Anyone still thinking that the Illinois Education Association believes "it's all about the kids" or their focus-grouped-to-death "Education is a Basic Right" slogan need only read this letter to the Bloomington Pantagraph.
Ken Swanson, IEA President, states among other things that they are "unalterably opposed" to tinkering with tenure, tying teacher pay to standardized test scores, and are "are unalterably opposed to “merit pay” schemes".
Schemes? Man, most of us have been "schemed" our whole lives. We're surprised he didn't use the phrase "risky schemes" in there someplace.
The Sun Times said the other day, "People who would never endorse the idea that businesses should be granted local monopolies, offer workers lifetime tenure, or pay employees based solely on seniority, embrace a status quo public [education] system that has all of these features."
After reading this, is there anyone left that believes these people have any interest whatsoever in "the children"? Let's recap; you MUST hire more teachers; you MUST not pay on performance; you MUST retain tenure (job for life); you MUST not hold us accountable (unless you lump together yourself, the money, the state, local, and feds). You MUST dump in more money into a dysfunctional system regardless of the results.
Mr. Swanson left unsaid on thing which has been uttered to the General Assembly more and more in the A+ Illinois circles: "We funded and voted you guys in for the last two elections and it's payback time - now!"
Ken Swanson, IEA President, states among other things that they are "unalterably opposed" to tinkering with tenure, tying teacher pay to standardized test scores, and are "are unalterably opposed to “merit pay” schemes".
Schemes? Man, most of us have been "schemed" our whole lives. We're surprised he didn't use the phrase "risky schemes" in there someplace.
The Sun Times said the other day, "People who would never endorse the idea that businesses should be granted local monopolies, offer workers lifetime tenure, or pay employees based solely on seniority, embrace a status quo public [education] system that has all of these features."
After reading this, is there anyone left that believes these people have any interest whatsoever in "the children"? Let's recap; you MUST hire more teachers; you MUST not pay on performance; you MUST retain tenure (job for life); you MUST not hold us accountable (unless you lump together yourself, the money, the state, local, and feds). You MUST dump in more money into a dysfunctional system regardless of the results.
Mr. Swanson left unsaid on thing which has been uttered to the General Assembly more and more in the A+ Illinois circles: "We funded and voted you guys in for the last two elections and it's payback time - now!"
No comments:
Post a Comment