Voice For Liberty

Tag: United Teachers of Wichita

  • Wichita teachers union president on video

    Wichita teachers union president on video

    The president of United Teachers of Wichita has been caught on video expressing thoughts that can’t be comforting to Wichita parents with children in the state’s largest school district. Project Veritas reports on the candid thoughts of Steve Wentz in the story Teachers Union President Admits To Abusing Children.

    Based on past Wichita School District investigations, Wentz likely faces a lengthy stretch of paid administrative leave while the district decides what to do. Not long ago the district paid its school safety services supervisor for 15 months while he was charged with aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and indecent liberties with a child.

    Steve Wentz Project Veritas example

  • Kansas teachers union opposes bill that empowers teachers

    Kansas teachers union opposes bill that empowers teachers

    Kansas National Education Association, the state’s teachers union, opposes a bill that empowers teachers.

    A bill in the Kansas Senate would give teachers an ongoing voice in determining who represents them in their relationship with their employer. The bill is SB 469, titled “Recertification of professional employees’ organizations under the professional negotiations act.” It would require that the Kansas Department of Labor hold an election each year in each school district regarding whether the current representation should continue. These elections, in effect, would be referendums on the teachers union, by the teachers. (Update: The bill has been revised to call for elections every third year.)

    kansas-national-education-assocation-knea-media-response-team-logo-01As you might imagine, Kansas National Education Association and its affiliates like United Teachers of Wichita are not happy that teachers might have an annual opportunity to judge the union, and in a way that has consequences.

    We’ve known for a long time that the purpose of teachers unions is to advance the narrow, parochial interests of teachers instead of Kansas schoolchildren, parents, and taxpayers. Now we see that the leadership of the union is more concerned with the existence of the union and their highly-paid jobs. Who cares what teachers think?

    As it turns out, the union believes it knows what teachers think. In a message, the Kansas teachers union writes: “So, in short, anyone who works in our schools — board members, superintendents, administrators, and teachers — all oppose the bill.” I’d like to know how the union knows that everyone opposes the bill. The union might be surprised to learn there are teachers who are opposed to the union. These teachers, as professional employees, might not like working under rules more suited for blue-collar labor. These teachers might not like being paid according to a schedule that pays bad teachers the same as the good. They might not like being associated with an organization that promotes a false assessment of Kansas schools that is harmful to Kansas schoolchildren. These teachers might like to work in a charter school, something that the teachers union fights. There are even more reasons why Kansas schoolteachers might not like being associated with the Kansas National Education Association and its affiliates like United Teachers of Wichita.

  • In Kansas, teachers unions should stand for retention

    In Kansas, teachers unions should stand for retention

    A bill requiring teachers unions to stand for retention elections each year would be good for teachers, students, and taxpayers.

    The bill is SB 469, titled “Recertification of professional employees’ organizations under the professional negotiations act.” It would require that the Kansas Department of Labor hold an election each year in each school district regarding whether the current representation should continue. These elections, in effect, would be referendums on the teachers union, by the teachers. (Update: The bill has been revised to call for elections every third year.)

    That’s a good thing. The teachers union monopoly ought to stand for retention once in a while.

    The bill has an estimated cost of $340,000 annually, including the hiring of 4 employees. But this is a situation ideally suited for outsourcing to one of the many companies that can perform this work. It would undoubtedly be less expensive and would not require the hiring of employees to do a job that is seasonal in nature.

    Further, the professional employees’ organization (union) that represents each district ought to bear the cost of the elections, if they want to continue representing a district.

    How effective has the teachers union been in advocating for teachers? In particular, teachers in the Wichita public school district ought to be wondering about the benefit of its union. The contract for this year did not include a pay increase, although the teachers do get some additional time off as the school year was shortened by two days. (Which makes us ask: Where is the concern by the board or teachers for the welfare of the students?)

    Wichita public school salaries and change. Click for larger.
    Wichita public school salaries and change. Click for larger.
    As far as performance over time, since 2008 teacher salaries in Wichita rose by 2.6 percent. Salaries for principals rose by 8.1 percent over the same period. Statewide, the increase in teacher pay was 7.7 percent, and for principals, 10.9 percent.

    On top of that, the Wichita teachers union takes credit for providing benefits that aren’t really benefits, such as when it promoted that only United Teachers of Wichita members would receive a copy of the employment agreement. In reality, it is a public document that anyone has the right to possess.

    There are many reasons why Kansas schoolteachers might be unhappy with their current union representation, including:

    Creating an adversarial environment for public schools in Kansas. Instead of cooperating on education matters, the union foments conflict with taxpayers.

    Forcing professional employees to work under rules more suited for blue-collar labor.

