This'n'That; June Seventh#2; Education Control

Teachers' Unions Stifle Reform, Quality!
    Breaking the stranglehold of teachers' unions over state, county and local district spending and quality assurances has started; most notibly in Scott Walker's Wisconsin and Chris Christie's New Jersey.  This undoing will likely spread from these two blue states to the nation's red states--and hopefully--to other blue states. 
    I only have three school districts on which to base my opinions:  the (pre-consolidation) Cohocton (N.Y.) Central School District (CCS); the (pre-consolidation) Wayland (N.Y.) Central School District (WCS); the (post-consolidation) Wayland-Cohocton (N.Y.) Central School District (WayCo, or Wacko!); the Rochester (N.Y.) City School District. 
    My contention is that the NYS Education Department promoted district consolidation with a carrot-and-stick approach.  The complying and the non-complying school districts were either positively or negatively impacted with respect to the 'state aid' each district received.  Those complying with the EdDept wishes, received additional funds in declining amounts over 14 years.  Those non-complying districts either received a zero change or a declining amount of state aid, using formulas decidedly intended to punish said non-compliance.
    While the Cohocton 'acquisition' was probably the first 'merger,' the Wayland district has a long history of absorbing  adjacent rural districts:  Hemlock, Atlanta, North Cohocton, Perkinsville, Springwater, Webster's Crossing, et al.  The merger between Wayand and Cohocton Central School Districts was completed in 1993.  This action co-mingled 1,630 Wayland students with 272 Cohocton students; the Wayland school buildings and administrative offices were (and are) the primary campus.  The Cohocton school and bus buildings were a secondary irritant to the Wayland hierarchy.  As communities, neither the citizens in general nor the students in particular,  ever got along all that well.  Not that there was any outward animosity between the community citizens, Wayland's ruling and social hierarchy just wasn't our 'cup of tea.'  Most Cohocton residents gravitated--both in business and socially--southwardly, toward the Villages of Avoca and Bath.  As for the students, the Wayland district was larger enough as to be more a class, size distinction.  The students had on-going sports rivalries with Avoca and other small, rural school districts as opposed to being outclassed by the larger districts.
    Prior to the official merger vote, animosities grew between the districts; district residents and--much like the Civil War--between families, themselves!  Poor schlubs, we!!  In retrospect, a main problem concerning those against the merger was:  they expected the process would be democratic and above-board.  Not So!!
This merger was 'a done-deal' even before the prospects were announced to the general public; the state EdDept had decreed-thus it will be!  Even personal pleas to acquaintances on the state's Board of Regents went unsatisfied.  The merger opposition quickly realized that any protest; any demand for a re-count, a re-vote would be beaten down.
    For each 'small district' positive, the Wayland hierarchy--in concert with the state EdDept--posed a supposed even greater positive and beat the detractors over the head with it.  As a single example:  The Cohocton Campus was a single, multi-story building; the Wayland Campus is composed of single story buildings.  The  Cohocton district was chastised for not having an elevator in-place, in preparation for future handicapped students.  What was not common knowledge; the Cohocton School Board was actually ahead-of-the-curve on this, having  approximately $10,000 in the building fund earmarked for this very purpose.  Here it must be noted that (to my knowledge,) there were no handicapped students enrolled at the time of the merger proposal.  Previous handicapped students were accomodated with teachers changing classrooms, NOT the student(s).  The anti-merger did get some meaningless concessions:  'Cohocton' would be in the new district's name; the Cohocton Campus would continue to be used for instruction; Cohocton residents' property taxes would remain stable for the forseeable future-Whoopie!!
    The teacher's "association (read: union)" was hip-deep in the tragedy that is forced merger!!  The constant brow-beating, the less-than-authorized assurances of pay increases (one I heard was an Athletic Director {rural district: gym teacher!} whose pay was to increase from the mid-40s to $76,000) were more than the rural teachers could handle.  The Cohocton district--for several years--had a 100% graduation rate; Wayland district couldn't come close to matching that, even with their several-times larger statistical base!!
    I left the former Cohocton School District not long after the completed merger so I'm not intune with the goings-on in the new district.  I surmise that the new district went back to the shenanigans of the former Wayland School District.  Their school board, administrative and teacher's union hierarchies were continually complicit in financial sleight-of-hand; deceptive practices; failing to adhere to the state's operating rules and regulations.  As noted in a recent state audit, the WayCo District has returned to the aforementioned shenanigans!  The district maintained an operating surplus of $3.8 Million over several years, yet during those years the property tax levy increased 38%!!  Yup!!  The leopard's spots didn't change!!
    As with the large, blatant teachers' unions, the smaller ones are just as demanding; just as complicit; just as opposed to accountability as the former!!  These unions--much like their 'labor breathren'--have become so powerful as to dictate many areas of the states' and districts' budget, procedural dictates as well as their own pay and benefits packages.  An under-the-table benefit of union membership is the ability of the hierarchy to use the dues-paying faithful to support union managements' candidate; ruler-of-choice.  This is a less-than-legal money laundering scheme which has come to light recently.  The Soros/Jarrett/owe-bama regime has become so blatant in its' exploitation--at the national level--of the unions' support, as to not care if the regime's actions are exposed as illegal!!
    The concept of the labor union has long out-lived it's usefulness!  The original idea was to organize to fight forced child-labor, to fight unsafe workplaces and conditions.  During it's evolution, the union movement has reached the point of irrevelance!  Currently, the union movement survives to support what-ever regime in power that will grant financial and operational advantages back to the union hierarchy.  As with the Soros/Jarrett/owe-bama regime, the large, in-your-face unions funnel membership dues in support of campaigns like the "Tour d'Lies" which will insure their political standing.
Til Nex'Time....
http://www.empirecenter.org/Special-Reports/2008/06/PropTaxCap.cfm
http://www.bing.com/search?q=teachers%20unions%20control%20over%20education%20spending&pc=conduit&form=CONBDF&ptag=A8C9CD5EA5CD64260ACF&adlt=strict&conlogo=CT1401021
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states
http://www.allbusiness.com/education-training/education-administration/12300475-1.html
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/40647054/Wayland-Cohocton-Central-School-District