Letter from Lynn: Truth
may be assaulted by falsehood, but it is suffocated by silence by Lynn Harsh
Once again I have been struck from behind, and I should know better by
now. It's just that I have a built-in capacity to feel affection for teachers.
What an honorable way to spend one's life!
It's difficult to put into words what happens to a teacher when we see in
our students the light of understanding, the angst of confronting the uncomfortable,
agitation that propels exploration, curiosity that itches until it's scratched,
and young spark plugs firing on all cylinders! That's the stuff that makes
good teachers come back year after year. And it compensates for many of
the annoying obstacles and hurdles that must be negotiated in the profession
itself.
But after all these years, it still startles me when I encounter a teacher
for whom truth and courage are secondary to their "right" to be
respected and well paid. Of course respect is important, and a workman is
worthy of his hire, but in a free-market society such as ours, these are
usually the natural byproducts of excellence.
The Marysville teacher strike brought all of this to the foreground once
again, because we heard from a lot of teachers. From my point of view, most
of what we heard was not good. It troubled me to hear from teachers who
admitted their union has a shady reputation for abusing collective bargaining
money, yet they were willing to believe and parrot the union line when it
came to the "facts" behind the strike.
Most disturbing to me were the teachers who said they appreciated our work
in exposing how their union uses collective bargaining dues to advance causes
that violate sincerely held religious beliefs, but that we should stay out
of the teacher pay arena because we were creating unnecessary division.
The three teachers I spoke with personally about this matter still belong
to the union even though they say their faith is abused. And their trade-off
for what they claim is abuse of their deeply held religious convictions?
Maybe a few thousand extra dollars in their paychecks.
I have nothing polite to say about this behavior.
Others admitted that much of the money we collect in tax dollars never makes
it to the classroom, but say it's not their problem. They are comfortable
asking for transfers of more money from the paychecks of their friends and
neighbors into their paychecks while "somebody else" finds the
missing money.
Most of the teachers I communicated with personally hate the current administrative
and legal education structure. They think it's bad for students and teachers,
but do not consider it their duty to change it.
Also moot for these people are twenty years of case law, dozens
of injunctions, and a bunch of judges who have unequivocally stated
that teacher strikes
are illegal. It does not seem odd to them that the Washington Education
Association has never appealed one of the dozens of injunctions. That's
what people and organizations do when they believe they have the law on
their side and have the money to see it through court. Most teachers refuse
to see the dichotomy.
Students suffered by being out of class, especially seniors. Teachers argued
that students would suffer more if they didn't strike because teacher quality
would be reduced. What? Are these teachers really saying that if I handed
them five thousand extra dollars today the quality of their teaching will
improve today? How could it possibly be that they are holding out on us?
And then there's the matter of improved student performance. The special
masters appointed by Governor Locke discovered the same thing the administration
has been concerned about: student test scores are too low, especially compared
to other schools in the county. The union leaders' response to this disturbing
statistic: "How much a teacher gets paid has nothing to do with student
performance."
Really! If student performance isn't connected to teacher pay, what is the
measure of value? Why should any more money be awarded?
It's a good thing I know so many phenomenal teachers who have sharp consciences
and minds. Otherwise I fear despair would overwhelm me.
For too many people, the end justifies the means, and the most important
thing about truth is not where you find it, but where you hide it.
I say, when truth stands in the way of getting where you are going, change
directions.
Contact: Lynn
Harsh | Executive Director | 360.956.3482
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At a March 23, 2005, House Appropriations hearing on a bill to gut the voter-approved I-601 spending limit, Rep. Jim McIntire (D) asked a supporter of I-601’s two-third supermajority requirement for the legislature to raise taxes the following question:
"Can you name a time when we [legislators] have actually not just set it [supermajority requirement] aside by majority vote? I mean, this is in many respects a procedural motion that has no bearing. It’s a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside . . . have we ever used a supermajority [to raise taxes]?"
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