Proposal 2

In the week leading up to the election, I want to review some of the proposals that are on Michigan's ballot.  The first I want to discuss is the one that is most vitally important in my world: Proposal 2. On the ballot, Michigan voters will see

PROPOSAL 12-2
A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION REGARDING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

This proposal would:

• Grant public and private employees the constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively through labor unions.
  

• Invalidate existing or future state or local laws that limit the ability to join unions and bargain collectively, and to negotiate and enforce collective bargaining agreements, including employees’ financial support of their labor unions. Laws may be enacted to prohibit public employees from striking.
  

• Override state laws that regulate hours and conditions of employment to the extent that those laws conflict with collective bargaining agreements.
  

• Define “employer” as a person or entity employing one or more employees.
  
  

Should this proposal be approved?
YES __
NO ____

I want to urge all of you to vote YES on this proposal.  The seventeen years I have spent in education have proven to me just how important the right to collectively bargain is, on many levels.

On a personal level, if the right to collectively bargain is effectively destroyed in the state of Michigan, I will no longer be able to afford to teach. In February 2011, Diane Ravitch explains that a starting teacher in Arizona makes only $26,000 a year.  I don't care how low the cost of living is any given area, a teacher could not afford to pay off student loans, pay rent, and pay for a large percentage of classroom supplies on that salary.  More than likely, a person making this salary is going to work two jobs, making him/her a less effective teacher. In my own district, due to pay cuts, we have teachers who are eligible for food stamps. Way to save the government money.

Did I mention classroom supplies? A teachers' union contract can address the issue of basic supplies, such as paper, pencils, etc. Teachers must have access to basic supplies; if not, the union will file a grievance on behalf of the teacher.  Just yesterday, I met an Ontario teacher who has not been given the supplies she needs to properly teach her class.  I saw her at an office supply story, buying paper for her classroom with her own money.  This widow could have been spending that money on her own daughters or saving it for the future.  Instead, her principal has refused to give her any resources.  I urged her to file a grievance, but like so many people, she is afraid of bucking authority.  Her contract and all teacher contracts, properly should protect people like her.

Let's look at class size.  I have sat on the negotiating team for my local.  I was stunned to listen as the administrative team suggested that we do away with class size caps.  It makes no sense.  As a teacher, I cannot effectively teach classes of 35 or more teenagers.  As a mother, I do not want my third grader sitting in a class of more than 20.  I find it deliciously ironic that Mitt Romney declares that class size doesn't matter. He attended a school that has, according  to a friend who currently works there, about 15 students per class. Given his philosophy, his own children must have attended crowded public schools. Before you ride my case, I get the security risks, but why is what is good for the golden elite never a good enough investment for the rest of us? Rhetorical question, never mind.

Lastly, I would bet good money that there is "Right to Work" legislation waiting on someone's desk in Lansing.  Of course, once teachers' unions are destroyed (along with all other unions) those all important test scores will soar where only eagles dare.  Well, not really and not really again.

Well, if in the US, we get to the point of actually have destroyed unions, we will be in great historical company.

This is an interesting map, I think.

VOTE YES ON PROPOSAL 2 and feel free to share this information with anyone who is interested. As American writer Will Durant once said, "We Americans are the best informed people on earth as to the events of the last 24 hours; we are not the best informed as the events of the last 60 centuries."