Union lobbying Snowe, Collins on education bill
By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
They were key to passing economic stimulus, a financial regulatory overhaul and an extension of benefits to the unemployed.
Sen. Susan Collins, left, and Sen. Olympia Snowe
AP
Follow Matthew Stone's education coverage in his Report Card blog at kjonline.com/blogs/stone
Now, one of the nation's two largest teachers' unions sees U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both R-Maine, as key to its hopes of shepherding a $10 billion education jobs bill to stave off thousands of teacher layoffs nationwide.
The National Education Association - whose Maine affiliate, the Maine Education Association, has 25,000 members - is courting Collins and Snowe's support for the jobs bill as a vote approaches.
The union sent five laid-off teachers to Washington, D.C., this week to lobby their states' senators.
One of the five was a teacher from Maine recently laid off from her position as a music teacher in Poland-based Regional School Unit 16.
The National Education Association estimates the $10 billion bill -- which shrank from its original $23 billion size before passing in the U.S. House earlier this month -- would save 138,000 education jobs nationally. The union says $39 million would go to Maine.
Spokesmen for Collins and Snowe said earlier this week the senators remain undecided on the bill.
"Sen. Snowe believes providing emergency funding for states to prevent teacher layoffs is important," said John Gentzel, Snowe's communications director.
However, Snowe "remains concerned about how it will be paid for," he said.
A spokesman for Collins also said the senator is waiting to take a look at how the $10 billion plan is funded.
"She is very concerned about adding to the already enormous deficit," said Kevin Kelley, Collins' communications director.
The bill passed in the House despite a veto threat from the White House, which opposed the way the bill was funded. The legislation, according to news reports, would have trimmed:
* $500 million from the Obama administration's signature $4.35 billion Race to the Top education reform competition;
* $200 million from the Teacher Incentive Fund meant to inspire performance-pay programs for teachers; and
* $100 million from a pot of money that funds charter schools.
The Obama administration is working with senators to find alternative ways to offset the cost of the $10 billion education jobs package, according to news reports.
"There's national concern about more deficit spending, but now it's paid for," said Chris Galgay, the Maine Education Association president. "The more important thing is that we keep educators in the classroom. That's our focus."
However, it's not a sure thing that a $10 billion infusion would even be able to return laid-off educators to Maine classrooms in time for the fall start of the new school year.
"I need to know a lot more about that package of money," said Augusta schools Superintendent Cornelia Brown. "Are those one-time dollars? Are there strings attached? There are so many unanswered questions."
David Connerty-Marin, a Maine Department of Education spokesman, said it's too early to know how and when the money, if approved by the Senate, might flow to local school districts.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education is preparing $40 million worth of budget cut recommendations in preparation for a mid-year spending curtailment.
That curtailment is likely if Congress doesn't approve a package of Medicaid funds.
"I'm not thinking about adding," Brown said. "I'm thinking about subtracting."
Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com
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23 COMMENTS
mayhemdude said...
These spenders are working unemployed.
July 23, 2010 at 6:13 AM Report abuse
gotabor said...
Teachers say they care about the kids....hardly....do they care about the massive deficit they want to add that future generations have to pay for?? Friggin public unions only care about themsevles and the taxpayer funds.
July 23, 2010 at 6:33 AM Report abuse
lotekguy said...
Senators Snowe and Collins remain"undecided"? How uncharacteristic. How shocking!! Can we no longer count on them to vote the straight party line? To be puppets of their republican leadership? I can't wait to read the liberal posters when Susan and Oly finally commit one way or the other. Of course,as usual they'll hold out to the last minute,providing the maximum amount of drama. If they vote with the dems,they'll be hailed as reasonable,moderate,independent"reach-across-the-aisle",true representatives of the people of Maine. Should they,however,buck the union thug-ocracy and vote against more wasteful government spending,they'll be villified by all the liberal ideologues and raked over the coals in the op-ed pages of our reliably liberal KJ-Sentinel-PPH editorialists. You heard it here first.
July 23, 2010 at 6:51 AM Report abuse
mallen299 said...
Public school student load has dropped 8.36% over the last ten years. School budgets have increased over 400% in that same period with more than 100% rise in "administrative" staff. Now help me understand where I should find pity for these laid off hacks? Unions in this country do nothing more than insulate their members from the real world, at a high cost to we taxpayers. In a perfect world, no one working in the public sector would ever be able to organize. It is a clear conflict of interest and it is easy to see the fiscal ruin it drives us to. A laid off music teacher from Poland? Let me see if I can find the last famous musician that was taught in Poland, Maine.
July 23, 2010 at 7:30 AM Report abuse
Paul Mac Donald said...
