CLT
UPDATE
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Mass. Teachers Association -- flushed
down the toilet
The five-part special report on teacher absenteeism,
"Marked
Absent," was based on analysis of the attendance records of almost 6,600 teachers in 17 North of Boston school districts and interviews with school administrators, teachers, students and parents throughout the region. It appeared last week in The Salem News, The Eagle-Tribune, The Daily News of Newburyport and the Gloucester Daily Times.
Among the findings: In a school year of about 180 days, teachers average more than two weeks out of the classroom due to sick days, personal days and other excused absences, with a disproportionate number of those days sandwiched around weekends and holidays....
Hiring substitutes for missing teachers cost schools North of Boston more than $8 million - a figure that approaches $1 billion when projected statewide....
Barbara Anderson, the head of Citizens for Limited Taxation, said one way the Legislature and Gov. Mitt Romney could help would be legislation granting cities and towns line-item veto power over their school budgets.
Under state law, a city council, board of selectmen or town meeting can cut the bottom line of a school budget but not specific expenditures, called line items.
As a result, voters at Town Meeting might cut the school budget in hopes of reducing the amount of money spent on substitute teachers.
"But then (the school committee) will stop buying textbooks," or cut something else that will hurt students, instead of trying to manage sick leave abuse, Anderson said.
"Priorities in schools are teachers' pay and perks," said Anderson, whose group authored the property tax-limiting Proposition 2½.
"They are never 'for the children,' as they say. Until we get line-item authority, they will always choose to take money away from the children instead of the teachers."
The Salem News
Monday, June 23, 2003
Sick leave abuse becomes statewide issue
At a time when the state teachers union is running nonstop TV
[ads] calling for higher taxes to support education, teacher absenteeism costs districts North of Boston $8 million a year. That figure translates to an estimated $1 billion statewide -- one-third of our state's budget deficit.
An Eagle-Tribune editorial
Sunday, June 22, 2003
When teacher's absent, our kids aren't learning
Pat Warnock, [a CLT activist] who championed the push for a "no" vote on the Question 3 general override said she had hoped to win but expected to lose.
"I'm not surprised. They really played it very very smart. Traditionally, the people who will vote against the override are senior citizens," said Warnock.
She said seniors were fearful they would have to haul their own trash, and working couples don't have the time to spend at the dump on Saturdays.
"I'm sorry. I still call it extortion," she added, referring to the acrimony some in town have expressed over the cost for trash pickup being placed into the general override question rather than separating it, menu style, so residents could have voted for trash pickup but against other municipal spending.
"As much as I love the teachers, they don't have to have a raise every year," said Warnock.
The Marblehead Reporter
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Voters say 'yes' to all three overrides
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The handwriting is on the wall ... or on the
chalkboard as it were. The teachers union -- the Massachusetts Teachers
Association -- is finally exposed for its unconscionable and limitless
greed, its scam tactics, its real priorities.
The sooner good teachers get with the program, the
sooner they dump that disreputable "union," the sooner they'll
get back some respect.
In places like Marblehead, Barbara's and my
hometown, overrides will pass from time to time to pad teachers'
sinecures (over half the override money goes to teachers' pay hikes),
but around the state they're failing as much as being passed. The MTA
developed a Proposition 2½ override strategy, "A
Roadmap to Overriding Proposition 2½" that incorporates
teacher pay-raises with essential municipal services, like public
safety and trash collection. When those all-or-nothing overrides fail,
we've begun to see second attempts launched with "menus" --
overrides broken up into core components -- immediately proposed. A
second bite at the apple, rejecting MTA's strategy.
With growing anti-teachers union resentment, expect
more "education" overrides to fail, because more voters are
awakening to the reality that spending on "education" is
merely profiting teachers and school administrators at the cost of
"the children" ... teachers are not even fulfilling their
end of the contract with taxpayers.
The MTA's all-or-nothing override strategy is only
marginally more effective than its ridiculous media blitz has been.
