<p>Before you get bent out of shape that the writer is teacher-bashing, read the article. He spends the first 3 paragraphs talking about how underpaid teachers are, and how good teachers transform kids’ lives. But then he tells this story about a regional HS in eastern Mass:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I can see that teachers are frustrated, but this seems horribly unfair to the seniors.</p>
<p>Maybe the teachers should just all be volunteers? After all, any amount of money a teacher makes beyond nothing is money that’s being taken away from the children.</p>
<p>Short of striking, which we by law cannot do in Maryland, what other types of leverage do teachers have in negotiations besides working to contract? The answer is none.</p>
<p>For the students, the school is a school. For the teachers, it is a workplace. Accusing teachers of “holding the students hostage” is an old trick. School boards do the same thing, use “the children” to get what they want.</p>
<p>I hold my breath each time the teacher contract in our district is up for renewal. It will be up again when my youngest D will be a senior. Teachers can strike in PA - a neighboring district had a very long one a few years ago which does have a great impact on the seniors with college issues.</p>
<p>If they have been without a contract for 2 years, I can’t really blame them for not putting grades in an online system, or refusing to oversee independent study. I would be mad about recommendations if it were my child, I hope at least the GC is writing them.</p>
<p>Background - Brian McGrory writes columns in which he generally champions the “little guy.” Union-bashing isn’t usually his style, nor is it the Globe’s - a newspaper generally considered to be pretty liberal.</p>
<p>I generally stay out of the “comments” section when reading online newspaper articles, but one comment caught my eye:
“Also, the thing that bothers me most about teachers unions is the fact that on one hand they want to be treated like white collar professionals yet then they turn around and want to negotiate blue collar work rules. Professionals don’t work by the hour, they simply do what needs to be done…”</p>
<p>I get that the teachers have gotten nowhere in 2 years of negotiating, and they don’t have a lot of bargaining chips. I also get that a lot of their students have parents who are unemployed, and who also haven’t seen a raise in years. Social Security hasn’t gotten a COLA raise in 2 years. (28%? They really thought that was a serious starting point for negotiations? Maybe that’s one reason it’s taken this long…)</p>
<p>But what really bothers me in this situation here is the Seniors… if they signed up for Independent Study and it’s vanished? If they can’t get recommendations? There is no “next year” for them. I hope the school is at least sending out disclaimers with their counselor recs or the “form letters” that teachers are sending out (maybe that’s the check-box form from the Common App? just a guess on my part), explaining that teachers are not writing recommendation letters due to a labor dispute. At least maybe that way it wouldn’t keep kids from getting into colleges.</p>
<p>*And worst of all, students and parents say that teachers are refusing to write personalized recommendations for kids applying to college, instead offering mere form letters.
*</p>
<p>Last year, I suggested that teachers might start doing exactly this (form letters for recs), and I was FLAMED for implying that teachers would EVER consider doing this. </p>
<p>“But what really bothers me in this situation here is the Seniors… if they signed up for Independent Study and it’s vanished? If they can’t get recommendations? There is no “next year” for them.”</p>
<p>Of course there is a “next year”! There also is a year after that, and a year after that! Yes these seniors are in an ugly situation right now, but their futures are not exclusively dependent on completing a specific independent study, or having a specific teacher write an LOR by a specific date. For those applying to colleges/universities that require an essay, this strike would give them interesting material to write about. For those who wanted or needed a GAP year anyway, the strike gives them a chance to convince their parents that they may as well be allowed to take it since the teachers aren’t writing letters right now. And for those who really didn’t want to write any essays, they finally can justify applying only to the colleges/universities that just look at grades and test scores.</p>
<p>I believe teachers are generally underpaid. </p>
<p>But, I cannot justify giving them a 28% increase over three years. No way no how. That’s obscene. Demands like that in the private sector would get someone laughed out of a job.</p>
