heartedly revamping, reforming, and reorganizing for the past 30 to 40 years. Folks, it's not worked!
ReplyDeleteThe status quo is simply unacceptable!
"Power-hungry school superintendents/top level administrators, mismanagement of public funds by School Boards, money-grabbing teacher unions that do nothing...the only solution is to 'close it all down'...start over from scratch...it cannot be tweaked and fixed as it stands. We've been half-heartedly revamping, reforming, and reorganizing for the past 30 to 40 years. Folks, it's not worked!
ReplyDeleteThe status quo is simply unacceptable!"
However for-profit charter schools, teacher evaluations based on what an 8 year old wants to do on one test, merit pay and corporate takeovers is NOT the answer either. They are disguised as being "for kids" when it's all about lobbyists and paying back your corporate pals.
1. Most charter schools are not for-profit. And in most charter schools, more money goes to the classroom than in IPS.
ReplyDelete2. Teacher evaluations are based on several factors, including student improvement.
3. There are for more corporate pals and lobbyists making money off of IPS than in Indianapolis charter schools.
You debate issues assuming everybody is as uninformed as you are, and that's obviously not the case.
Just a friendly FYI, if you want to drop out of the union. You have to jump through their hoops and become even more familiar with both non and miscommunication. If you want to drop, you must send a letter in writing (I recommend certified mail) that can only be postmarked between June 1st and August 1st. Received any later and they will not drop your membership.
ReplyDelete