LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Union to blame for teachers’ woes

Richard J. Mundy, Las Vegas

Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 | 2:02 a.m.

Regarding Virgil Sestini’s letter to the editor in Friday’s Las Vegas Sun, headlined “Teaching becoming undesirable vocation”:

I’m a teacher retiree also, and I believe teaching is not a desirable career anymore, but only in Clark County. I was a teacher in New York state, where almost every teacher association is part of the American Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO).

We were ready go on strike, not only to get better wages and benefits, but also to get the respect that teaching and teachers deserve. We had a contract, a legally binding document which spelled out our rights. Neither the administration nor school board could violate this contract.

We were not doormats to any administrator, and we were an important part of the teaching team. The salaries in my old district are a third higher than what Clark County teachers receive, and retirees there get good retirement pay and affordable health insurance.

Look how well the police and firefighters are paid in Clark County, but that’s only because they belong to strong associations that insist on their members being well-paid. As long as teachers belong to the weak Clark County Education Association, it will not be desirable to teach here.

Discussion: 11 comments so far…

By Future

10/25/09 at 4:09 a.m.

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"We were ready go on strike, not only to get better wages and benefits, but also to get the respect..."

Good thing Obama sent all that "Jobless" Stimulus money to make sure Union workers could maintain or increase their wages and benefits.

LV has more then 13% unemployed.

So the unions get richer and the unemployed stay unemployed
By Jessie

10/25/09 at 6:35 a.m.

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Teachers in Nevada are prohibited, by law, from striking.

There is no union; it is a voluntary association.

The association is weak because of their political policies. If they would quit with the far-left, anti-conservative agenda, they would attract more membership.

The previous association was shrill and punitive to non-members. We will see how the current president decides to conduct himself...anything is an improvement.

The problem with teaching in Nevada is more complex than telling teachers they need to strike or blaming administrators. I, as a teacher, have had many administrators. There are bad administrators just as there are bad in any profession. But I have found that if you come to work, work hard, and do what is in the best interest of the students, they don't give you a hard time.

It will be interesting to see what happens in education over the next decade or so. If teachers are not given the respect and pay that is appropriate, especially in the high need areas, we will see the attrition rate increase from 50% in 5 years to an even higher rate.
By vsestini

10/25/09 at 6:51 a.m.

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Firefighters and police are a very tight brotherhood, while teachers have no such association. Teachers will not stand up for and fight in defense of anyone else. There is no likely hood of anyone coming to the defense of a teacher who is being maligned by an administrator, parents or vindictive students.

In this district is it everyone for themselves.
Because of a state law instituted in the Paul Laxalt era, and advanced through the legislature by the state NEA, state public workers cannot strike or engage in work stoppages. Even if it were possible too many would cry out, "We are professional and can't do that!" That has been, and is the mantra of the local union for decades. The local teacher union is a company union and is a bed partner with union officials hoping to advance onto the administrative escalator of higher salaries. They do not represent the best interests of teachers but rather their own shortsighted and selfish personal interests.

Teachers are not a brotherhood anywhere resembling that of others like the firefighters and police because so many employed as teachers do so to supplement the income of a spouse of significant other partner. They are more interested in the extra money earned as a teacher so as to purchase that special camper, boat, house trailer, large screen TV, or special vacation in the Bahamas; to even suggest a strike or work stoppages brings fear in their greedy and selfish hearts.

When contract negotiations come due the local union fails to attempt to advance a Teachers Bill of Rights to end the ongoing harassment by administrators; the union fails at anything for teachers that will end the harassment tactics, the mindless and meaningless paper work that they require to keep teachers busy and under their control.
By vsestini

10/25/09 at 7:10 a.m.

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Police and firefighters are considered "Heroes" whether they all are or are not; teachers are not respected with regard to almost anything and everything they do. Teachers themselves are responsible for their own image in society; they have allowed themselves to become the doormats of society.

Teachers are never united for any cause; they cower at the idea of uniting against an abusive, dictatorial administration, harsh and unreasonable policies that increase micromangement and diminish teaching creativity, initiative and improve the classroom environment.

Administrative demands for meaningless paperwork, endless and redunant record keeping,time consuming and demeaning make work projects are never challeged for fear of repercussions from supervisors. The weak, meak and cowardly accept their status in the system and continue to go their happy way. These fools sit back and allow the few strong willed and courageous teachers to take the heat; they dare not speak out themselves for fear they will face retribution they could not handle or place their jobs in jeopardy.
By r4akese

10/25/09 at 8:04 a.m.

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As a CCSD teacher of 5 years, I can attest that there are many incompetent and self interested people who are teachers for reasons that have nothing to do with public service or a desire to help kids succeed. Unfortunately, these people are often the driving force behind union efforts to stop accountability in teaching.

When these people "wing it" rather than prepare themselves for class, they diminish their students. They complain that it's unfair for administrators to note that no curricular learning is going on in their classes, but are saved by union contracts that don't allow dismissal on that basis. The fact that these contracts guarantee the same pay to these people as those who actually help students is a travesty in my opinion and the main reason that the vast majority of teachers are denied community respect.

We teachers ought to strike these selfish individuals from our midst, rather than walkout on our students in a union authorized strike.
By vsestini

10/25/09 at 10:02 a.m.

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TO r4AKESE: I agree with your premise on nonproductive, lazy, incompetent teachers. However,I agree withyour statement "We teachers ought to strike these selfish individuals from our midst...". But the remaining statement "...rather than walkout on our students in a union authorized strike" ... bothers me a lot.

Advocating no strike under any circumstances is ridiculous and is exactly what the Nevada law already does. That philosophy has stymed education in this district; never striking for fear of harming students is what is keeping teachers under the thumb of CCSD administrators; "we can't strike we are professional, remember the kids."

In other political entities doctors,nurses teachers, police and firefighters and other public employees have all conducted labor strikes for causes such as better wages, benefits and improved working conditions. Why are teachers held to such higher standards of expectation while receiving such low respect, regard and salary earnings? Even ball players and umpires making millions every year have had their own strikes, but CCSD teachers cannot, ever? That is self-defeating professional nonsense.

That is NEA propoganda B**S*** and teachers have swallowed it for too many decades. You can't, in the final anaysis, cash a check for food and other bills that reads, "For professionalism, care, concern and services rendered to students"... instead of X-amount of dollars." Try cashing such a check at Walmart or the local gas station and see how much your professionalism and dedication buys you today.
By vsestini

10/25/09 at 10:56 a.m.

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All that I have written here is my opinion and I speak for no one else lest someone out there think I am overplaying my role as a retired, tired old fart of a school teacher who should sit quietly in his recliner watch Archie Bunker.
By Burrittobandit2

10/25/09 at 11:57 a.m.

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teach the students to count to "21" and 80 cedits= $20.00, 200 credits= $50.00 and so........
By wolf85023

10/25/09 at 8:12 p.m.

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Teacher should get combat pay.
By jlb101

10/25/09 at 8:30 p.m.

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No, teachers should not get combat pay. If some illiterate scumbag student is causing problems, the administration should kick their butts out of the school. Of course the administrators are a bunch of whimpy indecisive weasels who are too imcompetent to find their rear ends with both hands. They have their Doctorates in Education which in my mind is only public evidence of their stupidity. You gain that (it is not earned) by spouting off the right buzz words that the idiot professors in education schools want to hear.
By Phargo

10/26/09 at 8:20 a.m.

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Good students don't need teachers, and bad students don't want teachers. It has been that way for centuries. It will never , ever change. We just get along anyway. Teachers are here to stay because we think we need them. In the natural order of life, we will stumble along and then we die.