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Teachers should not be exempt from new way of doing business
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Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
I am a parent that is completely confused by all of the name calling going on regarding budget cuts for Manteca Unified School District.  The accusations and the rambling head of the teacher’s union are just sounding more and more petty and I am quickly losing my need to “fight” for my children’s teachers.  If the Bulletin was to take a poll on how many people have had their hours cut back at work, my bet would be a very high percentage of your readers.  It seems that businesses are no longer jumping to layoffs as their first choice any more.  The new thing is furloughs.  Not sure why, but they are all doing it.  

Why should our teacher’s be exempt from this “new” way of doing business?  From teacher prep days to teacher prep periods at the high school.  If those days and hours will help ease the budget, why has this gone on for so long?  Yes, teachers may have to work harder and longer, but they will be working.  Instead, we continue to lose programs and employees, like physiologists, that do directly affect our children’s lives.  Instead of an hour of a high school teacher’s prep time when, regardless of what most can argue, a lot of that time is spent NOT returning emails or phone calls, picking up kids at other schools for dentist appointments (especially those with a last period prep), or other personal things.  Sorry, love teacher’s but I know enough of them to know that this is primarily true for most.  

So, again, I must strongly suggest that all this nonsense just stop and let’s move forward with the notion that teachers, like city employees such as police and fire, warehouse workers, Walmart, auto plant workers etc., need to “come to the party” and get on board with everyone else.  Stop the blame game within your district unions and take ownership for your inability to have a strong union leader who would have known how to protect you all in the first place!

I love teachers, but hate all this drama.
Stephanie Garcia
Manteca
March 20, 2009