Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Teacher Resignations Higher Than Expected, And That's Just The Beginning

Well, well, Act 10 isn't all it cracked up to be after all:
Greenfield School Board member Cathy Walsh on Monday said that 16 teachers either resigned or retired at the end of the school year, which she said presents a more serious picture of staff turnover than the School Board was led to believe.

The administration had provided the board with resignation and retirement numbers for all staff. Those numbers showed no inordinate exodus. But Walsh said she separated teachers out and found 16 had left, compared with the six or seven that she found had been the more normal turnover over the last nine years.
The gentle reader might remember that the Greenfield School Board received some unwanted attention last fall when they tried to ramrod through a draconian employee handbook and were called out on it by the teachers.

The board's attitude towards the teachers was so egregious and outrageous that the negative response they received inspired them to be one of the few, if not the only, school board to issue a press release in an effort to try to cover their behinds.

It really shouldn't shock anyone that teachers are resigning, especially from the districts that treat them with such disrespect. People will only tolerate so much before they look for greener pastures where they can get paid better and be treated better. Unfortunately, because of Act 10, many of our finest teachers have and will continue to find those greener pastures outside of Wisconsin, further contributing to the brain drain the state is suffering from.

As with the Milwaukee County child welfare system, we can also expect that the turnover rate will continue to greatly escalate as they continue to put the screws to the teachers as far as their pay and working conditions go.

The end result will be either a completely broken system opened up for education profiteers or a need to substantially increase the spending to maintain a system that meets the minimum expectations of the community. Either way, I would expect that the cost will end up being much greater than any savings that Scott Walker might trumpet about.

Act 10 has already cost the state dearly, and we are only at the beginning of the misery it will cost us.

20 comments:

  1. If I was a teacher in one of those districts where the school board thought it was great sport to kick teachers in the teeth, I would find another job, probably out of state, and I wouldn't give notice until the last possible minute. There will be a big scramble to staff some schools at the end of August, but why would anyone want to take a job in a school district run by assholes?

    Fitzwalkerstan - what if a state was open for business but nobody came?

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    1. Teachers must pay "Liquidated damages" of $1000 or more if they resign/quit after they have signed a contract.

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  2. Gareth believe me when I say that IS what they do. Not many leave without having something lined up and districts are encountering problems they never have before.
    Pissing off your educated and skilled workforce is a great strategy. YAY ACT 10!

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  3. Seems to me these vacancies should be pretty easy to fill. My sister moved out of state because she couldn't get hired, not even in Milwaukee. Maybe she will move back and leave that job for one of these teachers in central Indiana.
    And maybe we wont end up laying off the teacher of the year again.
    http://spectator.org/archives/2011/03/08/the-truth-about-wisconsin

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    1. That's because the teacher of the year moved to Minnesota.

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    2. Capper, isn't it great when people like Imustberacist expose themselves so freely? It's one thing to enter a debate, it's another to show up unarmed as they seem to.

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    3. Her being laid off had nothing to do with her lack of seniority, right? Should we take your word on this?
      WhatIs....I am not sure I have debated with you. But your pretty good at taking shots with no logic to back them up.

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  4. 20 years ago school choice was billed as a way to "help the poor kids" get a better education. Then when test scores didn't pan out, they were forced to switch to the "it's cheaper" argument. Then Republicans raised the income limit, and will eliminate it altogether. Republicans are already saying they want to put an increase in the school voucher price on the agenda next legislative session. Anyone with some sense saw this coming a mile away. The end result of this push for school choice is obvious... separate and unequal schools, and more cost to the taxpayer. Ask yourself who funds the school choice lobby and how much school choice lobbyists give to politicians. Look into the sordid history of school choice in this country. That's where you'll find the answers.

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    1. I could not agree with you more. The "school choice" movement came around in the latter Reagan years, when economist James Buchanan won the Nobel for his work in "Public Choice" theory. Since its inception, this has been aimed at destroying the teachers unions by smearing the reputation of our public school system.
      Buchanan is a member of a highly secretive organization created to destroy the legacy of FDR called the Mont Pelerin Society. Much of Reagan's agenda came through them, and in Wisconsin you hear it from the Bradley Foundation. In fact, the Bradley boys got Kenneth Starr to take their case for vouchers to expand the program, which it has, all to the detriment of public education.

