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‘Realize true impact of bill’
Mr. Kuecker suggests we hire non-union teachers and sign them up for a five year contract at half the current wage and perform regular evaluations. If the students do not learn, then fire them and again hire more non-union people.
Does Mr. Kuecker realize that no matter how well teachers teach, not all students learn or advance because they have parents that don’t respond to notes sent home from their teacher, or they just don’t care how well their child does? I know of one teacher who has sent three notes home, and has called the parents, just to get no response back from them. Is this the teacher’s fault? I don’t think so.
I do agree that all state employees need to pay some part of their health insurance and retirement. But if we “privatize” teaching, do you really think that the big businesses will care about a child’s test scores? States that do not have collective bargaining have some of the lowest scores in the nation.
Does he also realize that this effects more than just the teachers? It effects the city and county workers including road crews and office personnel, prison guards, county health care nurses, the game wardens and so forth. It also means that federal funding will be lost for bus services. Where do you think this money will come from? The cities and counties will be forced to raise taxes in order to make up the difference. School districts will have to eliminate all extra activities including sports.
It’s time the people wake up a realize the true effect that Governor Walker’s bill will have on all of us.
Todd Nelson
Beloit
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So, I replied:
Since Mr. Nelson was good enough to respond to my letter of February 25th, I will respond to his letter of March 3rd.
Does Mr. Nelson realize that realistic measurements of teacher effectiveness are not skewed by a few non-performing students in a class? Our present system has a large number of third graders reading below their grade level, and many high school graduates ill prepared for college. Parent interaction is certainly important, but not the only problem here.
He states that he agrees that public employees should pay part of their benefit costs. I think that they should be very grateful not to be paying the entire bill, as I have to, as as many other Wisconsinites do.
Where did I ever propose "privatizing" education? I can't find that reference in my original letter. Since you bring it up, a private business would lose students if they didn't teach, and would be results-driven from a profit motive. Allowing parents to choose their schools will weed out the non-performers. Good idea, Todd.
How, exactly, does making street crews and public health nurses pay for some of their benefits cause the loss of federal funds? Please explain.
I note that every time there is a conflict between education and funding, that the issue of cutting sports is brought up. How did schools handle sports in the last depression?
Another place we can look to cut educational costs is management. It's a mystery to me why we need all those high-powered - and high-paid - administration people supposedly running our schools. Perhaps some of them could show their solidarity with the teachers by taking on more work for the same pay, and some of those management positions could be eliminated?
I'm still for getting rid of public teacher's unions completely.
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