Before I left last week, the protests in Wisconsin were well underway. Before you hurt yourself jumping to conclusions, let's cut through the fog of editorials masquerading as news and get to the heart of the matter. Another blogger posted just before 9AM this morning that protestors were asking Fox News to tell the truth. About what? They're like most reporters and more interested in fomenting discord through editorials masquerading as news than in real investigation. As the British Defense Counselor Sir Percival _______ said once in a trial, "In other words, constable, you investigate the obvious and ignore all other possibilities?"
I am one of the good teachers. I had Friday off last week as a day off without pay to help the state balance its budget. How did I spend the day? I went to a local high school to discuss with students what science really is, what a career in science really entails, and how to get into science if they really enjoy it. For a person my age and position, I have a rather broad range of exposure and experience, and my perspective is different, and so I felt it might be of some value to them.
Nobody paid me or required it of me that I go do this. I did it of my own free will and choice. I'm also currently tutoring some students in Chemistry, which is a subject I don't actually teach. Nobody forces me to do this. I do it because it makes me feel like my evenings and weekends maybe help someone else besides the company that manufactured the DVDs and musical instruments with which I otherwise fill my time.
There are plenty of good teachers. This is, however, not about the teachers. This is about Unions. The union has been asked to pay for some of its own healthcare and retirment costs instead of expecting people who in many cases earn far less than they to fit the bill. The union has staged this disruption in services that inconveniences the people who pay their salaries. If Chevron or Wal-Mart or UPS shut down, you would just go to one of their competitors. You can't do that in education. Unions have become accustomed to regard negotiations not as a compromise to meet the needs of everyone as much as a way to get their way, piecemeal if necessary, but eventually to force their will on others.
On his program yesterday, Rush Limbaugh said this: "That's how you get around having to hire good people, and it's how you get around not having to get rid of failing or underperforming people, 'cause it's not about hiring the best. It's about strength in numbers and loyalty to the Democratic Party." This is not about good teachers. It's not about what's best for the children. It's about what's best for the people who get paid, sometimes, to babysit your kids. Ask some of the teachers, and that's how they will describe their jobs- as elaborate and expensive day care.
Now, before you lump me in with the rest of that ilk, I have taken at least one pay cut. It amounts to a 4.5% salary reduction, for me a 200% increase in outlays for a reduction by half in medical coverage, and a 25% greater increase to my own retirement. The net effect on wage was that I took a 15% paycut two summers ago. Fifteen percent beats 100%, but the folks in Wisconsin would rather be fired than take a pay cut. They don't give a flying flapjack about the communities they serve. If they did, they would willingly surrender a part of their prosperity, because it is their duty and privilege to serve the communities of which they are a part. We can survive without them if we must, but they cannot survive without us.
The National Education Association isn't really about education. Check out their website, look at where they donate money, and gauge their actual goals by virtue of that and not by what they say to you. It's very martial- orders distill down from the level above. In order to work in the state, you must be a member of the union. I happen to be a member of a different union, but the principle is the same. I had no choice, and it's part of the reason why I'm having a problem at work right now, because the bureaucracy and the union make it inordinately difficult to do what ought be done. Everyone is protected 'equally', regardless of how well they do their job. The leadership has lawmakers intimidated, because they don't want to get sued by an organization that can bring leverage against it from out of state financial backing, and so frequently, they just let the unions have their way and bully us like the thugs they have become.
Government employees exist to serve the people. We do not exist to serve them. Many of them do a fine job. Some of them are gaming the system. I have a personal experience with this that I will not share here or at this time so as not to compromise the people involved, but know that I have seen this play out, and if it works out for the best, it will not be because the people in positions of responsibility did what was actually best for the people.
The leaders in education are former teachers who rose in the ranks to positions of responsibility. Many of them are not leaders, especially if they are scientists, who are generally socially awkward and go into science to avoid people, and so they are not really the best choices for leadership. When I was in high school, a history teacher showed us an R-rated film without telling us that it was so rated or obtaining permission from our parents. I complained. Their response? The administration promoted him to dean of discipline. Dean of discipline? This man is by definition undisciplined!
Unions use the law and teachers as leverage against weak politicians to compel property owners to pay for more luxuriation regardless of outcome. Our schools get worse and our students know less, even though the unions compel us to pay more for diminishing returns. They demand to use the power of their offices to abuse you. Most of your kids who experience a good teacher will have one by luck, because the union won't let us stratify teachers by the quality of their work. Nobody is allowed to stand out or have extra rewards.
There are good government employees. I am a good teacher. We are few and far between, because if you try to do what is right, they smack you back into a corner. You are subject to increased scrutiny and oversight, and others are exempted from it if they play the system. We few, we happy few who do what is right, put our lives and livelihoods on the line for your children. If today is the day to fall on my sword for the children, I am ready. I will not abide wickedness in high places. I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none.
As for all the references in the media to how these oppressions are similar to Nazi Germany: I am taken aback by all the references to how what's going on in Wisconsin is comparable to Nazis by people who themselves have never met a real Nazi let alone lived in a nation they once ruled. I have met some real Nazis, and these reporters are unjustly ascribing things to leaders in Wisconsin who are the furthest from. Our two chief fears, as voiced by our present politicians, are both represented by German examples: The economy of the Weimar Republic and the totalitarianism of Hitler. Sounds mostly like a power play set against a too convenient backdrop of a foe to villify in order to make either comparison valid.
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