Washington State Schools Lose $13.2 Million Over Union Laws
by LewWaters (CR Wa.) ~ May 8th, 2008. Filed under: Better not Larger Government, Call to Action, Defending America, Educating All Ages, Shaking Down Socialistic Squirrels and other nuts!, Socialism VS. FREEDOM!, Uncategorized.What with the economy in a downturn, the state budget stretched and needed money hard to come by, who in their right mind would allow a $13.2 million grant to schools to be slip through their fingers? Washington State, that’s who.
Last year Washington State won the $13.2 Million grant from Dallas, Texas based National Math & Science Initiative (NMSI). The grants intent was to assist schools with their Advanced Placement programs in math and science that would allow students to earn college credit while still in high school by providing “teacher training and coaching, tutoring for students, materials and equipment, and incentives for teachers and students.”
A snag occurred in the grant when NMSI said they would spend 22 percent of the grant on “merit pay for teachers based on their participation and performance in the program.” Washington State Laws requires all money going to teachers to go through the Collective bargaining process with the Washington Education Association, the teachers union. NMSI desired to pay teachers directly.
State Rep. Bill Fromhold, Democrat from Washington’s 49th Legislative District, who resigned his legislative post as of next year so he could help administer the grant said, “Washington’s collective bargaining laws require that teacher pay be negotiated between teachers unions and school districts.”
Unable to find middle ground, negotiations broke down and NMSI withdrew the $13.2 Million grant. Fromhold added, “it had to do with how teachers would be paid for the time they spent in training, and how they would receive incentives for how well students scored on AP exams. We worked hard to try to find middle ground, but at the end of the day we got caught in the middle of the grant requirements and the collective bargaining laws in the state of Washington that have to be followed.”
He declined to lay blame on either side for the breakdown and withdrawal.
West Seattle High School, one school slated to receive part of the grant originally, had already voted against accepting the grant “in part because of concerns about teachers receiving merit pay for student test scores,” said district spokesman David Tucker.
About 7 schools were listed to receive roughly $114,000 this year, two in Seattle, three in Spokane and two in Vancouver’s Evergreen School District.
NMSI’s CEO Tom Luce said NMSI “understands some states and school districts may have policies that do not accommodate this grant model and we respect those local preferences, this is a voluntary program.”
This writer, who pays high property taxes that support Washington’s schools, doesn’t understand how union collective bargaining would take precedence over receiving the much needed additional $13.2 Million.
What is understood is that most assuredly property taxes will increase to satisfy union demands for higher pay for union members.
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May 8th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Just to pile on a little more, remember that union jobs are all based on the minimum wage. We just gave every union worker raises when the idiots in our countries capital raised the minimum wage. It had nothing to do with those who work minimun wage jobs. They simply just will not hire 12 minimum wage workers, they will hire 6 and work them twice as hard.
So, once again the unions who have worked very successfully to place their minions in seats of power, just continually keep fleecing America. They continue to keep good people out of key jobs that actually make a difference, influence our legistlation and simply continue to line the pockets of their own.
I want to reach out to the union worker and try to help them understand my beef is not with them, but their organizational leadership. However, there comes a point when you have to look at yourself daily in the mirror and ask, is it right? Does the union represent the best America has to offer? What influence does the membership have on such key decisions? Does the union member truly have a voice and a vote in such a socialist system?
I would say no, union members are powerless to even influence their leadership to do the right thing. They are bullied, threatened and badgered to pull the union line no matter how much it defeats America from within.
Lew, I agree with you. I just can not see how “merit pay” and quanitative measures to reflect and measure effectiveness would represent anything but a glimpse of freedom entering back into our schools.
We must break this monopoly unions utilize to dummy down our children, and steal our promise of American prosperity.
I think it is just as simple as 2 + 2 = 4.
Unions are bad for America.
Always have been, Always will be.
Socialism walks hand in hand with corruption and Tyranny of the worker and tax payer.
~Teddy Bear