Skip to main content

Bargaining Chips

There's a great article in the Sun by Amanda Yeager about what's going on in the HCPSS teacher negotiation process right now. In short, it focuses on a letter sent to teachers by Superintendent Foose, which HCEA feels is misleading and also a violation of the negotiation process. It's definitely worth the read.

New local blogger HoCoRudkus has written twice this week about this issue. First, some commentary on the questionable math contained in Dr. Foose's letter about teacher salaries. Next, some musings on what it would take for teachers to be able to negotiate from a position of strength.

In the process of brainstorming, the blogger suggests that perhaps a wholesale refusal to administer high stakes testing would be useful as a bargaining chip. It's an interesting concept. I'm no fan of high stakes testing. If the kids didn't get tested, they certainly wouldn't be missing out on anything of value. But I don't see this as a useful position in terms of contract negotiation.

A commenter suggests that true change must come from parents, and by this she means that parents must hold the elected Board of Education responsible for decisions they make which are detrimental both to students and teachers. I think she is right. But we keep electing Board of Education members who show no sense of personal responsibility towards parents or teachers. (With the exception of Bess Altwerger and Cynthia Vaillancourt.)

So, if I were going to change something, I would change the Board of Education: so that members are elected from specific geographic areas, like the County Council. They would be charged to serve the County overall, like the County Council. But it would be their job to make the educational system transparent and responsive to their constituents.

No more of this hazy notion that the BoE is a part of some lofty "Executive Branch". If our schools are a part of the Howard County Government, funded by our tax dollars, and if we elect members of the Board of Education to fulfill a role of public service in the community, then let's be clear on that. Parents vote, and teachers (who can afford to live in Howard County) vote. Right now their votes have no meaningful connection to true representation when decisions are being made.

Time after time members of the current board have publicly and privately maligned parents who don't agree with them, and teachers who ask for better treatment. Can you imagine if Howard County Government operated like this? Heads would roll. In fact, an investigation into whether the operation of the Board and Central Office constitutes best practices according to Howard County Government standards would be a really good idea. I am looking to the County Council for some leadership on this issue.

If, as a result of that investigation, it were decided that Board members should be elected from specific areas or districts, I think that teachers, parents, students, and the greater community would be better served. Having a good bargaining chip is not enough if the other folks have no intention of bargaining at all.

We as a community have to demand better representation. Our children (and teachers) deserve it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more