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Carolyn Santo
Kailua, HI
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Carolyn commented on the article |Diane,
You never answered my question about why all the teachers need to take their furlough days on the same day and deprive students of their classroom learning time. Why didn't the HSTA act more professionally and take their furlough days on days when they weren't scheduled to be teaching students in the classroom? I struggle with the concept that your non-classroom days are more important than the time you actually teach students.
I believe that University of Hawaii professors are also professional teachers. They took a pay cut and are still teaching their classes. UH students are still getting the education they paid for and deserve.
I've emailed several of our State legislators with my concerns and they have provided some interesting comments about the situation. One prominent Senator reminded me that education is the state's biggest expense. He believes that you teachers need to get yourselves better leaders because the union is engaging in a combative approach which doesn't promote a win-win outcome. If this continues we'll have some sort of amendment to our State constitution that will mandate a certain amount of teaching days for our public school students. I believe that would be overwhelmingly supported by the voters.
Instead of getting defensive and accusing other people of insulting you and arguing, you need to use some critical thinking skills and look at the big picture instead of harping about how professional teachers are and how you need to short change the students' education in order to maintain job security, health benefits, legal protections, etc. Everyone in Hawaii is suffering from this financial downturn. Many of us are taking pay cuts and continuing to do our jobs and maybe even increasing our hours. This is not an attempt to take away from the teachers. This is an attempt to keep the entire State from running out of money.
Your defensive statements and harsh criticism of others' comments indicate that maybe you are uncomfortable with some of the statements that don't fit with the message that the union is promoting. I spoke with a teacher at a charter school who said that they were flooded with applications when the furlough was announced because they decided to keep their full schedule of classroom teaching days, NO MATTER WHAT. They are on more restricted funds per student than the "regular" public schools, plus they have to pay rent for their premises. Why are you so threatened by someone pointing out the value of charter schools?
You need to wake up and stop blindly accepting and passing on the HSTA line about why it's necessary to close the classrooms and hold the students and their families hostage. True professionals would continue to serve the people while working out a better solution. Your union leadership is an insult to the truly dedicated and professional teachers.
Before you post any more pro-union babble, or go off on the "testing to measure effectiveness of education is bad" rant, please answer my simple questions, "Why was it necessary for all the public school teachers to take their furlough days at the same time? Why couldn't 20% be on furlough each week day so that all teachers would have 17 furlough days but the schools would remain open? Why didn't they choose the non-classroom days first?"
More importantly, "Why should the people of Hawaii consent to using the Hurricane relief funds to pay teachers to come back and work furlough days when everyone else in the private sector and other public employees are taking pay cuts, being laid off and having furlough days?"
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Carolyn commented on the article |
The governor is the head of the administration, so shame on the administration includes the governor.
Teachers who truly believe that cutting students' classroom days isn't disruptive and damaging need to wake up and quit blindly following their union leaders. They need to seriously question their individual and collective judgement since supposedly the majority of union members ratified this plan.
If the union leaders, union member, school board and elected officials truly cared about educating Hawaii's children then they would have figured out a way to keep schools open and the children safe. Setting up a schedule that includes 17 furlough days for each teacher doesn't mean that they all need to be on furlough on the same days.
Private sector employees are working longer hours for less pay and struggling to keep their employers' businesses open. Why do teachers feel they are entitled to job security, health benefits, and "legal protections" at the expense of educating Hawaii's students on Fridays?
Even if achievement tests do not tell the whole story regarding the successful education of a child, they are a pretty good indicator when they show that a child cannot read or do math at his grade level (assuming he doesn't have a learning disability). How else should we measure whether or not our public school system is providing an adequate education to the group as a whole?????
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Carolyn commented on the article |
Talk about a dysfunctional solution to a budget problem! The sole purpose of an educational system should be to educate the students. In the face of a budget crisis our leaders close the schools and lock the children out of the classrooms. They won't even allow kind-hearted teachers to volunteer and keep their classrooms open.
With over 170,000 students out of school during work days, this poses some terrifying public safety concerns. Families with financial means usually send their children to private school. Many public school parents cannot afford to stay home or pay for quality child care. This means many children will be unsupervised or inadequately supervised.
With 24% of the total Hawaii workforce belonging to labor unions, many are unwilling to take a forceful stand against the union leaders who negotiated this ridiculous situation. The union's objective seems to be to create the maximum amount of dislocation and damage to our young people in Hawaii.
If they truly cared about the students' safety and education, they could have staggered furlough days to allow the schools to remain open. They could have adjusted curriculum to allow for the larger student teacher ratios by showing educational videos (Bill Nye, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics for Kids, PBS, movies based on historical events, etc.); engaging students in more physical activities outdoors (we do live in Hawaii with year round good weather!); and inviting volunteers from the community as guest lecturers and/or teachers' aids.
Instead, to inflict maximum pain, they preserve the teachers' non-classroom days and totally close the schools so that parents have to scramble for child care. Ironically, members of the UPW still have to show up to work on furlough Fridays so cafeteria workers will be helping janitors perform special cleaning projects while the children are out of school.
Our children are currently near the bottom of the country in achievement, but we'll have cleaner schools.
Shame on our administration for not insisting the Department of Education work out a solution that did not involve cutting classroom days. Shame on the union leaders for putting their political agenda ahead of the childrens' education and safety. Shame on Hawaii voters and members of the teachers' union for allowing these types of people to represent us in such a terrible manner.
There is a protest scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the State Capitol on 10/23, the first furlough Friday. If you can't make it, please voice your criticism via telephone, fax, or email to the Board of Education, the State Senate and House of Representatives, the Governor's office, and HSTA officers. This is a good hands-on civics lesson, so please involve your children.
Our children deserve better than this. Especially when you consider the vast amount of money that is spent on public education in Hawaii. At least our University educators have done the right thing by taking a pay cut but keeping their full teaching schedules.
Ironically, the people who are able to take care of their own children on furlough Fridays are teachers and other State employees who are on furlough.
For the record, my child is not affected because he attends a private school. I'm outraged that my tax dollars are being spent to keep the schools clean on Fridays instead of to provide classroom education.
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