News Calls for Reopening Teacher Contracts - A Pop Quiz: Who Wrote This and When?

Response to Detroit News Editorial "Michigan school districts need to reopen teacher contracts" December 4, 2009.


Clip from the News:

"By now, school districts and their teachers should realize that the state money cut from their budgets by lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm is not coming back. Even if some of the money were restored, it would be gone next year.

Lawmakers are clearly not inclined to raise taxes, despite the governor's attempts to rally angry parents to a tax hike. And neither they nor the governor appear willing to strip funds from other areas -- or to find savings through restructuring -- to shield schools from spending cuts.

Districts, then, are left with two choices: They can cut programs and services and lay off staff, or they can ask teachers to reopen labor contracts and seek savings through wage and benefit concessions.

So far, most districts -- with a few exceptions, including Saline in Washtenaw County -- seem to be choosing layoff notices over contract concessions.
That's a poor decision.

Districts should use this financial crisis as an opportunity to forge more reasonable contracts with their unions. In nearly every district in the state, the current level of pay, health care and retirement benefits is unsustainable."

Now here's a pop quiz. Pass or Fail:
Who wrote the following news account and when did he write it?
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Could it be that the naysayers and the cynics had this thing pegged all along?
They said it was entirely possible that the "historic" opportunity to turn Michigan into a laboratory of educational innovation would descend into yet another exercise in public relations and bragging rights.

Parents who yearned for something more out of the process for their kids might be hopelessly naïve, they said.

Little so far in the so-called debate over school reform suggests the cynics were wrong.

The great school debate at that time included discussion of such items as:
1.Should we make football players take gym?
2.Should teachers grade on the curve?
3.Should school boards pay Lansing lobbyists with money "sucked" out of classrooms?

To which one lobbyist in the House chamber's peanut gallery rejoined: "I don't suck it, I just sip it a bit."

Lamenting the 180-day school year, a house committee said, by golly, if everyone else in Michigan has to work 250 days a year for a full-time salary, teachers should work at least 210. To lessen the burden, lawmakers agreed to phase it in through the year "how's this for breathtaking reform?-2010.

"Now it's December and the emphasis is not so much on content as whether they are going to get it done by the holidays. Just what the process can yet produce is unclear."

"(There's a move toward school district funding equity statewide) ...but the move toward equity may not survive because (it's) too expensive. Like Christmas shoppers on a binge, lawmakers want to spend extra cash and pay the bill next year.

Add this all up and you've got to wonder: Where are all the concrete, necessary improvements in Michigan schools that will point the way for a nation jockeying for global economic position?

Don't be so naïve as to believe the Michigan Legislature is prepared to undertake such a task, it is beyond their abilities."

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The Answers:
1. The year was 1993.
2. The reporter - Peter Luke


Original Post.