Please reference this article:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040223/D80T5VUO0.htmlIN RESPONSE to a news story about the Secretary of Education calling the Teachers' Unions "terrorists:"
Oh boy. You touched a hot button with me. Pardon me while I step up on this soapbox...
A new low for the current administration but we've heard crap like that for years in Texas. My mother and father are retired teachers. The disparity between the job we expect from them and the amount we pay them is horrific.
Today my mother has to scrimp and watch every last penny, WITH the ridiculous "teacher retirement" Texas gives and with iffy-at-best health benefits. My mother worked 25 years, many times with "problem" children that had been kicked out of larger school districts. These are the kind of kids most people prefer to avoid on dark nights. I have seen so many of these former "thugs" run into her by chance while shopping years later and yell "Mrs. Martin! Mrs. Martin!" Most of them hug her with big tears welling up in their eyes.
They may not be mega-successful but you know what-they understand that she is somebody who refused to give up on them and let them give up on themselves. She made a difference in their lives and may be the reason why they got through school, learned to read and have had some kind of success in their lives. Teachers ARE America.
The only problem with education in this country is the LEGISLATORS and CAREER POLITICIANS who think they understand how to run a proper school. Schools are not businesses and shouldn't be run like them. The moment a candidate lets rank and file TEACHERS devise education policy, the better off our children will be.
Teachers' Unions represent the only hope of dignity and representation these undervalued worker bees receive. They are disrespected constantly by policymakers and media pundits. Anybody who compares a teachers' union to a terrorist organization should be forced to work as a teacher for a few years, at a teacher's salary, THEN they can talk.
Or we could just throw another standardized test at it and issue vouchers.