Woodstock CT Café

I think everyone understands the problems you (Doubtful and Questioner) describe with public service unions. I have direct personal knowledge of cases of abuse that would make your hair curl (really) and put your issues into perspective. I have also managed enterprises with labor unions, negotiated wages/benefits/contracts and recognize their cost (+/- 20% in my case). I know these problems exist and have experienced them myself with my own children.

No one disagrees in principle that it would be great to “incentivize” teachers and weed out the poor teachers over time. But the devil is in the details – how do you decide the best and worst teachers? This was the genesis of the teaching standards in Texas in the 1990’s under Bush, and led to a statewide cheating scandal as the whole enterprise was quickly and massively corrupted. While this problem has been straightened out and the Texas schools have improved over time, a lot of people who have studied this system have concluded that it was not the “incentives” that made the difference, it was the infusion of mass state cash into the system that made the difference – raising of teacher salaries and training requirements and construction money, as well as the fact that the system was starting off at the bottom nationally.

And there are legitimate and serious concerns with testing as a unidimensioanl – and inappropriate – standard for teaching success; neglect of students who cannot catch up; the targeting of the brightst kids with the best teachers; teaching to the test; and on and on. My advice is to tread very carefully here – and include a lot of experienced teachers in developing this system.

But the hard part neither of you want to acknowledge or do not understand is the importance of the public education system; the importance to the stability of that system over time of a stable, reasonable compensation system for its teachers; and the political and legal mountain that has to be climbed to change all of this. Moreover, you do not address the consequences of eliminating teacher unions, which would be that the wealthy communities would have great school systems, and poorer communities, or towns like Woodstock which is not poor but is dominated by “L.A.P.E.P.E”, where the schools would deteriorate rapidly. Read the rest of this entry »

Canterbury, Conn. — As town officials prepare to send their proposed $13.9 million budget to taxpayers for the third time, they are facing opposition in two line items: (1) spending more money by adding more open hours for the public library and (2) spending less money by shifting to the NECCOG dog pound service while closing down the local dog pound.

These two contradictory forms of opposition to spend more on dogs while reducing library services to humans only proves that you can’t please all of the people all of the time … and ‘you can’t fix stupid!’

The library is closed from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, and Library Director Minnie Poodle says the public wants it open during those hours. The $4,900 to cover that cost is in the proposed budget.

Discussion for and against the additional hours has dominated recent public meetings. Larry Pomerainian tells us “Many residents have characterized it as one of the contentious issues within the budget. A real dog fight.”

Library supporters, such as Minnie Poodle and First Selectman Bernie Kromfohrlander, say the additional hours are necessary to keep up with the demand from residents. “It’s a vital service that the town is providing, and it’s a service that is ever increasing,” Kromfohrlander said…. And Ms. Poodle has the numbers to back that up. Read the rest of this entry »