Who does Kerrie Dallman represent if not teachers?
In a pointed exchange on Wednesday in a House Education Committee meeting between State Rep. Paul Lundeen and the President of the Colorado Education Association (read: teachers union), Kerrie Dallman, the Union Agitator in Chief made an interesting revelation – all teachers do the same job and, thus, should be paid the same.
Pretty sure the teachers that she’s supposed to represent might have a different opinion on this.
The exchange came as part of a debate around HB15-1200, carried by Rep. Kevin Priola (R-Henderson), which, prior to being amended in committee, would have given highly effective teachers a bonus of $12,000 per year to teach in low performing schools. But, who wants extra cash? Everybody.
Here’s the audio, with the transcript below.
Lundeen: Since you won’t engage on that question, let me reframe it and ask it this way. Is there a circumstance in which a more highly effective educator should be paid a higher wage?
Dallman: I do not believe so. All teachers do the same job. The circumstance I would see a different compensation working is when teachers take on additional teacher leadership roles. Or a hybrid role in which they are doing some leadership staff development supporting their fellow educators in the building in addition to teaching and I do believe that when the role changes that compensation should change. But, I do not believe we should be basing salary decisions solely on a system that has yet to have proven itself and that has been implemented with such disparity across the state.
Teachers are an emotional topic for many. Let’s take that out of the equation. Let’s replace teachers with engineers and have the same conversation.
Lundeen: Since you won’t engage on that question, let me reframe it and ask it this way. Is there a circumstance in which a more highly effective engineer should be paid a higher wage?
Dallman: I do not believe so. All engineers do the same job. The circumstance I would see a different compensation working is when engineers take on additional engineer leadership roles. Or a hybrid role in which they are doing some leadership staff development supporting their fellow engineers in the building in addition to engineering and I do believe that when the role changes that compensation should change. But, I do not believe we should be basing salary decisions solely on a system that has yet to have proven itself and that has been implemented with such disparity across the state.
So, the engineer whose bridge collapsed due to flawed design should receive the same compensation as the engineer whose bridge was innovative in design and stronger? Let’s replace with doctor. Should the doctor whose patients keep dying receive the same compensation as the doctor whose patients thrive?
And, should all of those wages be the same across the state? In what universe does anything that Dallman says make sense? Only in the union universe.
And maybe not even there.
Teachers know that there are some among them who work harder, inspire more, and create better outcomes. Should teachers who produce better outcomes be paid the same as teachers who only do the bare minimum and consistently turn out mediocre results? We bet teachers who excel wouldn’t think so.
So, if Dallman isn’t representing the views of teachers, exactly who is she representing? Who is her union, the Colorado Education Association, representing? Why are teachers giving the union money if its leadership goes to the State Capitol and denounces their achievements? Or, do teachers only give money to unions so unions can elect politicians who protect the unions, which do nothing to protect teachers?
Teachers might want to ask their union representatives what exactly they are paying for.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks