O'Connor: The Senior Conservative
by Dick O'Connor
January 17, 2002
The Tyranny of the Teacher's Union
In School District 203 (West Suburban Chicago), the taxpayer is faced with a 'stacked deck' in the matter of increasing property taxes to fund the District. The Chairman of the Board of Education is a teacher himself (Phys. Ed.), and at the same time he is the negotiator for the teacher's union in a separate District. He (Tim Costello) does not see any conflict of interest in asking the local property owners to pay approximately $500 dollars more this year than the already bloated payments the taxpayers are now making to the District. We have four other members of the Board of Education who ran with the endorsement of the teacher's union. Because the union is selfishly trying to milk the taxpayer for all it can, doesn't this constitute a 'stacked deck'?
But why blame the teacher's union and their endorsed candidates? Don't we taxpayers have the right to run our own people for office? Are we not stupid for allowing this? We are hiring the 'wolves' to guard the chicken coop! The 'wolves' passed a contract three years ago that gave the teachers a 20% raise the first year of a three-year contract. No wonder we are in debt and going deeper with each contract. But yet, we are the fools for letting it happen. Now the 'wolves' have asked us to embrace a very questionable referendum to help pay for an additional obscene three year contract for the teachers.
Three esoteric programs have been cut from the overstuffed curricula. But even these three will be picked up by 'other means'. No staffing cuts have been made. Mr. Donald Weber, is the Superintendent of Schools for District 203. His empire has not been trimmed at all. In fact it has been strengthened due to some personnel changes. (Which Weber orchestrated).
You can watch for the insipid song, "For the Children" to be played on TV repeatedly as March 19, the day of the referendum, approaches. The Illinois Education Association (Illinois teacher's union) will mount a very strong Public Relations campaign in this election. The first line of the song is a clumsy attempt to make us feel that the union is doing all of this for the children when it is really just the opposite. It is "For the Teachers". The second line of the song is, "We can work it out". Translation: its' like congressional bipartisanship: as long as you do it the way the Democrats (the union) want, it is bipartisan. If you stick to principle, it is stubborn Republican partisanship.
When a small group of people attempts to take money from a larger group by 'stacking the deck', it is called a scam, whether it be a repair contractor or a School District. It cannot be corrected by reporting the scam to any legal authority, because it is not illegal for us to make fools of ourselves. All that the union is guilty of is the fact that they encouraged us to do so. They presented us with candidates that were approved by the union, and we voted for them. Who is the 'scammer' and who is the 'scamee'? This sort of scam is not peculiar to District 203 in Northeastern Illinois. It is being practiced throughout the state and the nation. The National Education Association (the national teacher's union), is actively trying to get their own candidates on every local school board in the country. If they are successful, they can write their own ticket at the taxpayer's expense. The scam is becoming a national disgrace. How many board members in your School District are approved by the teacher's union? Better look close and check for spousal members, family members, etc. Candidates should proudly run on the platform that they are anti union and we should make certain that we vote for such candidates.
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