So what, all benefits are just deferred wages that would have to be paid in one form or another, probably cheaper for the board. It is not a choice between a benefit and a tax saving, it is a choice between a benefit and a different benefit or a larger wage increase. You actually need to know how collective bargaining works.

And ignore all the moaning about the 44 teachers getting laid off.  Workers all over the place are making concessions to keep their, or their colleagues, on the job.  Apparently not in Buffalo.

Yet Another New BC Education Minister Tries To Tame The Beasts!

The field of education reform is rife with pitfalls – lurking dangers and jungle beasts. Any education reformer these days has their hands full.  This has never been better captured than in a cartoon by David Parkins of the Globe and Mail (Oct 29, 2010).

Both Parkins and the author of the article “The new kid in school: Abbott readies for education challenges” are to be applauded for getting the cartoon and story so spot-on!  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/the-new-kid-in-school-abbott-readies-for-education-challenges/article1777191/

Look at the cartoon – 10 sets of eyes all threatening or lurking, no smiley faces, gritted teeth –  all facing a “Hi, glad to meet you.” sweet George Abbott, new Minister of Education in BC (Canada). 

OOPS, what’s that slimy, gooey, slippery green stuff he’s just about to step in? 

The story by Justine Hunter cautions that the new “affable” Minister will have to be a skilled “mediator, tactful disciplinarian and ever-so-patient educator.”  She mentions that at least two of the “beasts” he will have to deal with are the “BC Teachers’ Federation [which] has warred with government of every stripe” and the school boards with their “insatiable” demands.  Generous perqs and benefits are also a problem here in BC.

Mr. Abbott will need all the support and encouragement we can provide as he deals with the education snake pit in BC.

My story and cartoon—gnashing teeth and hooded eyes, the three semi-hidden-queasy-scared lurkers – are all there on my blog:  http://genuine-education-reform-today.org/2010/10/29/george-cartoon/

I’m assuming that Dean Little must have had the same clause in his retirement package. Otherwise, how could he afford two faces?

BC Teachers make significantly less than Ontario and Alberta teachers. The insatiable demands from the school boards are parent driven. Go talk to some real public school parents. They want significant improvements to the physical plant of the schools, they want smaller classes, they want ELP, guess what it costs a lot of money and it goes up every year. Anybody who expects something different is dreaming.

“So what, all benefits are just deferred wages that would have to be paid in one form or another, probably cheaper for the board. It is not a choice between a benefit and a tax saving, it is a choice between a benefit and a different benefit or a larger wage increase. You actually need to know how collective bargaining works.”

So what would be wages per hour?  $85?  75?  Or is it even higher than $95, once all the benefits are included.  I still maintain unions are stopping effective education reform.  The unions work actively to maintain an imbalance, where all of the accountability and responsibility lies within the provincial governments and the school boards. The 2007 report from AIMS reflects it, as well as other papers from the United States.

http://www.aims.ca/site/media/aims/TakeBack.pdf

Teachers are seriously underpaid compared to professions with similar education background.

Yes unions impeded reform. That is because much of what perports tobe reform these days, is bad for kids and bad for Canada.

Teachers normally have two semesters of professional education beyond a BA, BSc, etc which, at least in the junior grades, may not even be in the fields they teach.

At a time when undergrad degrees are becoming common I wouldn’t play the “look at how educated we are!” card too heavily, Doug.  Truth is teacher education has been stuck at the same level for decades while lots of people catch up and pass by.

“As such, teachers’ unions do not have fundamental responsibility for the accountability of school
systems; rather, that responsibility belongs primarily to those who officially govern them. If unions have received too much at the expense of the public, then the fault lies with provincial governments, school boards, parents, and citizens. Provincial governments are responsible for the legislative and regulatory arrangements that govern school systems, including the powers and duties of school boards and the legal regime for collective bargaining. Every clause in every collective agreement has been agreed to by a school board representing citizens, including parents. If there has been a less-than-effective preservation of management rights, that is something for which school authorities,
to a significant extent, are responsible. Parents and citizens, too, bear some significant responsibility
for insufficiently accountable school systems when they too easily accept unions’ characterizations
of what is in the best interests of the public.
Yet, Canadian teachers’ unions actively resist some educational reforms that the public considers
reasonable. Their agenda for collective bargaining and their influence with provincial governments
and school boards reveals a limited sensitivity to reforms that would increase accountability for
results in school systems. It is time to correct the imbalance between unions’ interests and those of
the public in the development and implementation of policy for school systems. It is time to enable
parents and citizens to become more influential in their own right, to become a more effective counterweight to teachers’ unions.”

The AIMS report - pgs.30-31

What was done to the GM workers, should be done to the teachers’ unions. Fair is fair. I know a GM worker is not getting $75 a hour, but it does present a different way of looking at it. The AIMS report shows a different way of looking at it. Which counterparts are you referring to?  I hope you are not referring to other professionals, putting in the same number of years of post-secondary as would-be teachers, who are highly skilled in what they do, and are held accountable for their failures.  If anything the teachers’ unions will fight a war on not being held accountable, and keep the status-quo where the boards and governments remains accountable.

In Buffalo, and other jurisdictions, when the school board has to pay 100% of benefit premiums and the claims for cosmetic proceedures like botox drive up the costs to the insurance company, this in turn drives up premiums.  Just like any other insurance. (more accident claims=higher insurance premiums)  It is money that then can’t pay for needed school supplies, staffing and the heating bill. 

It is the same when salaries rise, and pension benefits and sick benefits start to get higher and higher, the board cannot pay for more teachers.  Simple math, simple economics.

I DO know how collective bargaining works.

Boards are past masters at the art of claiming that if there’s not enough money in the pot for more of everything that’s proof that the pot is just too small.

Using the welfare of kids as a bargainning chip is a powerful, if ethically dubious, means of helping themselves engage in lazy management.