PAYING ATTENTION!

Click the Devil to
Return to Main Page

Commentary on the Lawrence Teachers Union

Superintendent Angers Teachers Union…
By Telling the Truth!
Published 11/15/00

The Lawrence Teachers Union cries and complains any time a teachers are criticized for not doing their jobs. They lobby for more money and benefits every year for teachers who, on the whole, work hard and do their best. But the teachers union is also in the business of defending teachers against disciplinary actions when certain educators overstep their bounds and break the law.

Teachers unions are detrimental to education and the promotion of excellence in our schools. They lobby for across the board pay raises and benefits based on a teacher’s length of service instead of their excellence of performance. They rail against performance testing and holding teachers accountable to do their jobs. They play politics in the community and sell out their students for mediocre policies that give them more opportunities to advance themselves personally.

A perfect example of this is the current president of the Lawrence Teachers Union, Gary Marcoux. For years Mr. Marcoux had weaseled his way into the inner circle of Lawrence politics so that he was not only representing the teachers as their union president, but he was also a department head at the high school. Department heads are administrators charged with disciplining teachers for wrong doing in their department. Talk about a conflict of interest. At the same time he was in charge of disciplining teachers as the science department head, he was also charged with defending them when they appealed his decision. A wise man once said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Gary Marcoux is the case and point.

Recently New Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy sent out a memo which declared that the instruction in our schools were "mediocre." Anyone who has children in the schools or has followed the debacle of our failed leadership might say he was being generous with his assessment. Yet, instead of asking the superintendent how they can make our schools better, how teachers can raise the level of excellence, Teachers Union President Gary Marcoux immediately launched a political attack against Laboy defending the sub standard instruction which exists in many of our schools.

Maybe Mr. Marcoux is upset because he has a guilty conscience. Maybe he is taking it personal because he defends teachers who hit students, refuse to follow curriculum, act insubordinate, and put your children at risk. Maybe Mr. Marcoux sees the writing on the wall and is starting to realize that Superintendent Laboy is not fooling around and will make real changes. Change is something which frightens the teachers union because they have had a lock on power so long and have had their own way for so many years that they have forgotten what it’s like to follow the rules and teach children at a standard which is above par.

Teachers shouldn’t have a union which negotiates the same contract for every teacher. We have good teachers and we have bad. They should be paid based on performance. Teachers should be on the same contract as principals, with a one or two year contract and performance evaluations before the are rehired. This way, if a teacher is not performing as they should, and their students are not learning at grade level, we can remove them.

Do you know how hard it is to remove a bad teacher in the Lawrence public schools today? I served on the School Committee and sat through countless hours of disciplinary hearings for teachers who had done all sorts of things. One teacher who came before us had been disciplined five times for five separate offenses against students. I will tell you this, that teacher is still working in the Lawrence public schools today. And you can thank people like Gary Marcoux for that teachers daily contact and influence on our children.

Wilfredo Laboy is right. In fact, he was being more than kind when he said the instructions in our schools are mediocre. When you have teachers who can not speak the English language in charge of bilingual classrooms they are failing our children. When we have teachers on their fifth offense standing before the school committee, and the teachers union argues for their return to the classroom, they are failing our children. And when Wilfredo Laboy calls attention to the problem of poor instruction in the classroom, and Gary Marcoux would rather complain than pitch in to help make it better, he is failing our children.

If the City of Lawrence is serious about moving this school system forward with the very best teachers performing the very best instruction for our kids, there must be a working relationship between the teachers and the superintendent. There must be an admission by the union that they have been part of the problem for the last ten years. There must be an honest dialogue about how we can reform the way we do things or we will always get what we have always gotten. And that, my friends, is a failing school system, with the lowest test scores, highest drop out and teen pregnancy rates and no priority given to English proficiency.

I am not saying the union is to blame for all the problems in our schools. But they have certainly not been part of any solutions. The parents and neighborhood groups have a duty to stand up and say that Wilfredo Laboy is right and he should not back down to the political threats of Gary Marcoux and his union of malcontents. Sure, we have great teachers as well as horrible ones. Sure we have great schools in Lawrence as well as failing schools. But, how fair is it to those teachers who try hard and produce results, when they are paid at the same rate as someone in another school who just shows up for work every day? How fair is it to the teacher of the Henessey School, one of the best grammar schools in the state, that they must be lumped in with teachers and schools that are clearly underperforming?

In education, one size does not fit all. The amount of time you spend working in a school should not determine your pay. It must be determined by a teacher’s performance in the classroom. We have teachers who have been in the system for 10 years who barely open a book, being paid much more than an aggressive, effective, passionate teacher who has only been here for one or two years. Gary Marcoux has been milking our school system long enough and he is not alone. The teachers union members who support him year after year are to blame as well.

When Wilfredo Laboy begins to look at ways we can turn our failing schools into institutions of educational excellence, he may just find that the influence of the teachers union is right smack dab in the middle of most of our problems. The School Committee and the mayor should stand behind Mr. Laboy as he starts to propose changing the way we educate our children. And I hope that the parent organizations and neighborhood groups get behind him as well. It’s a sad and ugly truth that has gone unspoken for too long. Finally, we have a leader in Wilfredo Laboy who is willing to speak out and hold teachers accountable for their actions, and their inaction. Whether or not he succeeds in that endeavor will depend on how much support he gets from the community.

You are all members of the community. Will you take a few minute out of your day to call your elected officials and support his efforts? If you don’t, you are no better than Gary Marcoux and the Lawrence Teachers Union. And that makes you a part of the problem, instead of part of the solution.