For how many pieces of silver?
Open Letter To District 207 School Board
February 25, 2010
The price you pay for the life you choose.
The price you pay for the life you choose.
Near the end of Godfather III Michael Corleone is confronted by his young nephew, Vincent. The nephew wishes to take over the crime “family business.” The Don does not wish to do so, but realizes that he is no longer physically capable of leading. Ultimately he chooses to relinquish control of the “family.”
There is one line in that scene that has stayed with my all these years. It is when Michael Corleone says to Vincent: “You must give up my daughter. That’s the price you pay for the life you choose.”
Of all the lines in that movie, it is for me, the most significant.
“That’s the price you pay for the life you choose.” Can you imagine how simpler life would be if we would always adopt that concept as our own.
I’ve been reading a great deal lately about the “plight” of School District 207’s teachers and administrators. What is their dilemma? In a nutshell, this school district has run into a financial brick wall, and its board and management have chosen to bite the bullet now, rather than to allow the district to enter into an ever tightening financial spiral. Clichés aside, this district is in deep financial trouble.
The teacher’s union members are currently three years into a five-year contract. At this time, they are demanding that the district and taxpayers honor that commitment, no matter what.
Reading the comment sections of our local newspapers and blog sites one gets a clear picture of the twisted logic employed by the union rank-and-file and the teacherphiles who support them. They refuse to believe that there is no “rainy day fund” money for their use. They know that the taxpayers who pay their salary are hurting financially, and that there is little likelihood that this situation will change any time soon. We have a contract – pay us, they demand. Well I have a different idea.
To the board, I say - if our arrogant teachers union will not come to the table to protect their own, or the children they serve, and tax strapped families that pay their salaries, let them go. Maybe you will not be able to do so this year or maybe not even next year. But when the current contract ends, the teachers union must be made to understand: “That’s the price you pay for the life you choose.”
Obviously, the highly paid teachers of this district do not know how good they have it.
Kenneth Butterly, Taxpayer
14 comments:
The school board has already said that the jobs are gone unless the teachers agree to make concessions that can save a good portion of them. And those concessions are, in my opinion, fair and reasonable.
I support unions. I know that their position on renegotiating any part of their contract is based on long-held beliefs that if they open it up for this, it will set a bad precedent. However, these are extraordinary times, and they need to take extraordinary steps. This is a new era for everyone, and they need to be progressive.
The teachers also have to understand that the vast majority of parents have no sympathy for the union's hard-line stance when there are so many people who are not working, or if they are, have given up bonuses and raises and frequently taken pay cuts.
This is a real teaching opportunity for them... I hope they don't blow it.
Interesting that Park Ridge residents are happy to brag about how good the schools are, and then quick to complain when the teachers (the very same people who make the schools good) expect to receive the pay that they bargained for.
Leaving that aside, the School Board has agreed to meet the teachers part way. Unions are supposed to be about strength in numbers, standing united, and helping your brothers and sisters in the union. If that still means anything, the majority will negotiate with the District, give up part of their pay increase, and save the jobs of their colleagues.
Padre:
Teachers claim to be "professionals" so their membership in a union is dishonest from the get-go.
Which is why the School Board should not "meet them part way." It should be a take-it-or-leave it deal: either the teachers take the cuts necessary to save their fellow union members or they don't.
I hope for his sake that either has no kids or sends them to private school. I cannot imagine having an opinion of teahers that is so low that one would choose to use the the mafia and mobsters as a prop to make your point and then send your kids to these "horrible people" for their education.
Anon@2:48 --
Do we understand correctly that you are worried in some way for any children the letter writer may have attending district schools?
Are you suggesting the professional educators in the district would stoop to engaging in acts of retribution or revenge due to the letter writers reference to a single line from a mafia film?
Aren't acts of retribution and revenge exactly the kinds of activities mafia families engage in, whether in fictional films or in real life?
PRU:
You absolutelty DO NOT understand me correctly!!!!! I guess my post was not crystal clear but the fact that that is where your mind would go only makes my point even more.
I have kids that I send to public schools. They are not in high school yet but they will be going to Maine South. I have an exteremly high opinion of all the teachers and admin. that I have interacted with and am very comfortable about their ability to teach and care for the most precious things in my life - with my wife and I very much monitoring and participating in the process.
If I had an opinion of these teachers where I would make the comparison that Butterly did, or make the leap you did, I would have many sleepless nights. I can understand how there are very different opinions about what teachers get paid and about unions in gerneral. I have expressed my opinion on teachers salaries in verious other posts. But if one really feels that they are worthy of comparisons to mobsters or that there should be fear of retribution that is a horrible place to be. My god if I had even the slightest feelings like that I would pull my kids out of that environment in a heart beat!!!
Anon@3:19 --
Are you sure it is Mr. Butterly who is making the comparison, versus simply citing a film source of a philosophically provocative line?
Since we feel it is you who has made the leap in making such a comparison, your own comment premise was used in posing questions to you, which drew your own comparison out.
It is your own leap to a conclusion about a comparison. Not Mr. Butterly's.
Gee.....I guess I read too much into it!!! Sorry!!!
Anon@3:37 --
Gee...we guess you did!!! Apology accepted!!!
The problem isn't just the current teacher's contract. It is the pension benefits that are going to bankrupt the school district. The cuts are not deep enough. It has to include both the teachers in the union and the administrators. The cuts need to be for those teachers that have already retired too. Forget about the price that they pay today. It is the long term fiscal promises that will need to be addressed. It will be painful for all, teachers, students, tax payers, etc.
The downward spiral is just beginning.
6:33:
I am completely onboard as long as you are willing to cut social security and Medicare as well.
Anon@2:48…
I wish the words had been spoken by Father O’Malley in “Going My Way” instead of Michael Corleone in Godfather III. But they weren’t. Yet they could have.
“That’s the price you pay for the life you choose” is another way of saying that the activities of life have consequences and that all choices cost us something. For young Vincent, the price for his decision was the woman he loved. For teacher union members, only time will tell what the ultimate price will be.
The board has made it clear what the initial consequences to the teacher and administrative staff are for non-negotiation. When they offered the union a modified plan with a less negative result, one would have thought that common sense would have prevailed over greed. And what can you call the attitude of the majority of tenured (vested) members of this group? Is their attitude wise? Is it giving? Is it even pragmatic?
Over the years I have been proud to call quite a number of teachers and administrators, friend. And in most cases, this group can count on my allegiance. But not this time! Maybe someone from this union can explain to me how they could possibly justify throwing their collogues, their students and their tax-paying employers under the bus “for a few dollars more.”
Paying the price for the life you choose or taking responsiblity and being accountable for the choices you make, what a concept.
Warren Buffet thinks it's a good idea too, http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9963937
If I remember correctly, Unions were created to protect workers from unfair labor practices and as a way to unite and bargain collectively.
What I see in this case, is a union that is using an existing contract to avoid feeling the effects of a world-wide recession. Effects that every other member of society is feeling.
Unions were meant to insure fair treatment... not preferential treatment. My opinion is that Park Ridge Teachers are using the Union in a way it was never meant to be used.
There are many people who had contracts with terms that have changed due to lack of funds.
And Father McKenzie's comment is illogical. If teachers are professionals, they do their jobs well regardless of their pay - like the rest of us who have seen reductions in pay yet still maintain a high standard of performance. By equating their performance to the fact that they have a generous contract, he's calling them mercenaries.
NewsFlash: We ALL expected the pay we bargained for. But few of us are actually getting it.
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