End The Politicization Of Our Schools

By Mark Nelson

Beginning with the last Board election where unions poured thousands into a campaign to "win a teacher-friendly majority" -- and continuing with the current million dollar CTA PR blitz over the airwaves -- education has become far too political for the KIDS' good. It's time to put the power back in the hands of the community and parents and take it away from bureaucrats and special interest groups. See http://menelson.com/db.htm for my Breeze full text responses.

This isn't happening today. The current Board was put in power by the CTA. It's a plain and simple fact and past CTA President Wayne Johnson touted it every chance he got. As soon as the election was over, Johnson was touting "Within days, teachers settled their contract, winning everything they had sought..." He went on to say "And two days from now + icing on the cake + the superintendent will be gone!!" Mr. Johnson was proud of the "fight" with the RBUSD.

Yes, unions are special interests by their very definition. A Trade Union by definition is "an organization of workers created to protect and advance the interests of its members by negotiating agreements with employers on pay and conditions of work." Their special interest is the pay and conditions of work of teachers. There is nothing wrong with unions, in fact, they have played key roles in workers' rights and physical protections throughout the history of the US. For that they should be respected. What is wrong, however, is the current PR campaign where CTA and the other unions profess that they are the champions of the kids. That's just as wrong as autoworkers' unions professing to be the champions of the cars they build, or management professing to be the champion of the workers. It just doesn't work that way. The unions are the champions of their members, plain and simple. The CTA is craftily creating a equivalence between UNION and TEACHER and KIDS in the minds of those who hear their media campaign over and over and over. And they hope that when contract negotiations come around, those who try to balance the budget will be hung out to dry as "anti-teacher" or "anti-child", when in fact those negotiators will be doing the fiduciary work of the district negotiating with the Union. It's wrong for the Union (CTA in particular) to make political pawns of the kids. But it is clever.

We all know who teachers are. They are NOT unions. They are people. They are neighbors. And most importantly, they are the persons in our children's classrooms. They are the persons that we help by cutting out colored shapes in kindergarten, organizing parties, chaperoning kids at the Natural History Museum, and giving our of time whenever we can. They are also the persons to whom our FIRST DOLLAR of donations should go. Each year I donate $500-1000 or more DIRECTLY to my child's classroom teacher. Not to RBUSD, not to the PTA, not to RBEF, not to the school. Not that those aren't valuable entities, they are. But, WE ALL AGREE, keep the money in the classroom, DON'T WE? Each and every parent should make their annual donations directly to their teachers. Those donations come before church, sports, or any other charity or interest. You can catch up with those other donations later on when your kids are out of school. I support teachers WHERE IT COUNTS, in their classroom budgets, with my time and money. All other parents should too.

I fought for RBUSD, I fought for teachers, and I fought for the kids when I took on the City Council over the "Heartburn of the City." The Council had no problem contemplating 5,000 new housing units, with hundreds of new kids, and IGNORING schools. They also had no problem ignoring the traffic and pollution they would create. When the Council refused to listen, I aggressively addressed the issue at Council meetings, workshops, and forums. I'm a fighter for education, and not a politician.

We don't need more politics at the RBUSD. We need fighters for the kids.