Sunday, January 08, 2006

Entrenched Bureaucracies, Entrenched Management, Entrenched Unions, Entrenched Elected Officials and Weak Boards

Happy New Year and please accept my apologies for not blogging recently. December was, well just December. Things had to be done including going door to door to talk with my constituents and making sure I would have strong support for re-election in the March primaries. By visiting, you learn how you have been judged and the strength of your base. My visits indicate I have an excellent chance of being placed back on the county board in November. Only then did I take my first vacation since my surgery back in 2004.

Now back to the heading of this blog. All subjects will be thoroughly covered by me before the end of 2006. Some of my blogs will be shorter and the subjects of my blogs covered more frequently but some of my readers have asked me NOT to leave out the details. I promise I won’t for the sake of brevity.

Any entity that believes they are smarter than all those they represent except the special interests that helped put them in positions of power, will be discussed in future blogs.

I covered the subject of job security and tenure before but I bring it up again after reading an article in the Arizona Republic titled “Teachers Fighting to Keep Power”. The battle is over a 2-inch handbook that gives high school teachers a powerful way in running the Phoenix Union High School District. The president of the teachers union is quoted “If you don’t involve teachers in decisions, you can’t make the best decisions”. Of the district’s 1600 teachers, 1200 of them belong to the union. Administration says that with new state and federal mandates, principals need greater control over how their schools are run. The principals say that “right now the teachers make the decisions”. Administration says it is hard to recruit good principals because they know that the teachers run the school district.

The teachers worry that they could be loaded with new duties, won’t have time for teaching, planning lessons and tutoring. Administrations says that since tenured teachers have the first shot at open positions, jobs can’t be offered to other teachers until May when all the good teachers have been snatched up by other school districts, especially good math and science teachers.

Both sides want to change the handbook, which is consulted before practically any decision is made. Administration says the current handbook makes it difficult for the superintendent, his principals and the board to manage the district’s resources, both financial and human.

The handbook proposed by the teachers assures any open job in the district is based on seniority within the district. This prevents the hiring of better qualified teachers outside the district. The handbook lets teachers decide whether they work full time or part time. It allows teachers to say they would not attend a 3:00 meeting because the handbook stipulates only a 2:00 start time for meetings.

An article in the JS dated 12/05/05 titled “Study: Tenure Means Job Security”. The article reads that it’s next to impossible for school teachers in Illinois to lose their jobs if they have tenure. Many of the schools largest districts have not fired a tenured teacher for over 18 years. Only 2 tenured teachers are fired per year out of 95,000 tenured teachers. One superintendent is quoted as saying “When I hire talented new college graduates to teach, I tell them “you are going to meet a lot of people in this profession who just shouldn’t be in it. But there is not a whole lot that can be done about it because of tenure”.

Back to the title of this blog. Entrenched bureaucracies, entrenched unions and either weak administration or weak elected boards or a combination of all are described in these two articles. Of course, teachers should have strong representation in the decision making process, of course principals should be in charge of their schools, of course administration should hire the best and support them. Of course all should be fiscally responsible and treat each other fairly. Of course the community as a whole has an investment in the entire system. And last, the board is where the activities start and where the buck stops.

Sound simple? Then why doesn’t if work? Go back and read the last 180 blogs I have posted on this site since 8/2003 and you will find out many of the answers and I didn’t need to pay for a survey, I just stay informed and try to use common sense. Adults are like kids; they try to get all they can get for themselves under the guise of helping others. And most of them do help others and we should appreciate those that do help others even when they feel they are underpaid, overworked and unappreciated.

Until the voter and taxpayer really becomes concerned about what is going on in public and some private entities and does something about it like electing strong, common sense leaders, I believe you will be reading the same articles 20 years from now. If the trend continues we will continue our slow slide to becoming a socialist country or a dictatorship and people like myself will have become anachronisms.

I close with this fact. The District #150 board will probably vote to increase the salaries of two administrators to $130,000.00 tomorrow night. (THE HIGHEST PAID EMPLOYEE OF ANY KIND EMPLOYED BY THE COUNTY OF PEORIA, to my knowledge, is $107,000.00). The county appears to be fiscally solvent. District #150 is NOT. If they do and if you really are concerned about this school system, you will start trying to find replacements for those who vote for this increase and for those who allow Guy Cahill to be spokesperson for this administration and board. This system did not get into the shape it is in solely because of past administrators.

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