CHARTER SCHOOLS

Dear Tom:

            Education was a little simpler in your time.  Here in South Orange County the big discussion in educational surroundings is the onslaught of parents trying to form Charter Schools.  I submit that there may be places where charter schools are useful, but here in  South Orange County it tends to be another case of the “Housewives[1] of Orange County get Bored” When housewives who live in relative wealth who of course don’t work[2] get bored they need a new “project”. And what better a project than to take over the local educational system. After all, wouldn’t local housewives know more that educators who dedicate their life studying the art of teaching children?

            What they’ve done in my town is that they are on the cusp of destroying a school with a fabulous and rich history in the community. A State Blue Ribbon School (last year) with a history of good test scores. You say “How does this happen?  Shouldn’t they only be allowed to replace schools in problem areas with low scores?”  Well, the democracy that you help found sometimes doesn’t think when they vote with their ambitions as opposed to their brains.

            Charter Schools in South Orange County are filled with myths that the populace in general has no idea of:

• The Charter School will tell you that everyone is welcome and they draw names from a lottery to fill allotted student numbers. Yet why do they request copies of student records, social security numbers and IEPs before the selection process?  Well the answer is they want to form their own little “perfect classroom” with no low achievers, no distracting special education kids and certainly no “non-citizens.[3]” After all, once all those lesser valued kids are taken out of the classroom our kids will flourish won’t they? For sure, the test scores will go through the roof and somebody in the Charter School is going to make a lot of money as more parents chase the great white dream.
• Charter kids through the eighth grade will be sharing a campus with regular public school kindergarten through fifth graders. They say the kids will work together in harmony and not bother each other. Do you want you first grader sharing a restroom with an eighth grader?  I don’t, charter or non charter[4].
• No one has addressed the fact that the Charter School has not hired any teaching staff yet other than well paid administrators. Now, lets look at who is out their to be hired as teachers…kids who just graduated from college and teachers from school districts who were either subject to layoff or released because they were temporary. Certainly no currently employed experienced teacher will join the charter movement because the pay scale is approximately 50% lower than normal public school teachers (who already have the lowest professional salary amongst all professional vocations.) I for one would much prefer my kids to have the typical public school teacher with approximately 20 or more years of teaching experience who can recognize immediately a child’s learning aptitudes as well as deficiencies and learning disabilities. It’s all a ruse, The “Orange County Housewives” think they will be able to control these young teachers and make them well aware that in these tough financial times they are lucky to have a job and therefore they will finally have the control they set out for.

             I don’t know Tom; I always thought that what’s the old saying… “A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.”  It just seems sad that so many teachers are being “consumed” by power-rich upper establishment bored “housewives.”  What do you think?

            Very truly yours,

        
            M.E.K.

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[1] “Housewives” is used here but is meant to be interchangeable with members of both sex, male and female

[2] work would lower their social standing, as opposed to the mandatory charitable work which is expected

[3] Sounds a little like Hitler’s “perfect society “doesn’t it?

[4] Has anyone thought about the increase in traffic in the neighborhood alone with over 500 additional students attending the local school?

PUBLIC SECTOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Dear Tom: 

In the early 1930’s, my Mother, like her older sister and brothers, dropped out of school after completing 8^th grade to help provide for her family. The Great Depression was in full force and Mother worked twelve hour shifts in the local silk mill for what we today would consider pennies. When she collected her paycheck, she immediately gave it to her mother to help provide for her twelve brothers and sisters. Late in her life she still recalled how her fingers hurt from the long hours of working the threads.

            The males in the family worked for the local Pennsylvania coal companies. Until they were twelve years old they were called “Breaker Boys” and they collected loose coal in buckets. They dealt with poor ventilation and coal dust that emptied directly into their lungs.  When they reached their twelfth birthday they were “lucky” enough to transcend into the bowels of the mine, for more pay but the constant threat of explosions and mine structural failure.

            During those days work place danger was a fact of life. My Father, in an effort to escape this life joined the Army Air Force after graduating from High School (Only to be sent to Pearl Harbor for his duty station where he witnessed the birth of World War II.)  Incidentally, in 1945 after finishing his tour of duty he returned to mainstream America and returned to the mines where he worked only six days and decided he could not live the life his father did, he would not return from the mines on a daily basis spitting out and coughing coal dust. So, he reenlisted into the Army.

            Through the years through the intervention of unions working with people like my Mother and Father the workplace has become safer; child labor has been restricted; discrimination of workers because of race, sex, age, sexual orientation and political beliefs has become illegal. Employees who have disabilities or need medical leave for family or because of pregnancy or the birth or adoption have become protected. Minimum wage laws and overtime laws protect employees against additional abuse.  I look at what is going on in Wisconsin and a handful of other states across the nation in the attacks against public sector unionism and I realize that the rights that my family spent 80 years perfecting, mean nothing to those whose goals gravitate towards profit, power, manipulation and control.

            Sometimes I think we live in a mixed up world where Wisconsin teachers who barely make $50,000 a year are ridiculed; yet no one ever seems to have a problem with the professional baseball player or basketball player who often do not finish college yet make up to $20 million a year. Banking Executives can make millions of dollars in bonus’ for practically running our economy into the ground, yet we make a national scene over public employees because the government pays 8% towards their retirement, and oh yes, don’t forget, they actually get 10 or 12 holidays each year…

            Collective Bargaining is a high stakes battle of give and take for both management and labor. Either side seldom gets all that they wanted. In tough times like we are in currently, salary increases are few and cuts are plentiful. In more productive economic years, wages and benefits increase. My observation is that collective bargaining works pretty well for both sides- a happy work force is more productive and productivity ensures wealth for management. I can only think that the real reason for those who want to limit collective bargaining has probably more to do with the power of politics as well as political contributions that come from organized labor as opposed to balancing any budget, creating a more productive workforce and creating jobs.

             Maybe it is time we re-think some of our values. What do you think?
             Very Truley Yours,
              M.E,K,