Sign of the times
Taxpayers, council members, and now apparently even members of the Teaneck BoE are expecting, or at least hoping, for some sort of giveback from teachers' unions in the reshaped budget. In the course of explaining to The Record why he is declining to publicly call for concessions, school board president Ardie Walser hints that such a development would not be unwelcome.
"I don't think that we can put any more pressure on the teachers union than has already been put on by the public," said Ardie Walser, the school board president. "It's a union decision, and a personal decision by members of that union as to what they feel they can do to help us with this issue. I'm not interested in vilifying them, because the ones that are left will have to work harder than they ever have before."
A pay freeze or additional teacher contributions toward benefits costs would certainly make the task of the BoE easier as it prepares to take some hard decisions. Might they also make sense from the perspective of the teachers? Walser seems to suggest as much, reasoning that by relieving some of the pressure on the school budget teachers would be doing themselves a favor by preserving their colleagues' jobs, thereby lightening their workload.
Though united through collective bargaining, it appears that teachers are now placed in a position where individual self-interest will carry the day. A teacher who is likely to keep his or her job and is closer to retirement and therefore less worried about what any future contract might look like is likely to take a stand for the sanctity of contracts. Others might be more willing to support concessions, distasteful as that may be.
Realistically, it appears that the battle that the teachers' unions lost in the court of public opinion is going to cost them the war too, and not just in Teaneck. Across the bridge in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg is moving to cancel scheduled pay hikes for teachers in an effort to preserve teaching positions. Politicians and voters alike have come to understand that as spiraling personnel costs have come to account for larger and larger percentages of public spending and private employees' wage growth has failed to keep pace with that of public employees, future teacher contracts cannot be as generous and that even existing arrangements deserve reconsideration. The times demand it.
posted by Teaneck Blog @ 3:38 PM
6 Comments:
I fear that the harsh rhetoric from the critics of the school budget, particularly the focus on student achievement and the attempt to demonstrate a nexus between spending and achievement, has hardened the resolve of the union not to budge. It has also made it more difficult for people with kids in the schools to find common ground with the critics of the union. While the final results are not yet in, I suspect that a more diplomatic strategy might have yielded a better outcome for the schools and for community relations in general.
It seems like many people are under the misconception that all public school families voted for the budget and private school families voted against it. This is as foolish and prejudice as any other generalization. If you must point a finger of blame, direct it towards the registered voters who didn't cast a ballot.
I heard that at last night's Bd of Ed mtg they proposed cutting back or ending the gifted and talented program and eliminating the freshman sports program.
I believe that these proposals will result in more students leaving the Teaneck Public Schools. If the gifted and talented students are put back in regular classes, how will teachers be able to provide enough challenging materials for them and cater to the 'average' students and provide adequate attention to the more needy pupils? I don't see how this strategy will help close the achievement gap.
Eliminating freshman sports will also persuade more student atheletes to apply to private schools.
I hope these crazy proposals were made public by the Bd of Ed as a scare tactic to strongly encourage the Teachers' Union to agree to a salary freeze. If not, I don't see how this can be good for any students.
I thought a union was a brotherhood. Some brotherhood- the tenured folks fucked their untenured "brothers & sisters"
Fire them all and institute a voucher program. This will insure everyone in Teaneck gets a great education
The elimination of parts of the gifted program are very troubling to me as it is one of the key attractions of the public schools. Unfortunately, the non-sectarian private school options in North Jersey are limited and extraordinarily expensive. The $450 saved on my annual property taxes is cold comfort when I will now have to spend $25,000+ for each child..
To Anonymous 11:28 AM -- I understand (and share) your frustration, but I am concerned that there is no pushback on the propaganda blitz that teacher salary freeze equals jobs saved. Teachers may accept a salary freeze, but *by law* they cannot negotiate how the savings are to be used. The BOE is free *by law* to use the $$ saved in any way they wish, for example, to pay coaches so that the 9th grade sports program is restored. In the few districts where teachers have accepted a salary freeze, they've run up against just this issue...no jobs (or few) saved, but other things (even administrators) restored.
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