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Who Is This Union?

Travis R. McGaha

 

Before you start reading about the union and it's pervasiveness in the school system, could you please answer a question? Who is the teacher that the Tennessee Education Association asked to be removed for incompetence?

 

Answer!?

 

No one!

 

The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) does not license ANY teacher. TEA does not hire teachers for any specific school. TEA guarantees no aspect of a teacher's performance.

 

Now you are thinking, “What is this Tennessee Education Association if it doesn't have anything to do with teacher performance, employment or standards?”

 

The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) is a union. Most people who are members of the TEA or its local branches, such as the Sevier County Education Association, do not consider TEA a union. These union members want people misled and refer to their union as a professional association. Make no mistake; though, teachers in Sevier County work under a collectively-bargained contract; thereby making them unionized.

 

The Quick History

 

Unions got their start in America when large groups of people realized that they weren't making any financial gains. These people were working in steel, rail work, construction, automotive, etc. These people saw that worker safety accounted for nothing, benefits didn't exist, and job security was unheard of. If a person was injured, they were cast aside. The working class made about $200 per year while business owners such as JP Morgan and Jim Carnegie were making over $2,000,000 per year. This grand disparity was emphasized by the philanthropy of the extremely wealthy class and the working class wondered why they couldn't get paid more. These people realized that they could cripple production by sticking together. This was true primarily because of the monopolies held in different aspects of the industries.

 

Today, if Ford Motor Company went on strike would Americans still be able to buy a car? They sure would. Not only does Ford have an overstock, but people can buy a car from a Japanese, German, British, French, Italian, or Korean motor company. So any strike by the workers of this company would just mess with this one company and its suppliers.

 

How Did This Union Get Here?

 

The southeast is fiercely independent; and, unions are generally looked down upon. I remember hearing people at Blalock's back in the early 1990's comment, “Union? I'm not joining a union! I'm not paying anyone else for my job!”

 

Teachers are different though. They have a good education. Just like other unionists, they feel from the outset that their employer is always cheating them out of money and opportunities. Unfortunately, their employer is you, the taxpayer. You will always hear teachers lamenting how menial it is to teach children of this community. The teachers get kicked, hit, cussed at, spit on, sneezed on and coughed on. The average retail store worker or restaurant employee gets the exact same treatment and sometimes that treatment is by teachers. Those types of people are unworthy of a union though. Rather than telling you, the parents, that this is going on, they would rather unionize and keep your involvement limited to decorating the playgrounds or the courtyards.

 

Here are the strategic objectives of the union. My comments are in red.

 

Strategic Objectives

· TEA will define and pursue improvements and appropriate funding for quality public education. (We do not want any input from you stupid parents. We are the professionals and only we can educate your children. However we do need your support so please help us to have a beautiful school to teach in!) 

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· TEA will advocate autonomy (we want complete governance of our teachers. Our union members should never have to answer to any branch of government or those insufferable parents or taxpayers! We want the government and those stupid taxpayers to stay out of our business! ), appropriate preparation and the highest standards (college education and as long as they pay union dues we will keep them no matter how abusive or incompetent they are!) for the education profession. 

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· TEA will seek compensation and working conditions necessary to attract and retain highly qualified education employees. (We do not seek to reward teachers who teach well, we seek greater compensation regardless of quality instruction! We want all teachers paid equally high so that we can collect higher union dues and schmooze with the big wheels of government! We want teachers 100% protected from criticism, so much so that even if every other teacher can see that a teacher is incompetent, they must keep their mouth shut! TEA Code of Ethics) 

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· TEA will initiate, preserve and strengthen advocacy programs. (Teacher advocacy only, we do not want student advocacy because students do not pay union dues or even education advocacy because this is not about education, this is about our careers. We finally got Tennessee to legislate in 1992 (Tennessee Code Annotated 49-2-301) that a Superintendent is appointed rather than elected. This helps keep the taxpayers silent and gives us another union-hack in a leadership position!) 

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· TEA will enroll its maximum membership potential and encourage greater member participation in the organization. (Our goal is to make certain that all teachers are willing to picket against the taxpayers at our command! Tennessee legislated that all teachers will abide by the unions wishes! Tennessee Code Annotated 49-5-501: (3)  “Conduct unbecoming to a member of the teaching profession” may consist of, but not be limited to, one (1) or more of the following: (D)  Disregard of the code of ethics of the Tennessee Education Association ... ) 

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· TEA will provide the organization structure and budget to accomplish our mission. (We will dominate the taxpayers! Our goal is to be free of community influence and governmental control and we will do whatever it takes to accomplish this; but we still want governmental funding!)

·  

 

 

For proof CLICK HERE!

