Front Page Friday
This week it is the Detroit News....
Job 1: Reinvent Ford – Big news out of Dearborn this Friday is that Bill Ford is seriously thinking of reinventing how the Ford business model. In the possible works is a merger with Nissan-Renault, or selling off some of the luxury business units like Jaguar, Land Rover and Lincoln to former CEO Jacques Nasser, and third is that Ford my remove itself from the NYSE and privatize the company. All three options will change how Ford will do business in the future.
More Schools Flunk – With so much more tax money being invested in our schools, how is it that even more schools are on this list? In 2004 there where 297 schools on the list of school not making the grade. The following year the number of substandard schools rose to 436 and this year 544 schools did not make the minimum standards. An interesting tie in to this article is that the City of Detroit teachers association is threatening to go on strike this year because their wages are below other area school districts. To this I would respond with what makes these teachers think that they are worth as much as the other school districts. It can’t be because of the outstanding scholastic achievement of their students, as 102 schools in the City of Detroit school district (nearly half) did not meet the Federal requirements. A spokesperson for the district blames the poor results on the movement of the tests from the winter to the fall. Sorry to say this but other school district had the same issue. Good luck… try again next year.
Morning-after pill OK revives debate – The USFDA approved the over the counter sale of the morning after pill and is making it available to adults without a prescription by the end of the year. Both sides of the issue spoke up about the pill as some see it as a progress for women’s health and some see it as a form of abortion. I do not think it is an abortion if the pill prevents a woman from becoming pregnant. It is a form of birth control similar to the pill.
7-Eleven Clerk is killed over taco – I know things are not as sunny as it could be, but killing someone over a taco has to be a new low. What kind of argument could lead to this? Was the assailant mad that there was no taco sauce left? Did he want a burrito instead? Did he find a bug in his taco? We’ll only know when the killer is caught and the mystery is answered.
Pluto Declassified as Planet – Boy, I wound not be surprised if the Plutions are real upset at us this morning… first we name a goofy dog after their home planet and now a bunch of mad scientists go out and decide that their planet is… errr… not a planet. What next, are we going to send the supreme ruler of the Lil Plutions an email telling them that they need to take their little planet out of the Solar System? I understand that there are bigger planets to devote more time to like Neptune and Uranus, but I think we need to reconsider this. We need to have these so-called scientists get their heads out of Uranus and see that their decision can only start a huge inter-planetary war. Where are we going to recruit more Astronauts to combat these Lil Plutions? San Francisco?
Job 1: Reinvent Ford – Big news out of Dearborn this Friday is that Bill Ford is seriously thinking of reinventing how the Ford business model. In the possible works is a merger with Nissan-Renault, or selling off some of the luxury business units like Jaguar, Land Rover and Lincoln to former CEO Jacques Nasser, and third is that Ford my remove itself from the NYSE and privatize the company. All three options will change how Ford will do business in the future.
More Schools Flunk – With so much more tax money being invested in our schools, how is it that even more schools are on this list? In 2004 there where 297 schools on the list of school not making the grade. The following year the number of substandard schools rose to 436 and this year 544 schools did not make the minimum standards. An interesting tie in to this article is that the City of Detroit teachers association is threatening to go on strike this year because their wages are below other area school districts. To this I would respond with what makes these teachers think that they are worth as much as the other school districts. It can’t be because of the outstanding scholastic achievement of their students, as 102 schools in the City of Detroit school district (nearly half) did not meet the Federal requirements. A spokesperson for the district blames the poor results on the movement of the tests from the winter to the fall. Sorry to say this but other school district had the same issue. Good luck… try again next year.
Morning-after pill OK revives debate – The USFDA approved the over the counter sale of the morning after pill and is making it available to adults without a prescription by the end of the year. Both sides of the issue spoke up about the pill as some see it as a progress for women’s health and some see it as a form of abortion. I do not think it is an abortion if the pill prevents a woman from becoming pregnant. It is a form of birth control similar to the pill.