    Working to deny Kansas teachers a choice in representation. 1

    Promoting a false assessment of Kansas schools that is harmful to Kansas schoolchildren. 2

    Forming a task force to promote a false grassroots impression of support for the teachers union, complete with pre-determined talking points on a secret web page. 3

    Encouraging party-switching to vote in primary elections to protect union members’ “professional interests.” 4

    Constant drumbeat for more school spending without regard to competing interests and taxpayers.5 and taxes to support it.6

    Opposing the introduction of a modern retirement system, instead preferring to saddle Kansans with billions of dollars in debt.7

    —
    Notes

    1. Weeks, B. (2013). Kansas teachers union: No competition for us. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/education/kansas-teachers-union-no-competition-for-us/. ↩
    2. Weeks, B. (2016). Kansas schools and other states. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/kansas-schools-and-other-states/. ↩
    3. Weeks, B. (2014). Our Kansas grassroots teachers union. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/kansas-grassroots-teachers-union/. ↩
    4. Weeks, B. (2012). KNEA email a window into teachers union. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/knea-email-window-teachers-union/. ↩
    5. KNEA – School Funding . (2016). Knea.org. Available at: http://www.knea.org/home/366.htm. Accessed 8 Mar. 2016. ↩
    6. KNEA – Taxes and Revenue. (2016). Knea.org. Available at: http://www.knea.org/home/368.htm. Accessed 8 Mar. 2016. ↩
    7. Weeks, B. (2011). KPERS problems must be confronted. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/kansas-government/kpers-problems-must-be-confronted/. ↩
  • Wichita teacher salaries compared

    Wichita teacher salaries compared

    If Wichita public school teachers seem to be unhappy with their pay, there’s a reason why. The following charts show the average salaries for three classes of employees as well as the change over time. The increase in principal salaries is three times that of teacher salaries.

    Citizens may want to keep this in mind when the district says that it is doing everything it can to direct resources into the classroom. Teachers may want to question why they pay dues to United Teachers of Wichita — their union — when they don’t get better representation than this.

    To access an interactive visualization of school salaries for all districts in the state, click here.

    Wichita public school salaries and change. Click for larger.
    Wichita public school salaries and change. Click for larger.

  • Wichita teacher contract: For union members only?

    United Teachers of Wichita logoIn a pitch to increase membership, United Teachers of Wichita promotes an exclusive benefit: “Only UTW members receive a copy of the Teachers Employment Agreement (contract).”

    I don’t know why the Wichita teachers union would promote the contract as an exclusive benefit. It is a public document. You may read it here.

  • Teachers union members to be proud of

    Critics of public schools usually explain that they’re not faulting individual teachers. Instead, they target their criticism at the teachers union, bureaucratic school administration, or “the system” in general.

    So when we observe the actions of teachers, we’re correct to wonder if they’re acting as citizens, or as teachers representing their school districts, or as union members, or in some other role. This issue is important when we take notice of the actions of teachers at a recent meeting of the South-Central Kansas Legislative Delegation in Wichita.

    Here’s a message tweeted during that meeting from Judy Loganbill, a Wichita school teacher and until this year, a member of the Kansas House of Representatives:

    This salty language inspired by political conflict: Is that Judy Loganbill citizen, teacher of young children, or union member speaking?

    This glee spilled over to Facebook:

    Wichita teachers on Facebook

    Randy Mousley is president of United Teachers of Wichita, the Wichita teachers union. Parents of Wichita schoolchildren might be interested in knowing which role he’s assuming when taking credit for his invention: Citizen, union leader, teacher, or something else?

  • Wichita teacher labor kerfuffle illustrates the problem

    A dispute over teacher working conditions in USD 259, the Wichita public school district, provides a window into the workings of the public school system and its problems. There is a way out, but it’s not happening in Kansas.

    Public school teachers want to be recognized by the public as professionals. But when Wichita school district management seeks to actually manage teachers, the union intervenes, and change must be negotiated.

    The issue, according to Wichita Eagle reporting, is that the school district “wants to start requiring teachers to write detailed lesson plans, file grades online every week and contact each student’s parent or guardian at least once per grading period.”

    This request was deemed “insulting” by United Teachers of Wichita, the union for Wichita public school teachers.

    Right away we can see some problems with public education, illustrated for all to see here in Wichita. First, why are the working conditions of Wichita schoolteachers a public matter? The answer is, of course, is that they are public employees, paid by tax dollars, and the public therefore has an interest and a right to know certain things.

    This interest — and controversy — was played out in some of the comments left to the online version of this story. Two controversial issues argued about include whether teachers are paid too little (or too much), and how many hours teachers work (or not).