<p>Same situation (teachers and union can’t reach an agreement–teachers decide not to do anything beyond teaching class) happened in our town (which is also in MA, but in Central MA) when my D was a senior. As it turned out, many teachers who had senior students didn’t go along with the teacher’s union and did write letters of recommendation for seniors and did do independent study. However, they didn’t chaperone any events or help with ECs like student council or the yearbook. In those instances, parents (with expertise) volunteered to coach or be sponsors for the yearbook and the school hired some part-time folks when volunteers weren’t available. A few coaches did go against the union and a few teachers who were heavily involved in non-sport ECs (like drama) continued to work with the kids. It made for a very uncomfortable senior year. My D was president of the student council and those kids were the ones who had to find chaperones for various events. It just made for more stress in an otherwise stressful time.</p>
<p>I think that MA overall is pretty supportive of teachers - negotiations in NH are generally tougher as there is less state money to spread around so local communities pick up most of the costs. The recession in MA with unemployment over 9% has hammered homeowners and so things have changed in MA.</p>
<p>I think that the voting public has little sympathy for teachers in the current economic conditions and that teachers shouldn’t be pushing for more now. Taking it out on the seniors at this time of the year seems to me a pretty vindictive tactic. We homeschooled all the way - mom and dad don’t get paid or raises for that; nor do we go on strike. We brought them into the world and bear the primary responsibility and costs for educating them.</p>
<p>The idea that lemons to lemonade for all students doesn’t fly with me. Yes, certainly the idea for a GAP year may be good for SOME students. The idea of bagging high stress applications with essays and LOR’s may be okay for SOME students. The fact remains that there are students that will get their best education at schools at require LORs. Those have to come from their teachers. Saying that they can simply wait a year or choose a school that focuses on stats based, as opposed to a holistic admissions policy, is very unfair to that subset of students that will truly benefit from the education at those schools. In these cases I think it only fair that any ‘form letter’ style LORs sent from the school be accompanied by a letter from the school explaining the contract dispute, the teachers current policy of ‘bare bones’ recommendations that are not consistent with what is usually done on behalf of the students, and that it should not reflect poorly on the student whatsoever. Will it help the student? Only to serve as a disclaimer that the ‘vanilla LOR’ should be seen as a neutral and does not reflect what would be sent on that students behalf in any other year.</p>
<p>The article says a whole lot of nothing. “Oh my God, when teachers take steps to secure what they want in the workplace”–whether it’s higher wages or whatever–“CHILDREN are effected!!!” Well, duh. How could they possibly take an action that wouldn’t effect the kids, since their whole job is based around . . . wait for it . . . educating kids.</p>
<p>The author says in the first paragraph that he believes teachers are underpaid, then moans about teachers wanting raises. What is his solution, I wonder? That teachers should just suck it up . . . forever?</p>
<p>Yeah, sometimes the current students have a disadvantage when policies are being put in motion that will provide an advantage for students to come. That’s life.</p>
<p>emeraldkitty, King Philip is a regional district for middle and high school, covering the towns of Wrentham, Norfolk and Plainville. KPHS happens to be located in Wrentham. The town of Wrentham also has its own elementary schools. I suspect the Wrentham contract is for the elementary school teachers. Two different groups, different employers, and different unions.</p>
<p>Actually that could be part of the problem. KP has to get their budget approved by 3 towns, since they’re regional. Harder to get 3 towns to agree on something than one town.</p>
<p>I’m not unsympathetic to the teachers, but happymomof1 - you really think kids should change all their plans and take a gap year because the teachers and the school board can’t settle a contract? Are you serious?</p>
<p>No, what I meant is that thinking the seniors’ lives are over because of a teachers’ strike is just plain over-reaction. They do have options. Maybe not the ones that they had hoped for, but options still. </p>
<p>And I vote with the teachers on this one. Something must be truly horrible for them to go to this extreme.</p>
<p>Agreed, nobody ever talks about Boards of Education who refuse to bargain in good faith. It’s always the teachers’ unions who are vilified. I do have to add that I am very fortunate to work in a system that does routinely negotiate openly, fairly, and in good faith.</p>
<p>Our County Commissioners who actually fund the budget are a different matter altogether.</p>
<p>Our board does bargain in good faith but if they are not seen as getting a good deal, then the voters can vote down the budget. The voters, in our town, have the final say on the budget. The teachers understand this and have foregone raises, sometimes for many years.</p>
<p>I’m a fan of dual-enrollment courses. You can usually get LORs from your professors as they are used to providing them and it’s from someone that’s seen you in a college environment as opposed to the high-school environment.</p>