So the folks working at Wal Mart and Kwik Trip – not to mention doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, construction workers, utility workers, social workers, prison guards, soldiers, sailors, insurance agents, etc. – can manage to go to work, but the teachers won’t. We see how they value education and the kids they purport to serve.
TODAY, Madison Teachers Inc. requests that Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) pursue an all virtual learning model as the 2020-21 school year begins. Virtual learning is the best model to ensure the physical and emotional health of our students, staff, and the families in their households.
I am so embarrassed that I used to be a teacher.
These school districts and emplotees, plus the ones in LA, Milwaukee and other places are an embarrassment to the teaching profession.
If parents are going to have to supervise their kids educational needs they may as well homeschool. Wisconsin has a pretty robust homeschool community with extensive experience in various styles of learning.
A 2nd thought, Why haven’t school administrators reached out to homeschoolers? What they are trying to do is nothing new but they can’t acknowledge any one else with expertise or experience in home learning.
Gee. “Public Employee Union” and “Dishonorable” all in the same sentence. I’m shocked!
Anything to disparage teachers. Are you on-site Owen or are you virtual?
Start issuing them virtual paychecks having roughly the equivalent value of their virtual teaching.
Gee, jjf, why shouldn’t the teachers be disparaged. They are being derelict in their job.
In my county, put 500 people in a room and there’s a 99% chance that one or more has it. So do that in a school.
Let’s that ONE teacher get infected. Show me your response plan. Who gets tested, who gets quarantined? Send their classroom home for two weeks?
So that’s the standard? If one teacher might get sick, we can’t open schools? When will we ever open? Virtual school forever? What’s your plan?
I asked a simple question about opening schools. Why would you run to “so we can’t open schools?”
I think school districts have been working their ass off over the summer to try to come up with a plan. There’s no Federal guidance or assurances – nay, the President has even threatened their funding, although I’m not quite sure which executive power grants him that – and we can see that our State has been rendered ineffective, and the counties are powerless especially given conservative talk radio promoting the idea that “the health officers are going to break into my house and take my couch”, so… yeah, I bet the plans aren’t strong.
Unless they are at the university, they are not going to put 500 people in a room, unless it is a sporting event.
And guess what, jjf, teachers do get sick while teaching. It’s a job hazard.
Basically, I am not surprised.
jjf has a history of not wanting little Brown and Black kids get a decent education.
>and we can see that our State has been rendered ineffective
What we see, by looking at recent Wisconsin Supreme Court judgements, is that our State’s Governor IS ineffective. That’s Ever’s fault, not Trump’s, not Walker’s, not Vos’, not Fitzgerald’s . Own it johhny, you voted for the tool, and elections have consequences.
And guess what, jjf, teachers do get sick while teaching. It’s a job hazard.
But if they die, spouse and dependents may be entitled to a Worker’s Compensation death benefit.
It varies by state, in Wisconsin:
Also up to $10,000 funeral benefit.
My insurance agent who serviced my worker’s comp policy told me that he always told his wife that if he had a fatal heart attack while mowing the lawn, she should put a shirt and tie on him, drag him into his car along with his briefcase and say that he was on his way to the office to do something for a client. Kind of an inside joke in the business, I guess.
I think the real reason the teachers do not want to go back is that the Madison School District kicked out the cops and so the teachers will have to defend themselves against a small number of violent brats.
It doesn’t help that continued bad WuFlu data in the form of flawed reporting, collection, and interpretation, further compounded by tremendous political pressures to influence election year events, has left local decision makers with little reliable data to work from.
I have no problem with schools opening or not opening. I see both sides and they are both valid. People with children have no way to care for and no time to teach their children (I know plenty who are stretched to the edge and truly need respite from full time work and full-time parenting during the same hours). The modern paradigm for full time jobs has included 8 hours of ‘daycare’ in the form of education for the work-force and that is being taken away. They are desperate to find a way to care for their kids during ‘school hours’, ie their work hours.
People without kids at home only see the forced concentrated grouping that schools have become and think it is the stupidest idea in the world to open schools back up until there is a vaccine. The fact is that schools are a risk for mass infection so Gov’t is going to piss a large group of people off either way, because parents see it one way and non-parents and empty-nesters see it another.
The only contention here that I see is whether teachers get a full wage, a partial wage, or no wage if schools don’t open. It should be easy. They get paid the same as everyone else who lost their jobs, stimulus, handouts and different jobs. How not? Because they took a job sponsored by the Government instead of a private corp? What a load of purest crap!
Governments deciding who gets paid and how well for doing nothing is a concept only a Government could come up with.
And we sit here and have to take it, because Government is the law. I’ll tell ya, defunding the police may give us a wild west aspect for a time, but it is the first step towards a real change…if we make it go that way. How could a Gov’t with no police enforce a ‘wear a mask’ rule?
Tuerqas, I agree teachers should not be paid as much as before because they are doing far less work than before the Chinese virus hit.
And I will take it 1 step further.
If each elementary school has 5 5th grade teachers for example, lay off 4 of them. You don’t need 5 teachers teaching the same thing.
Why keep PE, music and art teachers?
You don’t need 5 history teachers in high school, just 1.
And the list can go on.
Tuerqas, I agree teachers should not be paid as much as before because they are doing far less work than before the Chinese virus hit.
And I will take it 1 step further.
If each elementary school has 5 5th grade teachers for example, lay off 4 of them. You don’t need 5 teachers teaching the same thing.
Why keep PE, music and art teachers?
You don’t need 5 history teachers in high school, just 1.
And the list can go on.
We don’t need the Dean off students who are in charge of discipline. Don’t need security monitors either.
School nurses? If there are no students, you don’t need the nurses.
Custodians? Don’t need them either. Have the staff clean up after themselves.
Don’t need kitchen staff either.
So, Madison, stay close but expect to lose staff.
Mar, do you have some screws loose? Why wouldn’t you still need PE, Music, & Art? Do you not think that those teachers can do remote teaching? My daughter has a weekly Music Therapy class (not thru the schools) and they work on different instruments and such. And how is Art ANY different than another subject. And when I was in PE, we actually took written tests on the rules of some sports.
By your ideas, why employ ANY teachers? There is YouTube & Khan Academy. You really don’t think before you type, do you?
And yes, I am SURE that some of the support staff will get furloughed if no one is actually inside of the schools.
jonny,your daughter goes to a therapy class and that is great.
But you cannot have group lessons in art, PE and music.
Sure learn the rules. That will take 2 weeks and then what?
But again, if they dont want to open up, we don’t need all the teachers either.