« Previous — Next »
This Is A Union, The Laws Of Economics Don’t Apply Here
9 March 2007Let’s be very clear I believe unions have their place and clearly the benefits I enjoy as a salaryman have their roots in unions. I even have union organizers in my family tree, Great Britain turn of the century, now that was a tough time to be a union man.
Unions clearly overstep their purpose and become destructive to themselves and the organizations they work at, when they force anti-competitive policies on the workplace. Case in point the fanatical opposition to differential pay for hard to find teaching specialities such as math and science.
Kentucky recently tried to fill shortages in math and science teaching posts, now don’t forget these are UNFILLED posts, they are not taking jobs away from qualified math and science teachers. Kentucky was trying to lure new people in to teaching who have the shortage skills. This was not acceptable to the Kentucky teacher’s union and through vigorous opposition manage to get it watered down to:
instead pay expenses for teachers to participate in summer institutes in advanced science and math, provide funds for high schools to offer advanced courses and supply grants to middle schools to support accelerated learning in science and math.
Not quite the same. A program to improve the teaching quality ended up being yet another spending program that won’t meet it’s intended goal.
I thought about becoming a teacher, I have 2 masters in technical fields and I am good with kids, I realize teaching has become incredibly advanced since I went to K-12 but I was willing to take extra courses. But what I couldn’t take was the notion that even bringing advanced degrees in engineering and physics and over 20 years in industry, I would have to start a the bottom of the payscale with newbie English teachers.
The laws of supply and demand can be willfully overruled by unions. And for this basic denial of a basic law of economics the result is a continuing shortage of math and science teachers, which result in a less meaningful education and a less competitive position in the Global Economy as a country. The education we spend dearly on.
“Singling out a few teachers for a salary bonus, we did not believe is fair,” said Kentucky Education Association President Frances Steenbergen. “We believe that the preschool teacher on up to the 12th-grade AP physics teacher deserves huge increases in salaries.”
What is fair, paying a unusual teacher who fought her/his way through Statics and Dynamics or Theory of Electrostatics the same as an Physical Ed or English teacher? Now I have nothing against English teachers, Mr Dudley (English) made a HUGE impact in my life and to this day his teaching guides my life as did Mr Romano (Math) and while we are at it Mr Bishop (History) and for those of you who care, Somers High, I am Connecticut Home Grown.
But the cold economic reality is there are a lot more English teachers looking for jobs than Math and Science teachers. If you want to create more Math and Science teachers then pay them more. As an electrical engineer in private industry have seen my worth rise and fall depending on how many EE’s were out looking for work. Why can’t this basic reality work in teaching?
Somehow the teacher’s union worked a contract that prohibits competitive forces. How real world is that? Mr Dudley had a phrase for it, “willful suspension of disbelief”.
No comments yet