If You Don't Do Your Job, Should You Still Get a Raise?

The teacher's union in our fair county has ratcheted up their rhetoric on a new contract....by wearing orange t-shirts, skipping the school open houses and telling our children that they deserve a raise and are not being treated fairly. That's right, my children have come home from school recently and asked me why the teachers are being mistreated? All this after the Tribune reported on August 12, 2008 that four of our schools are starting the year on probation and eight are on academic watch. All twelve are city schools.

This scenario brings up several interesting questions....1. We all know that teachers are under paid. Teachers especially know they will be underpaid when they choose to teach. When the school board has to pay bad teachers the same as exemplary ones, who benefits? 2. When the teacher's union refuses to allow more certification tests for teachers to prove they know the subjects they are teaching, who benefits? and 3. When schools do not show improvement year to year, do the teachers deserve a raise?

Here is the link to the Tribune article http://www.news-tribune.net/archivesearch/local_story_225120721.html