They will vote for this bill because Snow and Collins are Democrats in sheep's clothing. We need true Republicans that care about the people and the future of our kids and State...
July 23, 2010 at 7:50 AM Report abuse
Relax said...
Gotabor, So you’re saying teachers unions should go away so that we can pay teacher less money, correct? Do you think that will attract better quality people into education? Do you think that will make administrators treat teachers with more respect and thus extend the average length of a career in teaching? Mallen299, you seem to be tying administrative cost in with unionization. Granted administrators are overpaid and worthless (Like middle and upper management of most businesses) but as far as I know none of them are members of any union. They simply suck freely from the public taxpayer milk bottle. Their wages are determined by your local school boards. So if you want to cry about adm. cost cry to your board, not to unions. Also hacking on the need or use of instruction in music demonstrates your lack of intellectual diversity and culture. Clearly if we were basing value of any educator on your comments then there would be no need for schools at all.
July 23, 2010 at 9:23 AM Report abuse
wally said...
Lepage proposes undoing all of the recent efforts to cut educations costs with that largest expansion in education expenses in recent Maine history on his website. He says as governor he will reduce class sizes significantly throughout the state. Of course he then goes on to promote the mythological "efficiencies" he would find to make this free. Unfortunately those efficiencies exist right up there with unicorns and leprechauns in the land of "it doesn't exist in the real world, fool".
July 23, 2010 at 9:31 AM Report abuse
oldpole said...
Snowe and Collins have elimiated the two party system in the USA. How sad that the country has become a third world mess, because of the State of Maine,electing two undesirable people to represent us, which they have not.
July 23, 2010 at 10:18 AM Report abuse
mevet said...
They always say they will have to cut teachers. What about cutting administrators? Never hear that. The quality of education has decloined over the years as the teachers unions have gotten bigger, more powerful, more political and less concerned with educating our children. We can get the same declining education for less money. Start holding teachers and administrators responsible. Then we can talk about more money.
July 23, 2010 at 11:52 AM Report abuse
Relax said...
Mevet, Administrators will always be the last to be cut. Why? They are in charge of deciding who should stay or go. Do you really think they will put their own jobs on the line? Those cuts should be done, and yes need to be done by your local school boards. I strongly disagree with your attempt to draw a correlation between “declining education” (Test Scores I presume?) and “irresponsible educators“. One could endlessly make other correlations that would make as much or more sense. How about a declining society and near total lack of parents involved in parenting? Humm...maybe we should also set some parenting standards that need to be met for students to remain in public schools. Remove the parents who don’t care and their offspring that don’t care and SHAZAM!, all of a sudden all of your teachers will be performing like Helen Keller. Well that’s at least as likely that your current teaching staff being lazy or incompetent.
July 23, 2010 at 12:53 PM Report abuse
Govt2Big said...
If you're sitting down and would like to get a feel for how much money the MEA and the NEA spend on one-sided Far-Left political campaigns, just visit the following State site: http://www.mainecampaignfinance.com/Public/entity_financial_transactions.asp?TYPE=PAC&ID=4499
July 23, 2010 at 1:12 PM Report abuse
mallen299 said...
Relax, you let your liberal, nose in the air, I'm better than you because I care more, ego take over your brain. You know nothing about my cultural diversity, intellect, or background. I'd love for us to compare education and life experience, but for the likes of you, it is far easier to hide behind the anonymity of a keyboard. If you are such an emotional wimp that you have to pay someone to speak for you to your employer, (your union thug rep) you are a sad example of a human being. If I am unhappy with my job or compensation, I am adult enough to speak for myself or change careers. As for musical education, if parents want their kids to have it, pay for it. Send them to an outside music teacher. That's how music was taught when I attended school. The taxpayers have enough liberal, social feel good programs to pay for.
July 23, 2010 at 1:59 PM Report abuse
Relax said...
Mallen299, You say I have an ego prob.? Yikes! Sir, I'm pretty sure from reading your blurbs that you are unaware of the facts the current social and educational dilemma our nation is in. I'm also sure you won't believe what I'm about to say but as educating the uninformed is what I'm paid to do I'm going to give it a shot anyway. The only thing standing between normality and total chaos right now is the fact that public schools exist and are staffed by intelligent, motivated, and caring teachers. The more you subtract from that equation the more burden you will be placing on other “Social Influences” to raise our children. As many parents clearly are failing in such areas now, who do you think will be teaching our kids what they need to know to be successful? Educationally, morally, or socially? The answer. The TV, their computers, their music, and their friends. Yep, that sure does sound like a real “smert” idea. Good luck with that and please try to have a nicer day.
July 23, 2010 at 3:21 PM Report abuse
Relax said...
