I am glad that teachers have chosen to fight the Board and administration. It's always a good tactic to fight against bullies like those on the School Board and in the administration it cozens. County teachers should never be sappy enough to think the Board is on teachers' side. Its members, all pols, are joined at the hip with the administration.
I have just had good news from the
These were 20 old--mostly women--and faithful college employees that I worked with when I was teaching. One asked for my help, and I pitched in. What's a former union president for if not to fight the thugs in the administration trying to rip off the little people?
These faithful employees would have lost their pensions, their DROP benefits, and their medical benefits. One had a brain operation for a balance problem and was on a cane. Fat chance she had of getting new medical benefits.
None of these hardships touched the administration. It went on with its "business plan," which included dumping the Head Start kids to put up an apartment house. This administration is like the
I did what I could: harangued the Board, harangued the faculty, bloviated ad lib, and caterwauled at large.
I suspect the hero is the young female Black student who attended the Plant City Board meeting--at which several bookstore employees and their union rep spoke, as did I. I suspect she was the prime mover in the committee that decided to keep the bookstore employees.
Whoever it was who swung the decision to the side of the angels, God bless that person. There's a prime spot in heave waiting this merciful paragon.
I still have to find out about the Head Start kids to know if I can cease my lectures to the
lee
7 comments:
Feel free to use my message to cancel your Tampa Trib subscription:
"Please cancel my subscription of 20+ years. Your editorial staff does not seek, nor listen to facts. The editorial today about SDHC teachers was ABSOLUTELY insulting. As an educator for over 30 years, I am most angry that this press listens only to the government entity (SDHC and board). If you want some facts from someone not in this corrupt bureaucracy, please contact me. If the Trib really wanted to do a public service, send your investigative reporters out for this story. There’s probably a Pulitzer Prize in the end."
Feel free to use my message to cancel your subscription to the Tampa Tribune:
"Please cancel my subscription of 20+ years. Your editorial staff does not seek, nor listen to facts.
The editorial today about SDHC teachers was ABSOLUTELY insulting. As an educator for over 30 years, I am most angry that this press listens only to the local government entity (SDHC and board). If you want some facts from someone not in this corrupt bureaucracy, please contact me. I can supply facts, studies, and/or reports from both the State of Florida and the US Departments of Education on how this proposal from the SDHC is in TOTAL opposition from recommended practices.
Has the distict not done their homework, or chosen to ignore published best practices?
If the Trib really wanted to do a public service, send your investigative reporters out for this story, and DIG. There’s probably a Pulitzer Prize in the end.
Gayle Curtiss
To Gayle: You have to educate reporters. They don't like to do research and dig. Who does? Besides, they know their bosses favor the power people.
If you want them to know your side, email them. Make it short and easy to understand. Cite your sources. A bibliograpy entry adds credibility.
Once in a while there's a reporter who will to work and dig. The SP Times reporters who unearthed the crooked deals at the Building Department were diggers. Ms. Elia was in charge there then and purported not to have noticed the crooked activity. The Board swallowed that excuse, looked the other way, and continued to rubberstamp her every whim. This Board never rebukes her.
It is the Board that picked her over much better qualified candidate--even lowering the qualifications to fit her deficient resume. So she's this Board's girl.
The only Board member in on this scam was April Griffin. Even Susan Valdez went along with it. Let's hope she has smartened up since then.
I think Marilyn Brown who covers the school board is intelligent and educable. Send her data in a steady but not overwhelming stream. Otherwise she will be stenographer for the people in power. That has always been the Tribune editorial stance--even before Elia and Goudreau became girlfriends.
I doubt the person's intuition about Olson's quitting the Board. I think her position gives her a sense of importance. She's politically inept, and a good opponent could beat her. I used to live in South Tampa, and I am looking for one. lee drury de cesare
I meant to say that April Griffin was the only Board member not in on the hiring scam that produced Elia. Griffin had not yet entered into her incumbency. lee d.
OK, I see the message at the top. "Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval. "
I know you have strong disagreements with CTA, many do. I have my own disagreements, but being new to teaching (second career, 1st was in business) I still possess some naiveté on many issues in education and teaching. I thought I would use my "innocence" and try to present a broader picture of CTA, its origins, and some good it has accomplished. It is easy to have tunnel vision in times such as these. I am a life-long liberal union type person and I still like to cling to idealistic notions. I hope you do not mind my placing this comment here. I certainly look forward to any comments you may have for my series on CTA at eskay espresso.
I am taking this opportunity to highlight CTA for its beneficial relationship with teachers. I am researching its origins and the circumstances surrounding its creation. Its beginnings go way back to the latter part of 19th and into the twentieth century. It was born from several teacher organizations at the turn of last century. It is amazing what similarities still exist today. Merit pay was an issue from the beginning of the movement to organize teachers into labor unions. Most of the issues that brought about the formation of teacher unions continue to be relevant today.
I am taking an objective point of view, attempting to present the facts as they existed when these unions began, and relating them to today. I want to present the big picture so we do not see CTA's actions today with tunnel vision. CTA has done much for educational working conditions over the years. I want to present some of the relevant information so we might have a more comprehensive view of CTA then one tends to have in the midst of turmoil not seen in decades.
I want to invite readers to leave their personal opinions on any aspect of today's upheaval as it relates to CTA. I know some of the objections that exist concerning CTA's response to the current matter. I would like to hear from those who, after reading my presentation, have thoughts to add to it. Please, let me know what you are thinking—good or bad.
Once mighty teacher union's influence on wane
[SOUTH PINELLAS Edition]
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, Fla.
Author: STEPHEN HEGARTY, KELLY RYAN GILMER
Date: Mar 25, 2002
Section: NATIONAL
Text Word Count: 1718
Document Text
Copyright Times Publishing Co. Mar 25, 2002
At a time when education is Florida's defining issue, the organization that claims to speak for teachers is a muffled voice in the debate.
While the Florida Education Association represents thousands of teachers, it rarely plays an influential role in the state Capitol these days. Local affiliates are increasingly under pressure from their own teachers, who question their effectiveness. Gov. Jeb Bush, Republican lawmakers and, increasingly, business interests are more aggressive about identifying public education's shortcomings and pursuing solutions.
Two years after Florida's two teachers unions merged in a bid to speak with one powerful voice, the Florida Education Association faces serious challenges:
Teachers complain local unions don't push hard enough for pay increases at a time when they are held more accountable for student performance. They wonder what the union is doing to justify annual dues, which are $465 in Pinellas and $525 in Hillsborough.
Roughly 6 out of 10 teachers in Florida are union members, and many of the members are nearing retirement. Younger teachers appear to be slower to join.
Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and the GOP-led Legislature are ignoring the union's objections and often openly hostile to the organization as they create school grades, tuition vouchers and performance pay for teachers.
The union's political endorsements and fundraising are rarely the difference between winning and losing elections.
"Historically, the teachers unions have been the most active, most influential of all the unions in Florida - a major player," said Bruce Nissen, a professor at the Center of Labor Research and Studies at Florida International University. "But that's changing."
There was a time when teachers raised their voices and Florida took notice.
When Florida's teachers walked out on strike in 1968, educators were angry with a Republican governor and wanted more money.
Sounds like little has changed in 34 years.
But things did change after that strike, which was led by Tampa union official and future governor Bob Martinez. The unions won the right to collectively bargain on salaries and working conditions, and gave up the right to strike.
So while New Jersey schools were recently shut down by a teacher walkout, Florida teachers find themselves with little leverage in a tough economy.
For Pat Tornillo, the raspy-voiced, white-haired Miami-Dade union leader, negotiating has come to this: Agreeing to help the struggling school district by forcing teachers to take off two days without pay.
The teachers voted it down last month and accused Tornillo of selling out.
"When I go to a school, some of the younger teachers are ready to go on strike tomorrow," Tornillo said. "Teachers are frustrated."
In Tampa Bay school districts and elsewhere, some teachers say union leaders are too chummy with administrators and school board members.
"I've had union officials tell me, 'we have a wonderful relationship with management,' " said Don Hill, an 18-year veteran teacher at Armwood High School in Seffner. "You know what? Teachers do not want to hear that."
Jim Gunnin, who teaches at Osceola High School in mid Pinellas, likes the union's efforts to protect teacher rights and reduce class size. But he said they could push harder for higher salaries.
"I do feel they might be too cozy," said Gunnin, who has been a union member for most of his 19 years as a teacher. "By definition a union is antimanagement. It does have to be a little confrontational to stand up for us."
In Pinellas County, a splinter group called Teachers United For the Future has formed to lobby for teachers and students more aggressively than they think the union has.
At a recent School Board meeting, TUFF leaders demanded that the School Board raise teacher salaries by at least 20 percent, which would be wildly optimistic even in good economic times.
"The time has come for much more than lip service," said Carrie Markley, a fifth-grade teacher at Sandy Lane Elementary School in Clearwater. "We expect a living wage."
The average Pinellas teacher salary is $35,392.
As Hillsborough County school officials worry about hiring new teachers to replace those nearing retirement, Yvonne Lyons wonders how she will lure the newcomers into the union and keep them on the job.
"Our major emphasis has to be on new teachers - getting them hired and keeping them around," said Lyons, the executive director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.
A recent analysis of membership demographics in Hillsborough shows about two of every three teachers with at least 20 years of experience are union members. Just one of three teachers with five years or less experience has joined.
"Young people are not as prone to join things," said Florida Education Association president Maureen Dinnen.
Just as school districts are devising packages to attract new teachers, the unions are courting new members by promising peer mentoring, teacher orientation and better starting salaries.