    Both of these issues relate to professionalism. Most professional employees are paid based on performance or an agreement struck between the employee and management. That’s not the case in most public school systems, including Wichita. Here, teacher pay is based solely on two factors: longevity and education credentials earned. There is no opportunity for any teachers to earn more, no matter how they distinguish themselves. The reverse is true: the poor teachers earn the same as the outstanding. This lockstep pay scale is not characteristic of professional employees.

    Regarding how much teachers actually work, I’m sure some work long hours to complete their work. But the union contract for Wichita teachers is full of language like “The ending time of the school day in each building shall be seven (7) hours and ten (10) minutes after the beginning time” and “The teacher work day will be increased by forty (40) minutes one day per week for seventeen (17) weeks of the school year for PLC.” Again, union contract language like this is not characteristic of professional employees.

    But whether we call teachers “professional” or not is just a label. The real issue is that these issues are a matter for public discussion, and that they cause so much controversy and heated argument. This is characteristic of government institutions that have a monopoly or near-monopoly and are isolated from market competition.

    In Kansas, the public schools have a near-monopoly on the use of public funds for education. Unless a family wants to send their children to religious schools, not many have the financial resources to send their children to private schools.

    So we are left with a monolithic public school system, a system run by government. People are going to argue about how the system is run. People will resist paying for it. Some people will suffer the delusion that they can have an impact on the way the system is run, only to find out that the system protects itself very well.

    In many areas of human life, market competition has found to be the force that makes things better. Market competition doesn’t mean that people have to work harder and longer. Instead it means that there is a marketplace where consumers have a choice. It also means that people are free to enter the market as suppliers, as well as consumers.

    In the introduction to The Morality of Capitalism, Tom G. Palmer explains further how genuine capitalism — the system of market competition — is a system of innovation and creativity:

    The term ‘capitalism’ refers not just to markets for the exchange of goods and services, which have existed since time immemorial, but to the system of innovation, wealth creation, and social change that has brought to billions of people prosperity that was unimaginable to earlier generations of human beings. Capitalism refers to a legal, social, economic, and cultural system that embraces equality of rights and ‘careers open to talent’ and that energizes decentralized innovation and processes of trial and error. … Capitalist culture celebrates the entrepreneur, the scientist, the risk-taker, the innovator, the creator. … Far from being an amoral arena for the clash of interests, as capitalism is often portrayed by those who seek to undermine or destroy it, capitalist interaction is highly structured by ethical norms and rules. Indeed, capitalism rests on a rejection of the ethics of loot and grab. … Capitalism puts human creativity to the service of humanity by respecting and encouraging entrepreneurial innovation, that elusive factor that explains the difference between the way we live now and how generation after generation after generation of our ancestors lived prior to the nineteenth century.

    We don’t experience the benefit of this in Kansas and Wichita public education. Except for religious schools and a handful of private schools that few can afford, education is provided by a government monopoly isolated from the creative and entrepreneurial impetus of markets. We don’t benefit from decentralized innovation. We don’t respect and encourage entrepreneurial innovation. Government programs don’t have these features.

    Paradoxically, while supporters of public education are likely to describe capitalism as an “amoral arena for the clash of interests,” we can see that the Wichita public school system is where the clash between management and workers is happening, played out in public.

    Instead of the education of children being the responsibility of parents and the concern of those they choose to voluntarily associate with, we have a government program. We fight over it. We destroy civil society, turning over something so vital and important to government bureaucrats and unions.

    In Kansas, schools face very little market competition. The public school establishment vigorously beats back every attempt to introduce even small amounts of choice and competition. Instead we are left to fuss over phony reform measures such as Governor Sam Brownback’s current school reform proposal, which is really just small adjustments as to how the existing system will be paid for. The governor has yet to propose any meaningful reform.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Monday February 14, 2011

    KRA guide to elected officials. The Kansas Republican Assembly has created a guide to Kansas elected officials. Besides contact information, it also holds things like committee membership for legislators. The links to the information are on the right side of KRA’s home page.

    Wichita Eagle voter guide. Click here. You can get a list of the candidates, along with their responses to questions, customized for your address.

    Campaign signs. The placement of political campaign signs can be an issue. Here is a City of Wichita letter describing placement rules, and a diagram. … If you live in a neighborhood with covenants prohibiting campaign signs, the covenants don’t apply at election time. See In Kansas, political signs are okay, despite covenants.

    Rasmussen polls last week. “Most voters continue to strongly favor repeal of the national health care law and they’re evenly divided as to whether the new law will force them to change insurance coverage.” Survey is here. … In a video Scott Rasmussen explains explains that 1954 was the last year that government spending declined from the previous year. Video is here, and an article is here. The article holds a chart that compares the difference between what government spending would be if it grew at the rate of population plus inflation, versus its actual growth. It’s a big difference.