7-Eleven Clerk is killed over taco – I know things are not as sunny as it could be, but killing someone over a taco has to be a new low. What kind of argument could lead to this? Was the assailant mad that there was no taco sauce left? Did he want a burrito instead? Did he find a bug in his taco? We’ll only know when the killer is caught and the mystery is answered.
Pluto Declassified as Planet – Boy, I wound not be surprised if the Plutions are real upset at us this morning… first we name a goofy dog after their home planet and now a bunch of mad scientists go out and decide that their planet is… errr… not a planet. What next, are we going to send the supreme ruler of the Lil Plutions an email telling them that they need to take their little planet out of the Solar System? I understand that there are bigger planets to devote more time to like Neptune and Uranus, but I think we need to reconsider this. We need to have these so-called scientists get their heads out of Uranus and see that their decision can only start a huge inter-planetary war. Where are we going to recruit more Astronauts to combat these Lil Plutions? San Francisco?
posted by Fe Man at 1:43 PM
4 Comments:
Zo,
I'm one of those Detroit Public Schools teachers and I can say that personally I am worth at least as much as the average teacher and I would like to think considerably more. Does that mean that my students should outperform students from other districts in my subject area in order to prove my claim? I suspect that they don't, but that doesn't mean the suburban teachers are better than me. As I am always emphasizing to people, teacher ability is but one of many factors that influence student achievement. And I would argue that it is not even the largest single factor. I know that there are some subpar teachers in my district but I also know that there are many tremendous teachers that do a great job considering the resources we have to work with and the academic level and social and economic factors affecting our students.
That being said, let me clarify something that you said in your post. While I too have heard teachers argue that we should get paid as much as other districts, that is NOT why we are considering going on strike.
The district has determined that they have a $90 million budget shortfall this year. They have presented this "fact" to the teacher's union and, in their generosity, they have given us a bunch of choices on how we can give up that amount of money. We can cut our pay, cut our benefits, accept even larger classes, give up supplies, etc. This is after we already have had no pay increases for several years, given up portions of our benefits packages, paid more for the benefits we do get, and taken on extra workload since the district has eliminated many other workers including social workers, custodians, etc. We have taken cuts in our overall compensation package for the last 4 or 5 years, not only in real dollars but in actual dollars and benefits.
SO... we are NOT trying to get pay increases. We are simply trying not to go backwards any more than we already have!
Your comment was well stated.
I wished some of your leadership would voice this view more as what I have heard and read in the newspapers is that they feel that they are not compensated as well as the suburban school districts.
Have the other school districts also faced similar financial crisis? If so what did they do? If not, why not?
Some thoughts of mine on the subject:
1) We must not forget that it is illegal for teachers to strike. Those that do can be fired or fined a days pay for each day on strike. When/If this law is invoked, will the teachers cry foul?
2) Any strike will push more students out of district and compound problems in subsequent contracts.
3) Budgetary problems in Detroit Schools cannot be solved on the backs of teachers, but hard questions need to be asked about brick and mortar, administration, student discipline and even compulsory education.
4) I know at least one teacher that was hoping for a strike so she could extend her Summer vacation. Hearing that left a bad taste in my mouth -- then again I am an idealist.
5) I think that forcing competition and ending both compulsory education and the government monopoly on education must be a significant part of any longterm fix to the educational system.
Fe Man,
much of the media coverage has focused on the union's demand for higher pay and indeed they are asking for a 5% raise in each of the next three years. I know this sounds irresponsible in the midst of a financial crisis but consider that we have not had a raise in three years. Even if we managed to get those raises, the situation averaged all six years would be about +2.5% per year. That is still lower than the 3% per year inflation so even if the union gets all its wishes we are still looking at pay cuts in terms of real wages. Honestly though, we know we won't get those raises. The union is asking for them so they have some bargaining room. If we go in asking for a wage freeze while the district is asking for a 10% pay cut then we would probably end up with a 5% pay cut. That's not acceptable to me. Not when there is so much other waste that can be cut out.