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    2. Don't forget the role in Wisconsin of not only the Bradley Foundation but also the Archdiocese of Milwaukee -- and of the nearby, Chicago-based Ayers Foundation. (Yes, that's the family of Bill Ayers, Friend of Obama, and Obama actually served on the board then -- and is still a big fan of school choice.)

      With Republicans, it's always follow-the-money, and lowering property taxes for public schools was one reason. The other is, with the switch in arguments and lifting of limits, for funding for the private-school educations of the children of the wealthy (aka Republicans).

      But they brilliantly used Dems who fell for it, i.e., not only the Ayers/Obama sorts but, in Wisconsin, Rep. Polly Williams as well as non-elected (but very political) supporters such as Howard Fuller.

      So it's not just Republicans who are to blame for the devastation to my city's schools, while we pay taxes for two school systems, public and private -- and while the Catholic schools that were going to close are building new annexes.

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  5. I would be interested to see, in a year or two, whether there is any measurable decline in applications to teaching degree programs at colleges around the state. To me that would be a more accurate representation of long-term damage as a result of Act 10.

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  6. I congratulate ALL Wisconsin teachers who are either re-careering out of teaching or relocating out of Wisconsin in response to Walker's Act 10 and the 24/7 seething contempt towards teachers in Wisconsin by a majority of Wisconsin's citizens. As most public school districts have vaporized their salary schedules that rewarded teachers for experience and additional education, in Walker's Wisconsin, teaching is a dead end job where a young teacher's starting salary of $25,000-$37,000 will be the highest salary (in real dollars) that a teacher will earn in their career. No wonder most experienced teachers won't let their children major in education. This can't be good for Wisconsin's future when our talented young teachers are fleeing for other states or other careers.

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    1. And those who aren't leaving the state now are free agents, leaving their school districts for others. I know several who have done so, because of districts as abusive as Greenfield and New Berlin. They will be in other districts this fall, some for less pay but some for more pay, because some districts are having to seriously deal with free-agent teachers now.

      Too bad, idjits who supported Act 10.

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  7. Even more remarkable is that places like New Berlin and Greenfield wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the prospect of good schools (well, that and racists running away from the "coloreds" 50 years ago). The only reason to live in these cultural cesspools is the allegedly strong schools that give community stability and your kid a leg up.

    Now, those TeaBag suburbs are throwing away the only advantage they have by denigrating teachers and refusing to pay what they're worth. Enjoy trying to resell your homes when you get sent to the home, Boomers.

    You wanted Walker World. Well, you got it.

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  8. Personally, I'd NEVER buy a home in Greenfield, with the future quality of the school system there, AND, I'd never hire a kid who attended that school system. A community that doesn't appreciate high quality, experienced teachers (as Greenfield apparently doesn't) can look forward to employing their kids in the local McDonald's or Walmart. Good luck to ya, Greenfield homeowners. You'll soon be known as a white trash, Tea Party community.

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  9. Has anyone looked at enrollment in the colleges of education at the various universities in the state?

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  10. It seems to me that Walker and his supporter are going to get exactly what they want a dumber and dumber electorate.

    Although they appear to be starting off with a pretty dam dumb set of blind followers already.

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  11. In response to Mr. Swift, enrollment at most teacher colleges in Wisconsin has declined by at least half, and in some cases, as much as 75% from the pre-Walker years. Unlike the average T-partier or right wing radio host, young people in Wisconsin aren't stupid. They aren't going to major in a teaching career where they are despised by the majority of the voters in Wisconsin and will never earn more than $40,000 during their entire teaching career in Wisconsin.

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  12. Thank you for your response. Hope Walker mentions this fact at his Harvard education reform speech. Do you have verification for the numbers as this seems to be an important uncovered story? Will we be seeing layoffs in these departments? Would MJS ever think of looking into this? Again thanks.

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  13. I can tell you what happened to me--it's how educators are being treated now. In my school, a teacher with 19 years of experience (read: teacher at top of the salary scale) was non-renewed. I was told that next year, I would be teaching "his" classes as well as mine--two separate subjects with well over 300 students. I was also at the top of the salary scale; feeling as though I was being set up to fail(merit pay, anyone?), I retired. The teacher who was hired to take my place is a new, unexperienced teacher (read: bottom of the salary scale). In effect, my district got rid of two highly paid teachers and replaced us with one very low paid teacher. This is the future of education in WI.

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