    Organ recital tomorrow. On Tuesday (February 15) Wichita State University’s Lynne Davis presents a faculty organ recital. The event starts at 7:30 pm and has a small admission charge. The location is Wiedemann Recital Hall (map) on the campus of Wichita State University. For more about Davis and WSU’s Great Marcussen Organ, see my story from last year.

    Funny campaign stuff. Funny or sad, you decide. Proofreading always helps. A candidate for city council’s campaign website — right on the front page — reads: “The future of our great city rest in the voter’s hands, your hands.” Another page for this candidate states: “We must realize that things that use to work in our community, may no longer work.” … The Wichita Eagle voter guide has a spot for candidates to list their endorsements. Usually candidates would list prominent people or organizations that are supporting them. But one candidate used this opportunity to list a number of products that he recommends.

    Wichita teachers union contract. Public school teachers want to be treated as professionals. But their union contracts read like something we’d expect to see in a United Auto Workers contract, and we know what that union did to the American automotive industry. Here’s an example from the contract between USD 259, the Wichita public school district, and United Teachers of Wichita: “The ending time of the school day in each building shall be seven (7) hours and ten (10) minutes after the beginning time. The Superintendent and the UTW President will review all requests submitted to extend the school day prior to April 1 of each year. Their joint recommendation shall be subject to Board approval. All requests must be first supported by 80 percent of the affected staff as determined by a secret ballot election conducted by the UTW.”

    What public sector union leaders think. Speaking of public sector unions, here’s a video featuring John Gage, who is president of American Federation of Government Employees, and what he thinks of those who want to control federal spending. It’s not complimentary.

    City council candidates to meet. This week’s (February 18) meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club features Wichita city council candidates from district 3. Scheduled to appear are James Clendenin, Clinton D. Coen, Mark S. Gietzen, and Hoyt Hillman. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm meetings. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club.

    Politicians’ Top 10 Promises Gone Wrong. This Monday (February 14) Americans for Prosperity will show the 2010 John Stossel documentary “Politicians’ Top 10 Promises Gone Wrong.” For a preview and interview with Stossel, click here. For my reporting and review of the show, click on Stossel on politicians’ promises. … This event, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, will be held on Monday, February 14 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the Lionel D. Alford Library located at 3447 S. Meridian in Wichita. The library is just north of the I-235 exit on Meridian. For more information on this event contact John Todd at john@johntodd.net or 316-312-7335, or Susan Estes, AFP Field Director at sestes@afphq.org or 316-681-4415.

  • Kansas legislative forums should be for citizens

    This week’s meeting of the South-Central Kansas Legislative Delegation with citizens featured a number of speakers who — while citizens, of course — are working for taxpayer-funded agencies. Many of these also have a strong lobbying presence in Topeka. The large-scale presence of these speakers at this meeting was a matter of concern for one legislator who contacted me, suggesting that so many taxpayer-funded speakers crowded out regular citizens, which is who these meetings are designed for.

    Government agencies have their own meeting with legislators each year at this time in Wichita. Furthermore, many government agencies like USD 259, the Wichita public school district, have their own year-round, highly-paid lobbyists to represent them.

    The taxpayer-funded group that stood out the most was United Methodist Youthville, an agency that contracts with the state to provide a variety of child protective care services. Youthville sent six speakers to this meeting, and they, one after another in tag team fashion, presented their case to the legislators.

    One of the speakers for Youthville was Heather Morgan, who is listed at the Secretary of State’s office as a lobbyist for Youthville.

    Undoubtedly part of the reason for Youthville’s large presence was to counter criticism of their operations, which is often a topic at the legislative forums. The Youthville representatives, which spoke very near the start of the meeting, left as soon as they had delivered their message to the legislators.

    School spending advocates made their appearance. Randy Mousley, who is vice-president of United Teachers of Wichita (the teachers union), spoke in favor of more school spending — at least I think so, as his message to the legislators could be interpreted several ways. But the entire goal of the UTW, which is an affiliate of Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), is that there must be more spending on schools, and it lobbies for this quite effectively. Brent Lewis, a board member of UTW, also spoke in favor of government and school spending.

    Other taxpayer-funded entities made their appearance in the persons of Mark McCain, general manager of Wichita Public Radio, and Michele Gors, President of Kansas Public Television. These heads of these at least partially taxpayer-funded organizations made their case for more state government funding.

    These executives have the time and wherewithal to travel to Topeka to lobby legislators. Citizens — especially if they’re not local to Topeka — don’t have the ability to do this. And when they do, their travel is not paid for by their companies or unions.

    As legislators told me, these taxpayer-funded agencies make their case — often at taxpayer expense — very well in Topeka. They shouldn’t be crowding out citizens at legislative forums.