Tom Ultican formerly of Silicon Valley, now retired as a teacher of physics and advanced mathematics, has had it with the rightwingers who sit in air-conditioned offices and complain about teachers. And whine about their unions, who dare to defend them.
In this post, he eviscerates a jerk from a rightwing think-not tank and questions why this highly political organization has a tax-exempt status. We should all wonder why ALEC, the political arm of rightwingers and corporations, is also tax-exempt as if it were a charity, when it is a mean-spirited cabal intent on grinding down the lives and hopes of the 99%.
Ultican writes:
“The article by Edward Ring was a slanted hit piece intended to undermine support for public sector unions and teachers’ unions in particular. This is clearly a political document that has nothing to do with charitable giving, but anyone giving money to further this political agenda can claim a charitable deduction. That means as a citizen I am supporting the propagation of a political ideology I find abhorrent.
“Large giving to think tanks like the Heritage Foundation or the Federalist Society or the Center for American Progress is political giving. It not only should be taxed; the details of the donations should be made available to the public. Much of the giving at the Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, etc. is clearly designed to promote a political point of view. That is not charity. That is politics. It does not or at least should not qualify for non-profit status.
“If we stop this tax cheating, we might see fewer of these baseless attack articles that divide people and communities.”
Stopping this theft of public dollars won’t happen during the Trump administration. Everyone around him, including the family, is stuffing their pockets as fast as possible. Not even Obama dared to challenge the perks of the far-right, like hitting a hornet’s nest.
Maybe, someday we will have an ethical federal government who fearlessly cleans up the IRS deductions for political bill mills.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Right wing “think tanks” know nothing about public school teachers or unions, yet they produce a mountain of propaganda against public education and teachers. It is no surprise that these right wing groups represent the interests of the 1% that have no interest in the common good as they have no need for it.
“If we stop this tax cheating, we might see fewer of these baseless attack articles that divide people and communities.” So many of the these groups, particularly ALEC, where they send prescribed conservative legislation back to home states with various state representatives, misrepresent themselves as non-political groups. They are in fact highly political and as such, they should be paying taxes. Somebody needs to challenge their tax exempt status in court, if the US is unwilling to enforce its own laws.
Compelling post and sad but beneficial to read the criticism of teachers and unions.
The resolution is simple:
Super simple version: unions have got to stop protecting really bad teachers.
Defend their rights but don’t protect them to sit, do nothing, and take a salary or sit in classrooms and do nothing. It’s like the NRA protecting AK47 owners and the left hates the NRA the way the right hates unions.
1) The general public understands, relates to, and respects hard work! (evidence below)
2) The general public loves their teachers and knows they work evenings, weekends, and yes folks, even summer
3) The general public understands unions and protecting the rights of workers.
What the general public does NOT understand or like are bad teachers, bad teachers who complain about trivial matters, really bad doing bad things teachers who are defended by the union no matter how bad what they did was.
Missouri a border state that doesn’t know the war is over and ever-trending right just overwhelmingly (2-1 margin) DEFEATED a “right to work” law that the legislature and now-resigned governor passed and signed, respectively. they may be red (not like president’s russian red $ but political red), but they respect hard work more than presidential rants.
Did you read what Ultican said about his former Silicon Valley job and teaching? He said he never worked so hard as when he was a teacher, and he had to contribute a lot of his salary to his health care.
Unions will represent all members when there is contract violation at issue. All careers have some incompetent people that should be removed. Unions enforce contracts. It is a myth that they protect “bad teachers.” I have seen tenured teachers removed after a due process hearing. The rampant “bad teacher” problem is a myth perpetuated by the think tanks Ultican mentions because they want to privatize public education. After more than three and a half decades as a teacher, I have seen many more hard working, dedicated teachers that go way beyond the typical expectation of a day’s work. As for the incompetent, I can recall four people total.
As far as your last sentence, rt, I’d say I could count on one hand the number of “really bad teachers” in 21 years of public school teaching. And those teachers eventually were either counseled out, quit or were not renewed.
The “really bad teacher” “protected by the union” is a false and often propagated myth of the reactionary right. In other words it’s Grade AA 100% Pure Bovine Excrement.
I have seen teachers let go because of poor behavior. I have also seen teachers let go for personality conflicts with principals in which the principal was the one exhibiting poor behavior. Saying unions need to stop protecting the due process rights of teachers is like saying defense attorneys need to stop protecting their clients. It would be the height of injustice.
If I have misunderstood your comment, I will apologize ahead of time. It’s the job of the administrators, principals and upper management to get rid of the bad teachers. They hire the teachers in the first place, they vet the teachers, they observe and evaluate the teachers during the trial period (4 years in NJ) and beyond the trial period. It’s the job of the union to make sure that the teacher gets his/her due process rights and is not railroaded or falsely accused. If the teacher is truly bad, then the school administration should have enough evidence to make their case. It’s not the job of the union to fire teachers, just to protect the rights of teachers. I don’t blame the union at all for the existence of bad teachers in schools; I do blame the principals and administrators though.
