Fascinating jousting between former Mayor Alan Corlin and Teachers Union President David Mielke near the end of Wednesday night’s Democratic Club meeting.
This should have been televised.
With blinding speed, the evening’s central theme, a discussion of the once and future budget cuts throughout the School District, quickly morphed into an emotional landslide in a different direction. Woe is us quickly turned into woe is really us because the city, believed to be flush, should be sharing much more of its alleged largesse with the suddenly starving schools.
Blame Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger for the mood switch. Earlier in the evening, he had casually mentioned that the City Council has $100,000 to play with, spend however members want, and don’t you members of the Democratic Club have pet projects we could blow it on?
That ignited the pro-school, anti-City Hall momentum. The city should be doing more for the poor, beggarish schools, Mr. Silbiger said, and a chorus, needing no encouragement, leaped into the flames with him.
Mr. Corlin pointed out that City Hall already hands over a million dollars a year to schools. Mr. Mielke said yes, but the city was doing that 20 years ago. The gift never has increased. Mr. Corlin asserts that is incorrect, that the amount swells every year. No amount is enough, school partisans said
May I Have an Answer?
Then Mr. Corlin popped the no-no question.
If it is such a disaster for Culver City education and for the Teachers Union that 46 teachers were pink-slipped earlier this spring because of budget cuts — an undetermined number will be brought back — why didn’t the Union propose an across-the-board pay cut for all bodies, teachers and administrators, to spare the 46 and share the pain?
Around Mr. Mielke and Mr. Corlin danced.
“I have tremendous empathy for teachers,” Mr. Corlin said. “They are not paid enough. But isn’t it better for everybody to be hurting a little rather than to eat your own?”
Mr. Mielke’s not easily articulated answer was no. But it took a little longer than driving from here to San Francisco to reach that point.
Ooh, the Idea Smells
Historically, teachers unions and all other labor unions of which I am aware have consistently opposed across-the-board cuts, though some have done it.
En route to his answer, Mr. Mielke cited a national education union leader of renown who made her First Commandment, you never give back a penny because you will be seen as a pigeon.
Grousing union leaders condemn those who think contrarily on the grounds such a concession is committing unpardonable humiliation. It is admitting a crack in the sacred wall of unity. It is exposing a weakness that the enemy, management, will be sure to exploit.
You may recall how swiftly Mr. Mielke responded to a letter two weeks ago yesterday from a parent, Patricia Tam (“A Strategy for School Board: Let Teachers Take a 3% Pay Cut,” May 1). His heck-no answer to Ms. Tam was on my desk long before the following day’s edition (“Teachers Union President Fires Back Against 2 or 3% Pay Cut Idea,” May 2).
All for Me and — Well, That’s All Folks
It is, of course, golden ripe baloney that your labor union was devised to protect your interests. You may as well be blind and overboard in history’s worst hurricane in the North Atlantic.
Pal, you are on your own.
If you believe differently, you are living a fairy tale.
Some union members are more stubborn than others before they finally admit they have been duped.
What did the Teachers Union do this spring to aid the 46 released teachers?
Did their caring colleagues give a flip about their fate? Verbally, I am sure. Otherwise, no.
This is where the anvil chorus starts humming the “Well, but” part. “Well, but cut the other guy first. Then, we shall see. It may not be necessar to do more.”
This Is a Funeral?
Sorry, but I do not plunge into sackcloth-and-ashes melancholy when Gov. Schwarzenegger slashes state funding. The same people will be teaching. The quality of education is not likely to decline — at least for funding reasons.
I hardly ever feel compelled to break into an ear-wiggling refrain of “Hallelujah” because a teachers union, comprised, perhaps equally, of deserving and undeserving members, lost a bid for a 10 or 15 percent raise. Teachers are not working for slave wages. They are not even close to being a put-upon class, let alone being the target of an evil management every year. Some teachers are overpaid. Some are underpaid. Some teachers are stinko. Some are good. Some are mediocre. Some are world-class.
Just like truck drivers, attorneys and governors.