June 2008 California Educator

This issue is devoted to professional development, and the first story on which I'll comment is called "Unconscious Bias program explores prejudices".

Here we go again.

Whenever we have to sit down, get in touch with our feelings, and reveal that deep inside all of us--but most especially the white folk--are racists, does the thought of reeducation camps come to mind? "I used to be a capitalist, but now I understand how my selfish, greedy ways harmed the peace-loving people of my new communist homeland. I feel so sorry for what I have done, I'm so ashamed."

Usually I claim that consistency isn't a strong point of the left. I have to modify that thought--because they consistently hold views that are stupid. I addressed this same "unconscious bias" crapola in this April 2005 post--and nothing's changed. Nothing at all. Go read that post for all you really need to know about the topic.

If the CTA spent half the effort on Darren's pay, benefits, and working conditions that they spend on race issues and socialism, maybe I wouldn't despise them so much.

The next story I'll touch upon comes from page 31. A few years ago, the CTA "temporarily" increased dues $60/year in order to build a war chest to defeat some ballot initiatives. I wrote about it here. In the April issue they discussed what to do now that the "temporary" increase was coming to an end, and I blogged about that here. In the June issue, in a story on page 31 as was the April story--so apparently page 31 is where they put information about raising your dues--we find that they decided to do exactly what they "considered" in April. Since there's nothing new here, allow me to quote from my last link:

CTA wants to continue getting some of that money, so they're going to keep $20/year of that increase and let the remaining $40/year expire. That additional $20/year will continue to go to their political efforts--unless teachers opt out of it. Notice: they're not going to spend a lot of effort telling you about opting out, and they're not going to get your permission to take that money and spend it on politics. No, they're going to require you to tell them you want to keep your own money, counting on either teachers' lack of knowledge or higher priorities to ensure that most teachers don't opt out.

Is that how professionals act? Or is that how cynical politicians act?

P.S. Those are not trick questions. Way to look out for teachers, CTA!

And lastly, let's look on page 36 at the "CTA-sponsored and co-sponsored legislation for 2007-2008". Let's see how well CTA is looking after its K-12 teachers. Of the 7 bills listed, 5 of them relate to community colleges, one relates to universal health care, and one relates to a 2-year kindergarten pilot program.

Way to look out for teachers, CTA!