Commenter, “Wait, what”, trots out the hackneyed, ruse argument of the right wing. The blather about bad teachers is only expressed by those promoting the Koch agenda or those unable to see the conceptual issue to which it is tethered, as a distraction, the replacement of democracy with oligarchy.
Sorry to offend. However..
I did not blame the unions for the existence of bad teachers.
Administrators (and I am one of them) are the problem. No question about that. (And there are unions who coach teachers to use every sick day and to walk out of meetings the minute they run over contracted time…)
For whatever reason, there are a small, small number who give the profession a bad name, however…
The “hackneyed, ruse argument” is not only a right-wing mantra. It is “trotted out” by every day parents at every day PTO and board meetings in school districts across the country – particularly when there a budget increase that requires tax increases or a contract negotiation at impasse over money.
Ask average moderately attentive parents and community leaders – and your regional or state School Boards Association about: Rubber Rooms, LIFO, and VAM.
The first two are commonly known and discussed. Sadly they are not paying attention to VAM and complaining about it – and they blame the unions for the first two.
No it’s not just the koch boys and right wing.
The corporate dark money deep pockets are not the only ones taking over school boards. These angry “I pay your salary” “summers off” “teachers are brainwash kids with their liberal agenda” people are getting elected to small town and local boards everywhere and going after unions, too.
Wait, what, I presume you don’t think deeply or you are disingenuous. The angry people running for school boards reflect a right wing Koch campaign which uses Fox talking points. Ask the “mildly attentive” folks which industry has fewer than 10% bad apples. There aren’t any. Another right wing ruse is holding public schools to the impossible standard of perfection. It forces the common good into a weaker defense strategy- just as the richest 0.1% plot so that they can achieve their long game, which is to stop funding public education. If you really believe in a tax supported education where administration is local and democratic, man or woman up and demand people listen to your arguments reflecting a strategy of offense.
“(And there are unions who coach teachers to use every sick day and to walk out of meetings the minute they run over contracted time…)”
The overwhelming majority of teachers (I would guess 98%) use sick days when they are sick; they try not to use too many sick days so as to store them up for a major illness, operation or accident. Not only that, it takes almost two days to get the kids back on track after a teacher’s absence. Teachers really don’t want to be absent unless absolutely necessary. When administrators violate the terms of a contract it becomes a very slippery slope to becoming a real thing. I was never “coached” by the union to do anything except when there was an administrator/principal with a Napoleon complex who wanted to sock it to the teachers. There are principals who demand absolute obedience and compliance with whatever rules they can conjure up. They often have favored pet teachers who suck up to said principal. I always felt I owed the principal a professional relationship, not being an adoring sycophant.
As Joe implied, the only time I saw a union “coach” people to stick to the terms of the contract was when the administrations was making ridiculous demands. I didn’t always agree with the push back, but I understood why once I had been around long enough. The schools that had union “troubles” were those that cultivated an adversarial relationship with them.
The Koch propaganda- “Teachers take as many sick days as they can”. Contrast a teacher in an environment exposed to hundreds of kids at ages where colds and childhood illnesses run rampant, with the Koch employee who goes into an office and works with a limited number of the same adults over years.
As illustration, assess the relative likelihood of a person in each work setting getting pink eye. Teachers should get combat pay for the sicknesses they are exposed to.
But, the Koch’s are all about grinding down labor and building resentments among the middle and poor classes so that we ignore the
oligarchy that is robbing America blind.
Sounds like someone can sometimes be an abusive administrator. Wait, what?
Sounds like someone can sometimes be an abusive administrator. Wait, what?
“What the general public does NOT understand or like are bad teachers, bad teachers who complain about trivial matters, really bad doing bad things teachers who are defended by the union no matter how bad what they did was.”
How many “really bad teachers” have you, wait-what, gotten rid of in how many years of being an administrator?
Spotting a really bad teacher is a more difficult job than you think. It is about like spotting a bad essay. Focus on style has condemned many an essay. Is this legit?
Administration used to judge teachers on whether they handle their own discipline. If the kids are quiet, that is a good teacher. Now they focus on bogus test scores or not, as it suits them. Few principals are in the classroom enough to know whether someone is good or not. Unions are way out of the loop.
The public does NOT “appreciate hard work,” or teachers would get more salary. The vast majority of colleagues that I have met in 17 years of teaching work from 7 am to 4:30 or 5 pm, five days a week, plus put in six to ten hours of work on the weekends. Every week for the entire school year. And in my state, that means that elementary teachers have 30-35 students, and secondary teachers have 35-40 per class. I had 280 junior high students last year. That is NOT a type-o.
And THEN, we spend our own money to go to summer conferences and professional development, and spend hours each week of the summer preparing lessons, finding new and different ways to teach the subjects, adjusting to new curricular and other mandates, and preparing our classrooms to be inviting for the next school year.
So HOW are teachers being rewarded for all of this hard work, I ask you?
Furthermore, as the others have mentioned, I have seen a total of three “very bad teachers” in my entire career. Administrators, on the other hand, who get paid far more and do not work nearly the hours that teachers work, are bad much more frequently than teachers. I have had 3 principals that were awful (out of 6), and more bad assistant principals and district employees than I can count.