However, the media does not give much time to our other demands including, classes smaller than 35 students in High school, adequate classroom supplies, and access to copiers so we can make our own handouts for the students. (Currently we are supposed to fill out a form, attach the original, get the principal's approval, and then wait until office staff has the opportunity to make the copies for us. There is nothing wrong with this in principle except that it is incredibly inefficient and in the constantly changing conditions of a school it is simply untenable. From a social studies perspective it makes it nearly impossible to integrate current, relevant events into the curriculum.) The district focuses on pay demands to make the teachers seem greedy and as if the are at odds with the students. In fact, teachers want what is best for the students and we wish we could make the public understand that better. (BTW, the admin is still refusing all of the above demands.)
As for your other questions: Other districts are struggling as well but not nearly as much as Detroit. The reason is that other schools get much more money per student from the state than Detroit. (When the program was started in 1994, discrepancies in school funding were not allowed to grow larger but all existing discrepancies were allowed to continue.) The other big problem is that Detroit is losing thousands of students per year. When you get paid by the student, this leads to huge shortfalls. While some operating costs go down (e.g. you don't have to pay as many teachers) others do not. The costs for maintainance, utilities, security, etc. are the same whether the school is filled to capacity or nearly empty. Of course you can close and consolidate schools but no one's really buying those properties so while you might save on utilities you still have large maintenance and liability expenses.
Oddly enough, many neighboring districts are either benefitting or having their own troubles ameliorated by the large influx of cash that comes with the students who are now attending their schools instead of Detroit's.
Edward, responses to your comments.
1) It IS technically illegal for teachers to strike. The union or other teachers will cry what they will. Personally, I am prepared for whatever consequences come. It is important enough to me to accept the risk. I, however, would strongly question the legality of that law. How can there be a law that forces people to work if they don't want to? Keep in mind that we do not currently have a contract so there is no agreement that we are in breach of. We are also not endangering anyone's safety by not working. Finally, it is not as if we are getting paid vacation days. We still are required to teach 180 days in a school year. We are all fully aware that if the strike cuts into that, then any missed days will simply be tacked on to the end of the year.
2) This is the district's favorite argument. While it may be true, I doubt that the effect will be significant unless the strike lasts more than a few weeks past the time when students are first supposed to report. Currently we have more than a week until that clock even starts. More importantly, the admin's demands will also drive students out of the district. The connection is not as obvious but it is no less real. The district will not be able to retain quality teachers with low pay, poor benefits, difficult working conditions and no adminstrative support. Those teachers who are able to get hired elsewhere and are not up for an ascetic life of banging their heads against a wall, will move on. That will leave a larger proportion of marginal and/or frustrated and burned-out teachers and student performance will drop even further. In the long run, far more students will leave for this reason than because of a few weeks delay in the school year. What the teachers are demanding (see above) will benefit students both immediately and in the long run.
3) I fully agree with you on every part of this comment. Teachers are very willing to make sacrifices to get through the district's rough time. We showed that with the concessions we've made over the past several years (see original comment). However, we're being asked to bear much more than our share of the load and the admin is not bargaining in good faith. The strike vote sunday was nearly unanimous (~3 opposed out of >3000 present). One big reason is that after much rhetoric about everyone having to accept pay cuts and the teachers agreeing to this, the district turned around and gave the administrators a raise with the money they saved by "borrowing" 5 days pay from the teachers. That's not good faith. Add to this the much publicized waste in other areas of administration and the teachers can't see why it should all be on their backs.
4) I too find this deplorable. It is people like this that undermine the teachers' legitimate concerns. I personally will be on the picket line to get the word out and to make it clear that I (and most of my fellows) are not in this for the added "vacation." (I was out there today and we were getting a lot more support from the community than the news coverage seems to imply.)
5) Again, I agree strongly with these sentiments. While this might mean that many Detroit scools will continue to close, hopefully it will force those that remain to become better. I should add that we must not assume that all replacements for publics schools are better. Recent studies have shown that, on average, students from charter schools are not performing as well as those from public schools.
Post a Comment
<< Home