Re: [Phys-l] Kozol fasts to protest NCLB - defense of unions

[John Barrer <forcejb@yahoo.com>]

--- Larry Smith <larry.smith@snow.edu> wrote: See
after SNIPs


> It is true that generally all teachers get the same
> raise, regardless of
> quality.  Maybe that needs to be examined with merit
> pay in mind, but while
> philosophically in favor of merit pay, it seems hard
> to carry out in
> practice, especially with the unions around. SNIP

Several valid (IMHO) reasons that unions could oppose
"merit pay":
- teachers have NO control over quality of the inputs
to "production" (ie, the kids), both initially and
throughout the year. Would you expect assembly-line
workers to accept a system where their wages were tied
to final quality when they were supplied parts of
wildly varying quality?
- how many administrators REALLY know how to evaluate
classroom performance? How would you like it if your
evaluator used a "seat-of-the-pants" approach? In my
exp, this is all too common.
- even if evaluation were based on gain during the
year on some appropriate (how to define?) instrument,
this would present a tremendous temptation to cheat.

I would respectfully remind the readers of a Ford
assembly plant (I believe it was in the Chicago area)
that had close to the worst quality in the company.
Mgnt viewed workers and their unions as the enemy.
When this plant adopted a more collegial approach and
actually solicited worker input as to how jobs could
be performed better, quality soared. Treating workers
and their union as the enemy is not helpful.

While unions in some instances have been unreasonable
in their demands, it is also true that the union
movement in this country led to higher wages and
benefits for workers (AND for white-collar
professionals as well) and was a major contributor to
the rise of a middle class. Prior to the existence of
unions, there was no middle class to speak of in this
country.

Finally, I would argue that teachers unions have
generally been unsuccessful at maintaining the
standard of living of most teachers, relative to the
rest of the workforce. So, on several grounds, I
believe that portraying teacher's unions as a
significant part of the problems facing our schools is
just a bit disingenuous. I think the real emphasis
ought to be on dramatically increasing out-of-school
(parents,etc)support  of and co-operation with the
in-school educational process. I have no insight as to
how to accomplish this, but I don't think it's an
issue that can dealt with by classroom teachers.

John BArrere
Fresno, CA