Stop blaming teachers for this. We are doing the work and investing in kids. We do it everyday, and should NOT be the ones accused of not caring about kids. If we didn’t care about kids, we wouldn’t do this work for decades. The money-grubbers and corporations are not working with kids, but have the gall to tell us that we are “hurting kids.” Give me a break.
When “schools” do well (No such thing. It’s students that do well, or not.) administrations get the credit. When things don’t go well it’s the fault of the teachers. This is in a way analogous to our capalist system whereby profits are privatized and losses are socialized. To be clear I believe in capitalism, just not the free-for-all that has been happening here for the last forty or so years.
WHY are you telling me this? I never said anything about “bad schools.”
” They negotiate with elected officials who they help elect. They negotiate for a share of coerced tax revenue, rather than for a share of profits, meaning there are no competitive checks on how much they can demand.”
If this is the ed reform complaint they must realize by now that charter and voucher proponents also “negotiate with elected officials who they help elect…for coerced tax revenue”
Take a stroll thru the Ohio legislature sometime and count the “ed reform” lobbyists- there’s w whole industry here that has grown up around charters- politically connected lawyers, accountants, service contractors, consultants. ALL taxpayer funded- 100%.
It’s a terrible argument. It applies to every private sector government contractor in the country.
I can’t believe these people get paid for this garbage, and they get paid so much! They all make more than teachers. It’s all poorly-reasoned junk.
I think ed reformers were really caught off guard by the teachers strikes. They pay absolutely no attention to public schools so were unaware that public schools were close to the breaking point after 2 decades of neglect and outright hostility.
Every public school in West Virginia had to CLOSE before the people there got anyone’s attention. THAT’S how little value our schools and our kids have to ed reformers.
“Not even Obama”??? Really? Obama left the banksters off the hook allowing them to continue to take millions in bonuses while on the tax payer’s dime. Obama gave us Trump. Over one thousand public offices were lost during Obama’s tenure.
Within the last three months, ALEC has proposed legislation on the following topic/issues relevant to education. I have edited the legalese to convey the gist of the legislation.
1 Designates November 7 in 2018, and in each succeeding year, as Victims of Communism Memorial Day in [INSERT STATE], in order to commemorate the more than 100 million victims who perished under communist regimes. It includes several other requirements. Here is report on who initiated the memorial and early plans for it. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/23/arts/for-the-victims-of-communism.html
Public Employee Bargaining Transparency Act. Requires all aspects of collective bargaining to be open to the public. No behind-closed-doors negotiations, also “only a public employer may satisfy the requirements of this “open meetings act” by broadcasting the meeting live on the internet or other means assessable to the public that includes both real time video and audio of the meeting.” There is more if you care about union negotiations or wish to learn more at https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employerunion-rights-and-obligations
Teacher Quality Assurance Act. Prohibits a school district from utilizing a last-hired, first-fired layoff policy when reducing staff; requires “the Education Interim Committee” in consultation with the State Board of Education, to study how the performance of teachers may be evaluated for the purpose of awarding or eliminating teacher career employee status.
Amendments To The Great Schools Tax Credit Program Act (Scholarship Tax Credit). Allows a charter school the option of reserving up to 50 percent of its seats for students who live or whose parents work in a certain close radius, in order to facilitate community schools and neighborhood investment.
Calls on states and to refrain from legislation that would regulate the Internet. Asserts that a competitive marketplace must be free from governmental (Net neutrality is already dead, thanks to Trump, but this could have implications for e-rates for schools and libraries).
Student Futures Program Act. Creates a career planning program and a website under the governance and management of a “steering committee” appointed by the governor in collaboration with the Department of Workforce Services, the State Board of Regents, and the State Board of Education.
Here is the gist of the proposed legislation:
Students enter personal information into a website. In a version of the one app process, a student can submit information once for use in applications to multiple schools; sources of loans and scholarships; and apply for jobs related to career interests. The state is supposed to use general funds to set up a “Department of Workforce Services” empowered to “analyze and report on student user interests, education paths, and behaviors” and to “predictively determine appropriate career and educational outcomes and results consistent with FERPA requirements and State provisions regarding student privacy.
Here is the bizarre part:
A “student” is defined as a student in kindergarten through grade 12; post-secondary education student; a parent or guardian of a public education student; or potential post-secondary education student.
YES, career planning begins in kindergarten and it is ok with ALEC’s free markers to say that the state really should be empowered to use student records to predict “appropriate career and educational outcomes and results).
Imagine the state-issued reports on the career outcomes and yet-to be determined results from investments in education, starting as early as kindergarten. Imagine how people appointed by a governor will interpret “appropriate career and educational outcomes and results.”
ALEC loves surveillance systems as long as these are not trained on ALEC and businesses that support it. Beware of ALEC’s influence in your state and in your local community where ALEC is also trying to micro-manage ordinances passes by city and county officials by giving those friendly to ALEC models to follow in addition to perks for joining ALEC.
But no Holocaust Remembrance Day? In my state, NOWHERE is the Holocaust found in the curriculum. BUT, we have to teach that the U.S. is a “Constitutional Compound Republic.” Priorities???
Here, Here!