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Non-unionized employees can also be paid less and receive less benefits which is great. Because that's how you find the best of the best - offer next to no sala

Non-unionized employees can also be paid less and receive less benefits which is great. Because that's how you find the best of the best - offer next to no salary or benefits. It's so simple - you task these underpaid drones with teaching a meaningless standardized test to kids who are physically and sexually abused at home and come to school without a jacket (or breakfast or a packed lunch). If the kids don't do well, clearly it's the teacher's fault and they should be forced out immediately, which will be easier without union representation. Also, to save money, it's important to threaten older, experienced teachers with cut retirement benefits if they don't retire early (happening in MI) so that cheaper, newer teachers can be hired in their place. And even though all studies show that academic achievement starts at home, don't blame the parents. Ever.

marltod 16y ago
Interesting rant, however you have not explained why you think Union Teachers are better than non union teachers at educating children? Tax payers pay taxes so that children in their communities get a good education. Why would tax payers pay a teacher 80k a year when there are qualified unemployeed people willing to do the job at 40k.
- antidaily 16y ago
  The narrative used to be that teachers were underpaid. Now, because the states are broke and property tax revenues are lower, we're trying to squeeze teachers by paying less and making them work more hours ... and still get kids to do better in school. Just not sure it works that way. I don't have any concrete facts on why unionized teachers are better, but they're paid more, have better benefits, legal protections... so maybe that makes them more motivated.
  - ori_b 16y ago
    No, more motivated would involve having a risk of losing the benefits if you don't teach well. Rewarding... well.. nothing, simply for the sake of rewarding breeds complacency and apathy, not motivation.
    - antidaily 16y ago
      Sounds fantastic for morale.
yummyfajitas 16y ago
If standardized tests are meaningless, they should be fixed. That's a separate problem. Also, rather than holding teachers to a standard "all students must perform as well as X", we can measure value added. Come up with a statistical predictor of how well a student will do. Then measure actual performance and evaluate teachers by (actual performance - predicted performance), averaged over all students.

marltod 16y ago

Interesting rant, however you have not explained why you think Union Teachers are better than non union teachers at educating children? Tax payers pay taxes so that children in their communities get a good education. Why would tax payers pay a teacher 80k a year when there are qualified unemployeed people willing to do the job at 40k.

antidaily 16y ago
The narrative used to be that teachers were underpaid. Now, because the states are broke and property tax revenues are lower, we're trying to squeeze teachers by paying less and making them work more hours ... and still get kids to do better in school. Just not sure it works that way. I don't have any concrete facts on why unionized teachers are better, but they're paid more, have better benefits, legal protections... so maybe that makes them more motivated.
- ori_b 16y ago
  No, more motivated would involve having a risk of losing the benefits if you don't teach well. Rewarding... well.. nothing, simply for the sake of rewarding breeds complacency and apathy, not motivation.
  - antidaily 16y ago
    Sounds fantastic for morale.

yummyfajitas 16y ago

If standardized tests are meaningless, they should be fixed. That's a separate problem. Also, rather than holding teachers to a standard "all students must perform as well as X", we can measure value added. Come up with a statistical predictor of how well a student will do. Then measure actual performance and evaluate teachers by (actual performance - predicted performance), averaged over all students.