The union's challenges in Tallahassee are even more daunting.
Dinnen listened as J. Stanley Marshall of the conservative James Madison Institute outlined a plan for dealing with Florida's "union- related problems" before a legislative committee last year.
"It was something we suspected, but all of a sudden there it was, right in front of our faces - this animosity," Dinnen said.
Myron Lieberman of the Education Policy Institute, the author of the study cited by Marshall, said in an interview that the unions are the enemy for Republican lawmakers. He said legislators should not back off in their efforts to undermine the union's effectiveness.
"Why wait until they win back the House or the Senate?" Lieberman said. "Now is the time to take action against them."
Plenty of action has occurred already.
In recent years, lawmakers have made it easier for districts to fire new teachers. They have found ways to boost teachers' paychecks (last year's $850 bonus) while giving unions no say in where that money goes. Now lawmakers want school superintendents to consider privatizing cafeteria workers, school bus transportation and other school services - a move that could decimate union membership.
Lawmakers are careful to draw distinctions between teachers and unions.
"Making life difficult for union bosses is something we like to do," said House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, "but we don't want to do that for classroom teachers."
Some of the union's natural allies in Tallahassee suggest union leaders undermine themselves.
"It's been very adversarial (on the part of the union), to the point where I've been in some legislators' offices and someone came in and said they were a member of FEA and were asked to leave," said Tom Greer, an Osceola County School Board member and legislative chairman for the Florida School Boards Association.
The FEA also has picked fights with its legislative soul mates.
Florida School Board Association director Wayne Blanton wants many of the same things the FEA wants, including, more money for schools and more local control. In January, Blanton stood with Bush and praised the governor's school spending proposal as a good plan in bad economic times.
Blanton said he knows when to pick fights and when to get along. But the teachers union was outraged.
"Our job is to advocate for public schools, not to get along with public officials," said Cathy Kelly, head of government relations for the FEA. "It would be nice if you could do both. But sometimes you can't."
Political campaigns may be the forum for the teachers union's final stand.
Charles Whitehead, former chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, speaks eloquently of the union's potential to be "the most powerful political force in the state of Florida."
But he acknowledged that often didn't turn out to be the case.
"It's like a tiger with no teeth," Whitehead said. "The secret of an endorsement is to make that endorsement worthwhile. They need to back it up."
In some cases, the union has been influential. Without teacher union support in 1994, Lawton Chiles may not have beaten Bush in the closest Florida governor's race in modern history. In 1998, former high school football coach Bob Henriquez of Tampa became the only Democrat to beat an incumbent Republican lawmaker with the union's help.
"When you're a challenger like I was," Henriquez said, "you're not going to outspend the other side. But you can outwork them, outhustle them. I had a lot of help."
The FEA already has had some impact in the budding race for governor.
Democrat Bill McBride, a Tampa lawyer and political newcomer, won the FEA endorsement in January. That gave McBride more credibility as he tries to win the Democratic nomination over former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and others.
The FEA has made unseating Bush its No. 1 political priority. The result is that this year the union will be more more selective, withholding support from legislative candidates who may support union positions but face long odds.
But by joining forces with McBride, the union has staked its future to a long shot. How well he fares may well determine the union's credibility as a viable force in Florida policy and politics.
"They need to put people in the streets; they need to offer money and manpower," said Whitehead, former Democratic Party chairman. "This is a real test of their power. It's show and tell time."
- Staff writer Alisa Ulferts and researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
Union leaders' pay
[Table]
Pat Tornillo $243,129
President, United
Teachers of Dade
[Table]
Howard Hinesley $162,509
Superintendent, Pinellas
County Schools
[Table]
Jeb Bush $120,171
Governor
Jade Moore $86,900
Executive Director, Pinellas
Classroom Teachers Association
[Table]
Yvonne Lyons $69,450
Executive Director, Hillsborough
Classroom Teachers Association
[Table]
Top teacher salary in Hillsborough $56,366
for a teacher with a doctorate
and 35 or more years experience
[Table]
Average teacher salary statewide $38,229
Beginning teacher salary in Pinellas $29,400
Includes an annual allowance, and taken from a 2001 financial statement filed with the Public Employees Relations Commission.
Does not include a non-recurring $850 bonus given to each teacher in the state this year.
Union Membership
Citrus: 434 (39%)
Hernando: 655 (58%)
Hillsborough: 6,207 (54%)
Pasco: 1,839 (51%)
Pinellas: 5,088 (65%)
Statewide: 122,000 (60%)
[Illustration]
Caption: compares teachers union leaders' salaries and top, average and beginning teacher salaries, includes statistics of union memberships; Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride jokes with Rob McMahon, president of the Pinellas Classroom; Teachers Association, and Pinellas Education Support Personnel Association president Carolyn Smith.; Photo: CHART; PHOTO, JAMES BORCHUCK
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