The Seattle School Board has let Maria Goodloe-Johnson go as superintendent in the wake of the auditor’s report. I don’t know anything about Susan Enfield, who the board chose as interim. I know nothing about the process to pick the next superintendent, but I have a suggestion.
Involve the teachers union as much as possible. They were right about her last year. They’ll be the ones on the ground when further cuts get made, and they’re the ones who will be able to spot any bullshit since it effects them directly. They will know what works best and what doesn’t for their students.
Ok, so obviously she needed to go, and working closer with the teachers is always a good idea.
But as they will defend seniority over effectiveness, and continue to defend sending the worst teachers to the neediest schools, lets not turn the district over to them just yet.
Attacking seniority = paycuts and inexperienced teachers
Do the math.
Yes put the teachers union in charge of policing teachers…..ha ha
Like putting the Fox in charge of the hen house don’t ya think!
But as they will defend seniority over effectiveness, and continue to defend sending the worst teachers to the neediest schools,
That is a right wing talking point, grounded in hated of unions much more than any facts. In my HS, umpteen years ago, the two most effective teachers were eventually induced to move on, despite the union, because they kept challenging the authority of the school administration. The admin made life so unpleasant for them in legal ways, they moved on. So that is a lie.
And you could argue that sending the newest and least experienced teachers with lots of enthusiasm but no practical experience IS sending the worst students to the neediest schools.
administrators do not and should not be oppositional to teachers. administrators are not the “owners” but are administrators. teachers and administrators are both charged with the “work” of educating young people. to exclude teachers from selection of administrators makes co-operation less likely. Scapegoating in politics is generally the result of ignorance and demagoguery combining. i am frightened at the eagerness in our society to blame the teachers for everything, anything…….the next step is for each of us to pay penance to Wall Street for the Great Recession—i guess that is why we need more tax cuts for the super-rich and need to cut social security and vote republican. THOSE DAMN TEACHERS
I don’t know much about Enfield, but at least she does have 6 years of classroom experience teaching high school English. Whoever the new permanent Superintendent is, I want it to be someone with significant experience teaching as well as administrative competence.
I agree that the teachers should be involved in the selection process. But I feel required to point out that no teachers could have anticipated or had any knowledge of the contract supervision issues which led to the most recent superintendent’s removal. That was part of the problem – the entire program had insufficient safeguards and oversight in place. The only people who knew what was happening with the money were the ones handing it out and the ones recieving it.
Which, come to think about it, is a pretty Republican way of doing things, as demonstrated in numerous areas of the Bush administration. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this happened when it did – our financial system gets awfully dangerous when there is a perception that everyone else is getting “theirs”, so we might as well jump in and get “ours” as well.
and this
This is interesting to me, because I think what you’re saying is that teachers need to have much greater input into the selection of the next Superintendent…I agree completely.
However what’s interesting to me is the “munging” of the lines between the Teachers Union, and Teachers…They are not the same and don’t have equal duties and goals.. I don’t believe the Union should have any input as to whom is selected the next Superintendent. None.
Teachers on the other hand….you bet, 100%.
I think too often the union and it’s members are linked as the same when they are not.
@ 8
They are NOT separate. What do you think makes up the Union membership? Teachers.
I for one would not want a Union that does not have any actual workers in the trade as its membership.
Teachers ARE the Union, and the Union represents the educators interests in how the education system is run. The primary, and really ONLY interest teachers have is education of the next generation of people to replace them and scientists, and politicians and engineers etc. As a group, they have a stronger voice in their own working conditions than they would have as individuals. That is the purpose of a Union.
It is no different from any industry. The difference is, Unions are mostly Democracies, whereas corporations and industrial trade groups like the Chamber of Commerce are top-down dictatorships.
All the signs were there that something bad was going happen….
And yet, when Carl talks about having the teachers be part of the process, THAT is mocked.
Some people are saying our trolls must WANT public eduction to fail.
You’re sure optimistic, Carl. Since when have bosses — and the people who hire them — ever listened to what employees think of management? This would be a better world if they did, and maybe that’s why they don’t.