"Where would you cut"? How about the
over-generous teachers' sick-days policy to save taxpayers a billion
dollars a year -- alone a third of the so-called $3 billion state
budget deficit.
That amount would more than cover the
rollback of the 14-year old "temporary" income tax increase
that voters thought they'd ended in 2000 at the ballot box,
against the coerced financial might of the teachers union -- an
election mandate that was "frozen" last year by The
Best Legislature Money Can Buy.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association; at one time
a super-nova, it is quickly becoming a self-destructive black hole in
outer space, sucking in everything within its reach as it confronts
its oblivion.
If you're not a teacher, count your blessings that
you aren't compelled to pay union dues for things like its idiotic $2
million advertising blitz that's very effectively creating new enemies
by the droves.
If you are a teacher, cut
your losses ... while you still can. Only that will regain
you respect.
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Chip
Ford |
The Salem News
Monday, June 23, 2003
Sick leave abuse becomes statewide issue
By Bill Kirk, Staff writer
Teacher absenteeism is on the radar screen as a statewide issue and state leaders are talking about ways to curb it following a special report by Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co. newspapers that found patterns suggesting sick leave abuse that may be hurting students and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
James A. Peyser, chairman of the state Board of Education, said the apparently high rate of teacher absenteeism in some school districts has "raised some very serious concerns" the state needs to address.
Michael Widmer, executive director of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, agreed.
"During these very difficult fiscal times, with costs of this magnitude, it certainly deserves a close look by state leaders," he said.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Susan Tucker, a Democrat from Andover, said she is exploring ways the Legislature can prod action by the state Department of Education.
The five-part special report on teacher absenteeism, "Marked Absent," was based on analysis of the attendance records of almost 6,600 teachers in 17 North of Boston school districts and interviews with school administrators, teachers, students and parents throughout the region. It appeared last week in The Salem News, The Eagle-Tribune, The Daily News of Newburyport and the Gloucester Daily Times.
Among the findings: In a school year of about 180 days, teachers average more than two weeks out of the classroom due to sick days, personal days and other excused absences, with a disproportionate number of those days sandwiched around weekends and holidays.
Hiring substitutes for missing teachers cost schools North of Boston more than $8 million - a figure that approaches $1 billion when projected statewide.
Peyser said Friday that the issue is "on our radar screen" and the state has already begun gathering statistics on teacher absenteeism that could result in action aimed at improving the quality of education in public schools.
"There are two related problems," Peyser said. "Absenteeism by the student, and then by the teacher. They're not always absent on the same days. You put those two things together, and you've got many students in class not working very many days with a full-time, qualified teacher. The combination is very troubling.
"If a full-time teacher is not present, it makes it more difficult to reach a high level of achievement," he said.
Peyser said teacher absenteeism also affects school budgets, and in two ways.
"There is no question, the budgets for substitutes get inflated by teacher absenteeism. The other problem that is more worrisome is that the value-for-money proposition changes," Peyser said. "If you assume we're losing learning time and students aren't performing as well as they could because of absence, not only is it costing more, but you're getting less for it."
The state has collected data on teacher absenteeism in a handful of districts as part of school performance audits and has begun gathering more. By fall, Peyser said, "we'll have a critical mass of information on a significant number of districts to see if it's a statewide problem, or a more narrow problem."
If the problem is widespread, teacher attendance reports may become standard.
"Next fall, we will have recommendations for data collection statewide, and that (teacher absenteeism) would be one of the candidates," Peyser said.
Tucker, a former teacher and quality-control consultant, called teacher absenteeism "a very costly management issue in terms of money and educational quality."
Tucker said that as the "Marked Absent" series unfolded and attracted attention last week, she began discussions on the issue with state Sen. Robert A. Antonioni, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, to see "whether there is a role here for the state."
One answer, Tucker said, might be legislation encouraging the Department of Education to gather and report statistics on teacher absenteeism. "What gets measured gets managed," she said.
While it already tracks and publishes student attendance data, the state does not routinely collect similar data on teachers. However, state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said last week that the findings of the Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co. series "might have pushed us in the direction of looking at teacher attendance, too."
