In her May 16 letter, Kristin Trible, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, implied that the fate of our schoolchildren is on the line in the debate over the county schools budget. She said that public discussion has focused unnecessarily on school employee health benefits and matters of “fairness,” and she asserted that “each child gets only one shot at a quality education,” a mantra that makes for a good sound bite.
However, Ms. Trible appeared to be unaware that increasing the school employees’ 5 to 10 percent share of health insurance premiums and aligning them with those of other county workers will get our schoolchildren exactly what she advocates: no cuts to classroom instruction and no reduction in the number of school teachers.
Does the Council of PTAs believe that the overly generous health benefits plans of union members are more important than the “quality education” of our schoolchildren?
Monday, May 23, 2011
Union benefits vs. Montgomery students’ needs
In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, Joan Fidler, president of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League, writes:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
interesting twisted line, Janis - Does the Council of PTAs believe that the overly generous health benefits plans of union members are more important than the “quality education” of our schoolchildren?
ReplyDeleteKristin Trible mentions that "for our students, it boils down only to whether that helpful adult who spent hours with them on math facts or vocabulary skills will still be there next year."
So benefits are one way to attract and retain good teachers.
Furthermore - and more importantly - what you fail to see is that many teachers also have children in the system. So quality healthcare becomes even more important in this case. I personally know of three families with autistic children who are in the system. I find it odd that you can't seem to make that connection - that teachers are parents who are fighting to keep benefits in order to provide for THEIR children. So we're not as "selfish" as you claim we are.
Keep in mind that there are many faces behind the numbers you so arrogantly post on your blog.
@ 6:15 AM Did you read this post at all? Clearly, not. My name is not Joan Fidler. The post above was a letter to the editor in the Gazette.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how the name calling only comes from the anonymous posters. What gives? Too chicken to use your name when name calling?
Last night's Board of Education meeting was very interesting. The public learned that classrooms did NOT have to be impacted by the FY12 budget. There are actually CHOICES that can be made. Board member Durso and even O'Neill had suggestions for places in the MCPS budget to cut PERKS so that the money could be shifted to CLASSROOMS AND SPORTS.
Yes, the Board of Education has choices. The FY12 Operating Budget is over $2 Billion and there are plenty of places that can be trimmed without impacting students and classrooms.
Have you ever interacted with Ms. Trible? She is more interested in getting her name in the paper and face on YouTube than actually advocating for our children. She speaks her personal agenda, without bothering to get feedback from the members.
ReplyDelete@9:29 That's what the MCCPTA members want. That's who they elected. They wanted Ms. Trible at the secret MCPS Operating Budget meetings keeping it all secret - just like past MCCPTA President's Kay Romero and Jane de Winter.
ReplyDeleteMCCPTA members got what they wanted.
@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteGet a name and watch Board of Education meetings. No one is interested in reading your rants. If you are actually interested in the MCPS budget then you would be paying attention to the details.
There's a lot going on with the MCPS budget. Time for classroom teachers to get educated on what is being traded away by their union representatives. Even Board member Mike Durso can tell the difference between perks and necessities.
Paula Bienenfeld said...
ReplyDeleteTo give Ms. Trible her due, she was the only one of ~14-15 people who, when she received her secret letter inviting her to participate in the finalist Superintendent interviews, immediately made it public on the MCCPTA listserv, and asked for feedback before the interview. The only one. On the other hand, as a member of various PTA school listservs, my experience is that of all the chatter, notices, announcements, and requests to ask PTA individual school membership for feedback to MCCPTA, that appear on the MCCPTA listserv, none, and I mean none, of this makes it to the actual PTA members in the schools. It is my impression the individual PTA members are completely unaware of what goes on at MCCPTA and I bet if you asked, most PTA members have never heard of MCCPTA. At most schools it is my impression the MCCPTA reps never post anything to their school listservs. There for example has been almost no if in fact no discussion about selection of the new superintendent. PTA members need to step up. If you don't like Ms. Trible, say something. Say something at the PTA or MCCPTA, not anonymously on this blog. MCCPTA is at the secret budget table, don't forget. So, more than most, this budget is your mess too.
http://gazette.net/stories/05252011/montnew190000_32540.php Two Montgomery council members owe back taxes Liens issued against Ervin, Rice by Erin Cunningham | Staff Writer Two Montgomery County Council members owe thousands in unpaid taxes, according to Montgomery County Circuit Court records. The records show that council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring owes $4,746.21 to Maryland in unpaid taxes, interest and fees between 2007 and 2009. The state issued a lien for the taxes May 2.
ReplyDeleteWill the Gazette report on the past tax issues of Docca and Navarro household?
ReplyDeleteHaving been an MCCPTA delegate, I have to assume that other school PTA's (like Ms. Bienenfeld's) may be uninformed about MCCPTA goings-on because the agenda for PTA meetings does not include an MCCPTA report.
ReplyDeleteOlney Elementary did. President Nancy Hull gave me anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes based on how much MCCPTA did and feedback MCCPTA was requesting. I always voted my PTA's common sentiment. My only privilege was presenting pros and cons as I saw them to the decision being made before taking a vote.
Delegates that don't vote in accordance with their school's PTA membership's wishes are not adhering to their official duties.
@ William Jacobs - Actually there are some positions that local PTAs can't take. The positions are set by National PTA or Maryland PTA and the locals don't get a say. For those issues MCCPTA doesn't get a vote from locals, they just speak the party line.
ReplyDeleteHey! Why did you feel the need to edit my post?(I'm 8:14.)
ReplyDeleteHere's the rest - edited by me - in case you mised it:
I love how you fail to provide both sides of an argument.
Furthermore, it's rather interesting that the fans of this blog support Ervin, who is often the first to want to clean up the budget when she can't even handle her own financial affairs.
@ 9:43 - No, you are not 8:14. If you signed your name to your comments you would know that.
ReplyDeleteBoth sides of the argument? Hardly. Elected officials personal finances are not the county finances. The Apple Ballot has been more than happy to endorse candidates with financial issues for YEARS. Nothing new about this. This is just what the Apple Ballot supports!
The teachers union has made it very, very, very clear who they support through the Apple Ballot! The Parents' Coalition has made no endorsements.
The Apple Ballot supports the County Council and the Board of Education and the County Executive and the Governor along with State legislators. These are the teachers union picks and they are doing their work.
Check your own membership organization for your list of endorsements.
Just to refresh the memory of the Apple Union folks:
ReplyDeletehttp://mcea.nea.org/pdf/MCEACandidateRecommendations.pdf
Ervin and Rice were both endorsed by the Apple Ballot after a "rigorous" selection process.
Yes, we all know there is no rigorous selection process by the Apple. The Apple folks just endorse their picks. But it sounds impressive to say the word on the website!
"Court records show that Subin had two federal liens placed on his Gaithersburg home for unpaid taxes -- one of $18,153.97 for 2005 and 2006 and the other for $7,118.15 from 2009 taxes. Both cases have since been closed. Subin also had a foreclosure filing on his house in 2009, which was later dismissed"
ReplyDeletehttp://washingtonexaminer.com/local/2011/04/leggett-appointee-maintains-active-legal-firm
Janis, funny that you would say the Parents Coalition "has made no endorsements".
ReplyDeleteI believe the link below shows that the Coalition has made endorsements and planned to continue to make more.
http://fishmans.freeshell.org/PressReleases/parentscoalition.html
It also appears the Coalition has an active PAC. See below
http://www.elections.state.md.us/campaign_finance/pac_list.html
Sorry, wrong group. This blog is not a PAC and has never made any endorsements.
ReplyDelete