@10 “Some people are saying our trolls must WANT public eduction to fail.”
I thought that was obvious to everyone, as they wear it on their sleeves.
re 3: Yes. That would be as crazy as putting doctors in charge of the AMA.
As a practical matter, union reps in the schools usually side with the administration in teacher/admin disputes.
Administrators are very canny about making the union rep feel he/she is ‘one of the gang’. Teacher union reps, with their low status in the system (lower than janitors) usually eat this stuff up. They also run to the admin with stories and gossip.
I’ve found teacher union reps (to the admin) as of about the same character as a power made 7th grade hall monitor.
I hear ya, Phil.
This does not mean they have the same interests/functions. Teachers unions don’t teach anything.
And that is a problem, since the teachers union isn’t organized to teach or run the education system. The union itself serves itself, and it’s main goal is to maintain it’s membership.
Having been a Teamster, I am not talking without some knowledge of what the unions interest is.
@16…
The union HAS no membership if the union does not represent the best interests of that membership you jackass.
I know what kind of union member you were asshole…you were the one who complained and believed the made up stories and never went to meetings and never got involved, never ran for union positions and bitched to anyone who would listen about how nothing YOU wanted ever got done.
Fuck you…
I think what Right Stuff is saying is that the school board should go directly to the teachers about the new pick, instead of talking to them though the union. Which is fine, you’ll get the same result either way. This is Seattle 2011, not Providence RI in 70’s.
@16 Why didn’t you work for a nonunion employer? Why did you soil your principles by accepting Teamsters wages and benefits? Hypocrite.
Ahh so many ways with this one…..
First, the company paid my wages not the union. I jumped into management. I got tired of watching seniority trump merit. I was asked to put my name in for shop steward at one point, but I didn’t want to be put in the postion of an adversarial role with my employer…… That’s a C.L.M. in my book.
Incorrect.
Membership is mandatory. Union interests fall along the lines of securing that hold permanently.
No you don’t, but thanks for playing.
Again totally wrong. I was a GREAT union member..Never complained, Dues always paid, Never sick, late or absent from work. Never involved in any “dust ups” with management.
Staying in the union was not an option since it wasn’t merit that determined promotions or opportunities for advancement…You simply had to outlast whomever was ahead of you in seniority.
No regrets leaving.
@ 21
In other words, you were one of those folks who just let management walk all over them, or were so terrified of them that you never rocked the boat at all.
When I was in the Boilermakers, We had guys like you. Get pissed on, get told that you didn’t have to put up with the shit, and you just whined about that $12 a week that you had to pay.
You were obviously a non-participant.
Call me old school, I just kept my mouth shut and worked my ass off. My co workers noticed, some asked me to put in for shop steward because I had the respect of management as a hard worker. Management noticed, offered a promotion and career path. The union career path was one of attrition. I like to be judged on my performance. No regrets leaving.
Ah, they bought you off.
Yeah, I guess that’s one way of looking at it…..?
Well, according to your favorite masturbatory subject, Ron Paul, nobody has the “right” to an education at all.
This coming from a man, representing a State that has taken all references to the Thomas Jefferson and the US Constitution out of their public schoolbooks.
Wrong again blue john@4. Incompetent teachers are SELDOM moved out. Other teachers know this. Your story is another in the long line of leftist anecdotes! I have family who are teachers, AWARD winning teachers. I wrote about them before. They work next to incomptents who continue to get the party $$$ raise each year. You know where you can ask for the transcript.
You know where you can ask for the transcript.
Yeah, Blue John, Puddybud has long bragged about his “tehgoogle skillz”. But not since Glenn Beck
drew a line between Soros and Brin/Page on his chalkboard.
You’re going to have to use “tehbing” now for the “transcript”.. That is if you care…
let the teachers choose their big boss?
that makes no sense whatsoever and reflects the current problems that have destroyed public budgets everywhere.
worst idea ever.
let the parents be more involved.
2 29
No, what has destroyed public budgets everywhere is the continuous stripping of revenue sources by you teapottiers.
When you let the parent be more involved, you have people freaking out and filing lawsuits because their precious little snowflakes are required to read Mark Twain.