Looking for some accountability by unions and a challenge at the end

I have watched, without much interest, the ongoing saga of the new Wisconsin governor as he grapples with a state budget that has to be balanced.

heh heh heh heh heh

He is being accused of union busting. Until today (Saturday) all the news was the union people yelling and the governor trying to be heard.

That changed Saturday. The other side showed up.

"It comes after days during which many Wisconsin schools closed because teachers went to join protests at the capitol building. On Saturday, according to Associated Press reports, supporters of Gov. Scott Walker (R) sported signs reading, "I was at work yesterday. Where were you?" and "Sorry, we're late Scott. We work for a living."" reports Mark Trumbull in the Christian Science Monitor.

Ya got that?

Wisconsin schools CLOSED DOWN BECAUSE TEACHERS WENT TO JOIN PROTESTS! The other side of the protest had to wait for the weekend because they had to work for a living.

So much for kids, education and caring about the students, eh?

Makes me wanna take a page from Ronald Reagan's playbook. He fired the nation's air traffic controllers. If I was Gov. Walker and I was able to do it, I'd fire all the teachers who went to the protest.

Yup.

I am not a fan of unions as they exist today. What I see, and I admit I may not be seeing the entire picture, is unions which promote increased worker pay with decreased worker responsibility and accountability.

The strongest most longest lasting union in the nation and Japanese cars outsell domestic cars.

If unions work to promote and support and demand increased safety in the workplace, I'll be right there with 'em on the front line. I just don't see many of them doing this.

I do see unions working hard to insulate members from reality.

Teacher unions are great at protecting members from reality. Teacher unions go to great lengths to protect incompetent teachers, irresponsible teachers and block efforts at education reform.

Yes huh. There is a reason the United States is sliding down internationally in educational efforts.

I ain't making this up.

I ain't saying all teachers are bad. I am saying if public schools were run like a private business, a lot of teachers would be looking for a job.

I am saying a lot of people go into teaching because it is a sinecure.

Wonder if some teachers could handle this job?

Wanna bet?

Since I am beating on teachers for lack of accountability on their part, I add to this I believe they should be given more authority in the classroom to HANDLE their classroom.

Ahem. Unions? Yoo hoo, teacher unions? Where are you? Come out come out and start raising hell and demanding teachers have more classroom authority please, the kind of authority they had when I was the 4th grade.

The kind of teacher we need more of.

Oh right, I forgot. The unions are more interested in teacher pay and making sure teachers can't be fired except if they commit a major felony in the classroom.

A teacher union president attacks the real problem.

Anyway, a reason teacher unions are so against School Vouchers is they know parents will find schools which are accountable, which are responsible and which demand student achievement. This means poorly performing schools and poor teachers will be out.

In this thing I call the Real World, people who can't produce don't get to keep their job. Unions aren't interested in the Real World, as far as I can see. This includes teacher unions.

The Real World as seen by unions.

Such concepts make the bad teachers erupt in near violence while the good teachers go right on about the business of filling young minds with new concepts.

I ain't saying private schools are any better than public schools. As a product of a private high school I believe I got an adequate education, but not nearly as well rounded had I attended public school. But resources at the private school were limited. For instance, I had to take French as a foreign language. WTH? As a South Georgia farm boy, what good would French do me? Spanish, ¡aye caramba! that would have been useful.

At the same time, the private school teachers were subjected to immense pressures from the very wealthy parents to do favors for poorly performing students. (NB - this is the same kind of pressure teachers often face from public school administrators and the unions are NOWHERE to be found when this happens. If unions are there to protect the members, why does this keep happening?)

This pressure from parents and increasingly exclusionary attitudes by the most very wealthy students eventually led to the school closing because students of lesser economic status refused to attend. There simply was not enough uber wealthy in Molutrie Ga to keep the school afloat.

A clear case of market forces at work.

Unions abhor market forces because it demands accountability.

But I could be wrong. If you think I am wrong, send me a union contract. Unions could be interested in the safety and well-being of their members and interested in promoting an efficient, organized and increasingly productive workplace. We'll go over it line by line and see who is right.

I ain't worried about having to dine on fresh corvid.

This ain't me. This won't be me.