Mallen299, What makes you think teachers hide behind Union reps and don't speak up for themselves? That has not been my experience at all. There is no way to hide, why would anyone try? It has been my observance over many years that if not for the sake of Union involvement many school districts would be out many many millions of dollars due to lost law suits relating to administrative or board incompetence, ignorance of basic human rights law, harassment, or even ignorance or avoidance of the very contract they devised and agreed upon. In such cases the union hasn’t spoken for anyone. They simply helped administrators or boards to see where their ego’s (Or like you Half-Baked Superiority Complexes) had taken control over common sense. No Union? Ok, welcome to court. I suppose that would be a good way to get older teachers to retire early. Lose a million dollar harassment suit and SHAZAM, off to Florida they go. Does that sound like a good way to spend your tax dollars?
July 23, 2010 at 3:58 PM Report abuse
Chris said...
Last night the Senate rejected the proposed $10 billion bailout for teachers, with Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe both voting against. An amendment passed by the House would have added $10 billion for an education jobs program, $5 billion for Pell Grants, $180 million for energy loans, and other spending.
July 23, 2010 at 7:12 PM Report abuse
lotekguy said...
Let's put this"Union vs.Management"sham to rest. The reality is that if you work in a public school,you are a public sector,that is,government employee. From the principal and teaching faculty,all the way down to janitors and kitchen help,your salary and benefits are all derived from tax dollars. Unions are largely responsible for the high cost of education,as well as the lowering of standards occuring over several decades. Public education is one of largest budget items in every state,and is also responsible for incredibly high property taxes in municipalities all over the country. There's much fat to be cut here.
July 23, 2010 at 7:15 PM Report abuse
reddevil974 said...
they want more money to turn out kids that are 33rd world wide as far as math and sciences they cant do their jobs correctly and they dont teach what they should ( not all teachers )they are looking out for themselves not their kids they want more money and less work charter schools are the answer better education and competition produce better educated students and more responsible citizens
July 24, 2010 at 12:28 AM Report abuse
Relax said...
reddevil974, The answer is Parenting. Look eveywhere else if you need to keep fooling yourself or avoiding the obvious but it is after all your money to waste anyway you like. Have you actually checked out the performance of Charter Schools to see how they have done or what their cost has been? It isn't very promising. Perhaps the problem does not lie within our schools? Huh, perhaps.
July 24, 2010 at 6:09 AM Report abuse
lotekguy said...
The first step in improving education in this country is to get government out of it. The more centralized control of anything becomes,the less control we have at the local level. Standards tend to be lowered,as government tries to accomodate every influential pressure group. And no one applies more pressure than well organized,politically powerful unions. Step#1:Separation of school and state.
July 24, 2010 at 7:21 AM Report abuse
reddevil974 said...
relax your right part of the key is parenting but the other part is actually teaching and last i checked charter and private schools do a better job with higher grad rates and higher college enrollment the teachers unions want one thing money and the hard core teachers union supporters want more for less
July 24, 2010 at 7:25 AM Report abuse
Relax said...
Reddevil974, Then you are selectively looking. Look deeper. Who do the employ? New teachers or even unqualified teachers. Who has poorer teaching performance? New teachers and unqualified individuals. Who gets to go there? Not all students. It's a lottery system. What does it cost? It ain't free. How do they effect the public schools? It isn't all good. Perhaps you're confusing charter schools with "Magnet" schools? As long as such educational diversions don't come out of public monies I say go for it. I am however uncomfortable thinking I'll be paying tax dollars to send your kids to anything like a private school. If that's what you want it's your job to do it, not the taxpayers.
July 24, 2010 at 9:26 AM Report abuse
Relax said...
Reddevil974 states, "Last i checked charter and private schools do a better job with higher grad rates and higher college enrollment". You are incorrect relating to charter schools. Of course private schools have more success than public schools, there's not "Much" debate there. But why? Better instruction? Highly doubtful. Many instructors in such schools don't even have a teaching degree! Continued below.
July 24, 2010 at 9:43 AM Report abuse
Relax said...
The easy answer to any question is to look at what’s most obvious not to make wild extrapolations and unfounded correlations. If my parents spend 5-20 GRAND a year to send me to private school will I be more likely to work harder to achieve than when I was getting a public school education? I think so. If parents spend that type of cash to send their kids to such institutions do you think they may take the time to be more involved in their child’s academic achievement? I think so. So, we’re back to PARENTING. There are kids who do very well in Public Schools. Because they are geniuses who achieve despite poor instruction? No, they and their parents care and work hard to achieve. It seems to me that we need bigger changes to ourselves than to our current system.
July 24, 2010 at 9:45 AM Report abuse