Following the lead of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker perhaps, school districts in Colorado have recently joined in the new sport of busting teacher unions ... you know, teacher unions, those powerful juggernauts of ruthless, self-serving socialists who will do anything to obtain higher salaries and shorter work days. Adams 12 School District in the north suburbs of Denver announced on Thursday that all teachers salaries would be cut 2% for the coming school year. No negotiation, no warning, just a 2% cut. According to administrators, who didn't take a cut, financial exigency demanded this reduction in expenses. Five hundred teachers took to the streets and the 10 o'clock news. No fear registered on the faces of the school board members.
Meanwhile, in the Douglas County school district the very next day, it was announced that henceforth the board would no longer negotiate with the teachers union nor pay salary to a couple of teachers who were serving as union reps or employees. Douglas County has made its reputation on and off as a leader in experimenting with merit pay for teachers.
Times are tough, ... but especially for teachers.
Gene V Glass
University of Colorado Boulder
Arizona State University
Nice article, thanks for the information.
ReplyDeleteYou know? In 2007-2008 when the country was losing about 750,000 Jobs per month? Why didn't the Republican party run around attacking the Unemployed, walfare programs and people on it? Where was all that talk about Cutting Teachers to help the economy and Union Busting? Why didn't they call the problems back then during the 2008 election?
ReplyDelete