Harry M. Keiley, president of the Santa Monica Malibu Teacher’s Association, and others like him offer no tangible proof that reducing school budgets to more easier and properly manageable levels is actually harmful to communities. What they are really expressing is that they are only concerned about their jobs. A modest increase of five students or so per class size is not something for them or anyone else to lose sleep over. Fifty maybe, but not five. Teachers are employees. Subject like all others to the harsh realities of the working world. They can be laid off, fired, and by choice go on strike, or do something besides teach. They ought to get off of the “making people who disagree with them feel guilty in the name of children” crap already. Home schooling ought to be promoted more. All of our early and great presidents were home schooled. With no public funding.
The practice of endowing educators with tenure ought to be abolished. No other job protections exist outside of the education systems in any occupation that we know of except federal judges. Doctors and lawyers, lower court Judges, politicians, and all types of tradesmen do not enjoy anything nearly as sacred as a teacher’s tenure. Although the longshoremen are close. Why do we so easily become persuaded to enshrine the teachers with it? From the very beginning, educators were never meant to control the entire community’s finances. Passively allowing them to regularly propose ludicrous ballot initiatives, and cleverly confuse issue after issue regarding ever so more heavy funding; having so many irons in the fire so to speak that no one can keep up with it all, and there is room for no more. Having convinced themselves, and they hope all others, that they ought to be the stewards of great sums of public monies,
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2003. Read the original PDF.