Tucker said the state can also encourage schools to follow the example of private industry and adopt the "best practices" of schools that have been successful in reducing teacher absenteeism.
"I want the Department of Education to collect and disseminate best-practice guidelines, based on schools that have dramatically reduced sick-day abuses," Tucker said.
"The role of the state is to encourage schools to understand the root causes of the abuse and learn from other schools. There are ways of doing this, but a lot depends on management taking it seriously and learning from schools that have done it well."
Some North of Boston legislators, including Rep. Arthur Broadhurst, D-Methuen, a member of the House Education Committee, said teacher absenteeism is an issue that is better addressed at the local level, rather than legislatively.
"If a teacher is taking days off, I'm not going to micromanage an administrator's job," he said. "There are already mechanisms in place to address it. You don't have to pass a law to keep track of employees. That's up to the superintendent or the principal."
Rep. Theodore Speliotis, D-Danvers, a former substitute teacher, agreed. "The question isn't 'Can we do something?'" said Speliotis. "The question is 'Should we do something?' We need to give the funding and tools to the schools so they can give the kids the best possible education."
But Widmer, of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the state may have a role to play, especially given the current budget crisis. The state has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in local schools under the 10-year-old Education Reform.
"There are a lot of local issues that the state can play a role in," Widmer said. "This is not an either-or situation."
Sen. Bruce Tarr, D-Gloucester, said that while it may be up to local government to deal with the issue, "if there is some statutory change that would help cities and towns stem these abuses, that's a role the Legislature could play."
Barbara Anderson, the head of Citizens for Limited Taxation, said one way the Legislature and Gov. Mitt Romney could help would be legislation granting cities and towns line-item veto power over their school budgets.
Under state law, a city council, board of selectmen or town meeting can cut the bottom line of a school budget but not specific expenditures, called line items.
As a result, voters at Town Meeting might cut the school budget in hopes of reducing the amount of money spent on substitute teachers.
"But then (the school committee) will stop buying textbooks," or cut something else that will hurt students, instead of trying to manage sick leave abuse, Anderson said.
"Priorities in schools are teachers' pay and perks," said Anderson, whose group authored the property tax-limiting Proposition
2½.
"They are never 'for the children,' as they say. Until we get line-item authority, they will always choose to take money away from the children instead of the teachers."
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The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Editorial
When teacher's absent, our kids aren't learning
No one here has ever said teaching is an easy job.
But teaching is a job, and as such comes with certain minimal requirements. One of these is that teachers show up for work for the 180 days of the school year.
Our weeklong series "Marked Absent" discovered that isn't always the case in school districts North of Boston. Some teachers abuse their very liberal sick-leave policies, calling in "sick" to pad vacations or extend weekends. We found that among the 6,600 teachers in 17 school districts North of Boston, half missed at least a week's worth of school during the 2001-02 school year. Nearly one in 10 missed three weeks or more.
Our study of teacher attendance records revealed a clear pattern of abuse by some. In 16 of 17 districts, sick leave usage spiked on Mondays and Fridays. About 43 percent of teachers took at least one sick day next to a school break or long holiday weekend.
Some individual abuse was more serious. More than 150 teachers used a week's worth of sick time or more in 2001-02 and three-quarters of those days came before or after weekends or holidays.
Remember, these abuses come in a school year of 180 days, already significantly less time than the 250 or more days a year worked by those in private industry. Teacher contracts North of Boston allot them an average of 15 sick days a school year. And in most districts, teachers can accumulate unused sick days year after year and "sell" all or a portion of them back to the districts upon leaving or retirement.
In addition, teachers are also allowed time off for personal days and professional training. School years also are punctuated by long weekends and weeklong breaks.
All told, teachers North of Boston claimed 50,400 school days as sick time, enough to fill all teaching slots in the Gloucester school system for an entire year.
So what's the problem? Many teachers who responded to our series note quite correctly that people in all industries get sick.
