The Problem With Teaching

To the Editor:

A few days ago the teachers’ union in Chicago agreed to go back to work after a period of striking over evaluation of teachers. How nice of them. First they violate the law against strikes of public workers and then under the threat of a court order, they decide to abandon their tactics. Most laudable.

Here in Connecticut we have a new commissioner of labor. Who else would Governor Malloy appoint, but the head of the state’s American Federation of Teachers? Well done governor! Your political taste is impeccable! Now we know what to expect in terms of teaching and school improvements. When may we expect a teacher strike? Not for at least a year you say?

Seriously folks, anybody interested in improving school achievements must need to take a critical view at the basic causes of so many schools being deficient. Lord knows it is not salaries and benefits of teachers that are to blame. There is some grounds for blaming home environment or lack thereof for some of the problem, but most of it is the lack of incentives for teachers to perform, tenure of office, evaluation of teachers, and the power of their unions in controlling public offices through threats and promises, the carrot and the stick.

Where else do you have workers telling the boss how to evaluate themselves? If a principal and school superintendent are to be held responsible for teaching performance and the school’s standing, they alone must be able to evaluate a teacher to their standards and all hiring and firings that are to be done. Show me a place where the boss cannot control his workforce, and I will show you a place in confusion and underperformance.

If the teachers’ union would try to press their contract on a private business, they would be rebuffed or the business would be history, and they know it. We cannot allow this affront to our common sense continue. While unions in private industry are a must to protect the workers and their wages, this is possible because a balance of power in terms of union and management exists. This is not true of public workers, who have a virtual monopoly with respect to jobs, but most of these unions have been reasonable and not abused the power they hold.

The teachers, of all the people, have betrayed this public trust by using their political power and monopoly to push their financial and other excessive demands at the expense of the education of our youth and their fellow citizens. I believe future generations of teachers will have nothing but contempt for the tactics which have been used by the present groups. But under the present situation, it is up to us to use our own effort to right the wrong and defeat this betrayal not only of us in the form of inordinate taxes to benefit the unions, but also for the future of our children. We must face this challenge; it is our duty.

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Appleblossom Lane, Newtown                      September 26, 2012