Evelyn Hardaman took a day off Monday from her special education class at Thorton Elementary in San Antonio, but the 20-year teacher was still at work bright and early.She, along with thousands of other educators from across Texas, roamed the state Capitol to push for issues important to them. Among them: protecting education funding, maintaining teacher health insurance, keeping class sizes small, and fighting off school vouchers.
"We have a strong impact if we come in and say, "We're in the field; we know what's going on.' We hope our voices have a little more credibility," Hardaman said after a meeting at the office of Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio.
Hardaman was among those from the 100,000-member Association of Texas Professional Educators who missed work and made the road trip to Austin to get some face time with lawmakers.
The teachers attended a weekend meeting where they learned how to effectively meet with lawmakers and what education issues are being discussed.
However, they need to be teaching their students and not lobbying the government during class time.
They're government employees, who took time off from work (I'm not sure if it was vacation time or not) to get political. Unfortunately, their self-interest is short-sightedly advanced by asking the government for more funding; for new schools, new class materials, pay raises, guaranteed health care, and all that. I doubt they want to end the immoral "Robin Hood" wealth redistribution system that many districts hate. The State of Texas has got money problems, and education eats up gads of cash already.
Those teachers, in my opinion, would be better served by educating their students against idiocy than this. Of course, I feel that the government has no more a role in educating children than it does telling me when I can buy alcohol or how fast I can go on the highway, which is to say none.
The supreme irony of all this is that I work for the Texas Association of School Boards, and organization that is firmly pro-public schooling. We have an advocacy team which is at odds with my philosophy in fundamental ways...
...but I haven't taken any time off of work to hob-nob with legislators in order to get tax breaks for TASB. *grin*
UPDATE 2/8/2005 1:02pm
It has happened again and brought about the same concerns of mine.
Austin-American Statesman: State's teachers descend on Capitol
More than 400 teachers from across Texas converged on the state Capitol on Monday to press lawmakers to pump more money into public schools in Texas.And to raise their pay.
And some were doing it on the taxpayer's dime. Sort of.Several lawmakers raised eyebrows about having so many teachers around on a school day.
"Who's paying for all the substitutes?" asked Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, echoing the sentiments of other lawmakers.
Some of the teachers said they had taken the day off, either on paid leave or without pay. But others said they were there on a "staff development" day, which they are entitled to take to receive in-service training or improve their schools.
[...]
State rules require students to receive 180 days of instruction each semester, with teachers allowed to take off up to six days per year for staff development. The exact number varies from district to district. On those days, educators most often attend training programs, seminars or conferences.
Some districts allow staff development to include the Capitol visits because the lobbying days are sometimes connected with a professional conference in Austin, such as one that the 105,000-member Association of Texas Professional Educators held over the weekend.
[...]
"I'm appalled anyone would suggest I'm here for myself," said one teacher, who, like several others, refused to give her name after a reporter questioned who was tending to their classrooms. "I'm here for better public education. I'm here for the students. Better schools make Texas better for everyone."
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you dont think the govt should be able to say how fast you are allowed on the roads..
or you just ignore what they say anyways?
Man, u texans are fkn weird ay.. If I read you correctly, you dont want a drinking age or speed limit. Crazy.
Posted by: Ken on January 29, 2003 02:19 AMHell naw. No drinking age, no speed limits on the roads...I want as much freedom (and the risk that goes along with it) as possible. Builds character. Puts hair on ya chest.
Posted by: Drizz on January 29, 2003 09:24 PMTexans are scary. Aussies would be that scary if we'd ever had that kinda freedom.. but we've long been a European ish country in terms of laws.
Posted by: Ken on January 30, 2003 03:16 AMIt's weird living here. Our state police still wear cowboy hats on duty.
http://www.texasstatetroopers.org/03.jpg
Posted by: Drizz on January 30, 2003 05:14 PMI think it is ludicrous what teachers do. Reading about this disgust me; and though I'm not already disgusted with the school system, and the teachers constantly lobbying to demand more and more. Teachers actually have it good when you look at the time they have off all year, their benefits and retirement, their work hours. And for the time they put in, they are paid well (What do they expect...to start out with a bachelor's degree at $100K per year). What I see coming in the following decades is that teacher's will end up working in a cushy office from a computer...students will be required to own a PC and do all their learning from home...students and teachers will not have to even meet one another...everything will be done online. Teachers salaries will double and their work hours will be cut into half. They will win vacation/cruise pay for students having high PACT scores (I've read about this actually happening already in various states...some people actually believe this is impossible). Well, I'll tell you what is possible...A teacher from my old high school had an affair with a 14 year old boy. Her father was a judge. It all came out publicly. The teacher continued teaching, and when the boy came of age he and the teacher got married, and they have a family. If they ever assign my daughter to this teacher's class, I will demand that she not be allowed to teach my daughter. I think it perverted that a teacher would want to bed up with a 14 year old boy. I could go on and on, but I think I've got my point across.
Posted by: Sonja Jordan on July 3, 2005 09:08 AMThey have police officers in the schools. First time a student slaps another (kids have hormones, drama, and energy), they get hauled off to DJJ and channeled into the alternative program where they are mainstreamed for the remainder of their school years. A teacher can provoke a student and then even attack a student, even hold a student against their will in the classroom to prevent them from calling mom. Then when the student becomes so aggitated by the teacher, she calls the teacher a bitch (well the teacher was being a bitch). The fact that the teacher provoked the student beyond tolerance made it possible for the actions of the teacher to be swept under the rug (don't forget the student called the teacher a BITCH...after being put through Hell, while the other students were screaming to the teacher to leave the student alone...the teacher yanked the student from her desk, shoved her across the room, threw the students purse across the room, grabbed the phone from the student when she tried to call her mom, then refused to allow the student to leave the room (I call that false imprisonment). I think this is bewildering. This teacher should be in jail, certainly not teaching ever again. This happened near Myrtle Beach, SC. These kind of things are happening often enough in our schools, and the public needs to know. The teachers are spending our tax dollars lobbying for more and more, yet our students needs are not being met. They are setting a precedence that students act like adults before they have a chance to develop into adult (where is their chance to grow through the teen years. They're setting even more NO TOLERANCE of students and the teen quirks, all so they can have it easier and easier. Well, I am a disgusted parent, long been sick of the BULL SHIT from the school system. We've gone back to the Puritan times when they took the kids who may have created a little mischief and put them out of society, while they affluent members of society had the clout to make their destiny, all because they didn't want to be bothered by a little minor inconvenience at all. Does any other parent feel the same frustration. If so, let me know.
Posted by: Sonja Jordan on July 3, 2005 09:26 AM