10th in a series
Re: “Mielke Finds Holes in Charter Schools”
After education labor rooms triumphed two months ago in the Vergara vs. California discrimination suit, the Teachers Union president in Culver City, a strong opponent of charter schools, says his forces have one assignment:
“Our job is to keep singing the praises of public education,” David Mielke said. “We need to tell the community how important it is to have an excellent school for every kid, not just some excellent schools for some kids.”
After citing the recent troubled Valley charter school El Camino Real, Mr. Mielke was primed for socko criticism. “This is what drives me nuts,” he said. “If these charter schools really cared about education, they would want every kid to have a good education.”
The union leader said he knows how to achieve that.
“You raise taxes and fund public education,” Mr. Mielke said.
“On the first day of school in August, of my classes had 38 kids. That is a lot.”
(To be continued)
So typical of a public, union president to say that if we just raise taxes, all our children would receive a good education. Of course some of that money would go towards higher teacher salaries.
But, that raises the question, can paying teachers, in general, greater and greater salaries overcome the socio-economical disadvantages of students’ home life?
If you look at what the top-twelve salaried unified school districts in LA County pay their teachers. Five have very high SAT scores above 1640 and six of the districts have much lower scores between 1452 and 1291. You would see that there seems to be no real co-relation between how much teachers are paid and the education their students receive.
Instead of trying to solve these student disadvantages at the school district level, school district administrations–along with teachers unions–should be aggressively advocating at the county level to make sure that programs that address these home situations are adequately funded and that those county funds are well-spent and reach those students’ homes and neighborhoods where it is needed.
If the goal of the California teachers unions is for all children to get a good education, then the unions should be supporting the efforts of those charter schools achieving that goal. Teacher unions should want to rid communities of all bad schools, not just charter schools, in general.
While this we see blog posts on this site challenging the looming teacher shortage, others are aware of the problem and are preparing for it. Like it or not, during teacher shortage, paying competitive salaries allows a school district to attract and keep good teachers.
Probably time to fire some of the LAUSD administration staff – especially those working for school board members. Lots of dead weight there!
School funding in the USA is generally upside down beginning with pre-school. We entrust our children to among the lowest paid professionals! When we value credentialed teachers as we do Doctors, Lawyers or Engineers (examples only) then we are starting at the correct place. As it is now, teachers unions or unions in general have one function, to vigorously advocate for better wages, benefits and working conditions for their members…period. As it should be! Bravo. Just don’t wrap the mantle of “best for the children” in that effort…false advertising. The effort should be to change the paradigm. I would rather pay more for any who take care of my children than look for the “lowest” price. And no… I cannot afford it, but my children…children have always been my priority.
We have at least two school board members with children receiving their education outside of Culver City. I guess public education isn’t good enough for their kids here in Culver City. Why are they on our local school board?