Here's the bottom line: Whatever deals workers have in private industry are between those workers and their employers. Teachers work for the taxpayers. Teachers get and use as many sick days as those in private industry despite a work year less than three-quarters as long.
At a time when the state teachers union is running nonstop TV [ads] calling for higher taxes to support education, teacher absenteeism costs districts North of Boston $8 million a year. That figure translates to an estimated $1 billion statewide -- one-third of our state's budget deficit.
And when teacher's out, education suffers. Substitute teachers, however well-trained they may be, are no replacement for a full-time teacher. Absent teachers set a poor example for their students. If the teacher doesn't care enough to come to class, why should the students?
What can we do?
It will take a combination of creative thinking and attentive policing to curb teacher absenteeism.
First, the state Department of Education, which keeps careful track of student attendance, should track teacher attendance, too, and use those statistics to pressure school systems that show a pattern of abuse.
Frequent reporting on the local level can alert school principals to problems early on. In Salem, the superintendent can put teachers on probation if reports suggest abuse of sick time.
School systems can offer incentives to teachers who post exemplary attendance records. Financial rewards to dedicated teachers cost less than hiring substitutes.
Finally, some teachers need to move beyond the sense of entitlement they have toward the use of sick days. They need to be honest with themselves, their districts and their students. If they are not sick, they should not use sick days.
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The Marblehead Reporter
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Voters say 'yes' to all three overrides
By Bette Keva
Passage of $1.3M general override 'triumph of common sense,' says Dearborn
Slightly more than half the 12,536 voters came out on a sunny Monday to vote overwhelmingly in favor of Question 1 to cap the old dump, Question 2 to repair the roof on the library, and Question 3 to pay for the $1.38 million shortfall in the budget to cover expenses in several departments.
While Questions 1 and 2 do not result in a permanent increase in residents' property taxes, Question 3, calling for a general override of Proposition
2½, does.
Voters approved Question 3 by 63 percent. Passage of the override means residents will continue to receive curbside trash pickup instead of having to arrange with private firms or haul trash to the Transfer Station themselves.
The override may mean that the schools and police departments need not lay off personnel. The schools were looking at the loss of the equivalent of up to a dozen full-time positions, and the police were mulling two layoffs.
The general override will result in an increase of 34 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, which comes to $162 for the average Marblehead home valued at $480,000.
James Dearborn, chairman of the pro-override "Vote Yes on 3" committee, acknowledged that the override vote "was relatively strong." He had not predicted which way the vote would go, he said, because he spent much of his time trying to convince people against the override to come over to his side.
"This is not a time for celebration, but relief that common sense prevails. The override was driven almost entirely by things outside of Marblehead's control," he said.
The town was forced into going for a general override, said the former chairman of the town's Finance Committee, by a 17-percent drop in state aid and a 25-percent increase in health insurance for town employees, among other rising costs.
Pointing out that the town began with a $2.7 million deficit and whittled it down to $1.3 million by the use of transfers, "I give the selectmen and Finance Committee credit," he said.
He acknowledged that in today's world, a mere 2½ percent increase in the property tax each year "is a mismatch," considering the growth in spending, inflation and salary increases that must be shouldered by municipalities each year.
Pat Warnock, who championed the push for a "no" vote on the Question 3 general override said she had hoped to win but expected to lose.
"I'm not surprised. They really played it very very smart. Traditionally, the people who will vote against the override are senior citizens," said Warnock.
She said seniors were fearful they would have to haul their own trash, and working couples don't have the time to spend at the dump on Saturdays.
"I'm sorry. I still call it extortion," she added, referring to the acrimony some in town have expressed over the cost for trash pickup being placed into the general override question rather than separating it, menu style, so residents could have voted for trash pickup but against other municipal spending.
"As much as I love the teachers, they don't have to have a raise every year," said Warnock.
"Had Question 3 failed, I would have wished I lost the last election," commented newly reelected Board of Health Chairman Carl Goodman. He explained that had Question 3 lost, trash pickup would have been abruptly ended with two weeks notice.
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