 

Check out this article. State-Mandated Raises for Cheatham County Teachers Held Hostage

 

I read the headline thinking wow! How can this be? The overriding story that is only loosely mentioned is that the school system does not have an approved budget. The union sees the Board of Education (taxpayers) as holding their money hostage! They do not see that the Board is waiting for its new budget before it makes ANY financial decisions. Would it not be weird if the Board paid the raises but ran out of money before the school received the new budget. Unions prefer criticizing or crippling education in the name of union raises rather than taking their frustrations to the county commissioners. How sad!

 

So How Does The Union Negotiate

 

I had some mail come to me stating that Sevier County Teachers are NOT unionized. However, I kept hearing and seeing the term “negotiated contract” so I wrote to my elected official and asked how this negotiated contract comes about. The following is the response that I received:

 

In answer to your question the negotiated contract is what is decided upon by the SCEA each year.  The SCEA is the local teacher union.  The Sevier County Education Association.  They have representatives that usually attend all of our board meetings and they have monthly meetings themselves.  They poll the members of their union and negotiate their yearly contract as to benefits, salary raise percentages, etc.  I am sure if you contacted the central office and asked for information on the SCEA they could put you in contact with the right person.  I know that Gxxxxxxxx at Seymour High School, Dxxxxxx at SCHS and Jxxxxxxxx at SMS are very active in it as well as others.  Mr. Gxxxxxx and Ms. Sxxxxxxx are married.  He is also very passionate about change.  They probably have a website themselves I just never have had the need to look since I am updated by the board secretary on the changes each year if any are made.  Jim Wade is the board secretary and he heads up the negotiations. 

 

Sevier County Education Association is the local branch of the Tennessee Education Association. Jim Wade is not just the Board Secretary, he is in charge of personnel and purchasing at the central office. Surprisingly, he too is a member of the UNION. He has stated that he is a proud, union-due-paying member of the Tennessee Education Association.  In fact, the UNION negotiates with the UNION for pay raises, benefits, and job security.  Is it any wonder that it is so difficult to remove or even identify an incompetent teacher?

 

If your eyebrows are not raised by this extreme conflict of interest, then nothing about the unions will surprise you. This union, TEA, managed to lobby your state representatives to require that all teachers, principals and administrators (i.e. Jim Wade) bow to the UNION. If you have to bow to the union, why would you not just pay the dues and get the job security that goes along with the dues!

 

How Can We Fix This Problem?

 

This problem will not be easily remedied because of the entrenchment of the union. They are everywhere in education and their goal is to restrict access to this institution. Thanks to legislation, everyone that works in the school system that is licensed is defined as a teacher. Once defined as a teacher, you join the union for the protection. The best fix is to have laws requiring “licensure” to be removed, rid the school systems of tenure laws, and allow communities to vote for their own superintendent (the person responsible for hiring teachers).

 

Another good law would be, “Any person with a high school diploma may teach any class beneath that level of education.” After all, all children who have a high school diploma are certified by education professionals to be knowledgeable of all things leading to that diploma! I do not see how the union could be opposed to this law since it was their union members that identified these people as worthy of a high school diploma. Why not have high school graduates teaching Kindergarten through 5^th grade? Certainly a high school diploma supersedes a 5^th grade education. This would alleviate the HIGHLY-QUALIFIED teachers from being tied to younger children when we need college-educated people teaching specific coursework at the high school level.

 

If you are not just so mad that you are shaking, I have another good idea! Allow any person holding a degree to teach regardless of licensure. Suppose a person goes to Walters State Community College and winds up with an Associate of Science, we can assume that this person studied chemistry, biology, or physics and math courses relating to these subjects. Why not hire some of these people to teach at the grade school level? Some of these people may even make good high school teachers since an Associates Degree supersedes a high school diploma. If a person goes to the University of Tennessee, East Tennessee State University, Tusculum College or any 4-year college and receives a Bachelor's degree, let them teach. It is so profoundly odd that 2-year and 4-year colleges allow any Bachelor's degree holder to teach in their institution, but a Bachelor degree holder may not teach in public schools unless that degree is specific to education. By allowing these people to teach, we can flood the market with good teachers and allow the market forces of supply and demand to balance out the quality of teachers and the pay and benefit of teachers.

 

Just as much as we need a means to remove incompetent or abusive teachers, we need a way to REWARD the successful, hard-working, and inspirational teachers!  I will not apologize for this belief and I know that this flies in the UNION’s face.  The teacher who has been on the payrolls for 10 years, has gained his/her tenure, and cannot motivate 90% of his/her class to succeed (pass) does not deserve more money than a third-year teacher, with no tenure, that motivates 100% of his/her class to success!