Denver Classroom Teachers Association to Denver Public Schools: Drop Dead

To follow up on the previous essay about unions, this is one example of unions causing problems within the Denver Public Schools. From the Post:

The [Denver Public School ] district's proposed plan would give more incentives — a change that concerns union officials who want the money to go to salary-building.

Under the district proposal, a teacher would get $3,000 for working at a high-poverty school, choosing a hard-to-fill position such as special education or math, or teaching in a high-performing school.

Sixty-three percent of teachers would get three or more incentives, DPS officials say.

On average, teachers would receive $6,000 in incentives, said Tom Boasberg, DPS chief operations officer. Annual starting pay would rise from $35,000 to $44,000.

Why is the union rejecting pay incentives and new teacher salary increases to attract better teachers?

Union officials say, among other things, the proposed change would penalize veteran teachers with more than 13 years' experience."

It's for some people depending on who they teach and what they teach," said Denver Classroom Teachers Association president Kim Ursetta. "We promise to keep the salary-building elements for teachers throughout their careers, and they want to eliminate that."

The purpose of the union in this case is to protect the least competent, mediocre workers. To put this in an educational context, a third grade teacher has thirty students who perform between a first grade and an eighth grade reading level. The typical teaching approach is to work harder on the material with the lowest scoring students and mainstream (ignore) those achieving above grade level. This provides for a more collectively equal outcome (math results average near a third grade level), though arguably, the outcome is not a benefit for those individuals who could achieve more. 

By not allowing special incentives to teachers who work in more difficult schools or for working harder to improve the learning process, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association is telling its members they have no intrinsic worth. Work as little or as much as you want; you will never see any reward for going beyond the call of duty. And, most importantly, don’t rock the boat.

by Civil Sense