(Victor Joecks/NPRI) – CCSD Superintendent Dwight Jones warned that an unelected, unaccountable arbitrator from California
Class sizes will increase and more than 1,000 teachers will be laid off if the Clark County School Board adopts its proposed budget tonight.
The School District must cut $60 million in spending. Officials had planned on saving that money by freezing teacher pay. But the Clark County Education Association, the teacher’s union, fought that plan. An arbitrator ruled in the union’s favor.
As a result, according to a memo sent out Wednesday, 1,015 teacher positions will be eliminated. This will result in classes increasing by about two or three students each.
Now, as Agenda co-host Elizabeth Crum noted today
This led to a couple of unintentional hilarious tweets
Also, NSEA has just said or at least implied that reducing 1,015 positions is a scare tactic, even though eliminating 1,015 positions means larger class sizes! The implication being that NSEA thinks there’s no reason to be scared of larger class sizes.
And on this, NSEA would be right — even though I don’t think that’s what the NSEA union bosses intended — because eliminating CCSD’s 1,015 worst teachers would be a boon to student achievement.
Why?
Because a teacher is the most important school-controlled factor in student achievement. Students with an excellent teacher learn 18 months of material in one year; students with an ineffective teacher learn 6 months of material in one year. Some people want “smaller classes,” but the most important school-controlled factor in student learning is teacher quality, not class size.
Unfortunately, CCEA union bosses prevented this
So CCSD’s seven best new teachers will be rewarded with pink slips
If you like this system, thank the union bosses at the NSEA and CCEA.
If you want a better system, the need to eliminate or, at least, seriously reform collective bargaining for public-sector unions
Point one: Mr. Shade the Truth, yes we know that the classroom teacher is the most important (in school) factor in regard to student achievement. But you do not state the fact that parental level of education, socio-economic, and cultural factors play as large a role in student achievement success as does the classroom teacher. Students that come from supportive functioning households where educational success is valued almost always achieve the standards needed to meet no child left behind criteria. Don’t blame teachers for the social problems that exist and that are many times exhibited in the success or lack of it expressed by our nation’s off-spring. Our village has crumbled and needs repair. When that happens you will see children again reach their potential.
Point Two: If administration would collect the data required to fire inferior teachers, the problem would be solved using a more uniform and precise mechanism for termination. The school district does and will continue to fire teachers who cannot perform the job at hand. The one hundred teachers that are classified per evaluation as sub standard should be let go via the regular channels now in place. If, the district can lay off teachers without regard to seniority many fine senior teachers may suddenly start receiving low marks on evaluations just to save money. The two issues should be separate so that children can receive the best instruction from the most qualified regardless of the issue of salary savings. In addition, if the district is so concerned about class size, why did the new budget passed Wednesday include additional funding for the central office and administration to the tune of $9,000,000?