Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/45838
Setting the record straight What if the NFL played by teacher rules? I - by Jeff Taschner, DSEA general counsel n the October 3 edition of the , National Football League Hall-of-Famer Fran Tarkenton wrote a disap- pointing editori- al called, "What if NFL played by teacher rules?" He repeats the anti-teacher union rhetoric about how teachers can't get fired; that salary schedules are keeping good teachers down, pre- venting them from doing their best; that funding is not the problem with education, etc., etc. The piece starts off like this. In an alternate reality, where the NFL is run by teacher rules - DSEA's Jeff Taschner turns Fran Tarken- ton's football analo- gy on its ear. "Each player's salary is based on how long he's been in the league. It's about tenure, not talent. The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he's an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. "For every year a player's been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases. And if a player makes it through his third season, he can never be cut from the roster until he chooses to retire, except in the most extreme cases of misconduct. "Let's face the truth about this alternate reality: The on-field prod- uct would steadily decline. Why bother playing harder or better and risk getting hurt? "No matter how much money was poured into the league, it wouldn't get better. In fact, in many ways the disincentive to play harder or to try to stand out would be even stronger with more money." I idolized Francis Asbury Tarkenton as a child. This would explain the photo from the of Fran the Man grimac- ing in pain as Taschner family friend, Penn State All-American and then Chicago Bear Mike Hartenstine, sacked him during a game at Soldier Field. While Fran found it convenient to denigrate "teachers' rules" when convenient to do so, I wonder how he would feel about having to play by all teacher rules? For instance, how would he feel if, when his team did not make the playoffs for several years in a row, it was disbanded, shut down and then re-opened as a different franchise under different management? Or his coach Bud Grant and half his teammates were shipped out? Or Bud was let go and Fran, who loved to scramble and pass, was forced to play in a run-only offense or, better yet, moved out of his cher- ished quarterback position and made to play the offensive line? Or how would Fran feel if his Vikings performed poorly, not because his offensive unit could not produce, but because the defense could not stop anybody - but the NFL required players be evaluated on their team scores and, therefore, he was labeled as Needs Improvement or Ineffective rather than the Effective or Highly Effective rating he deserved based on his individual performance? I wish Mike Hartenstine had another chance to sack him because I'd tell him to hit him almost as hard as he hit Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski when he knocked him out, but that is another story for another day. ESEA/No Child Left Behind Reauthorization bill moving in Senate Tell Senators to think it through, get it right T he Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has released draft legislation, S1725 at to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind. The stakes are very high for stu- dents, educators, and schools. Experts from our national affiliate, the National Education Association, are very concerned about what they see. The draft com- mittee bill: • Still relies heavily on outcomes of test scores instead of support- ing true multiple measures of school performance • Prescribes top-down models of school turnaround that are not based on research, don't work, and ignore promising locally developed ideas. • Takes away teachers' rights to have a real voice in their own evaluation systems. www.dsea.org The Committee began considera- tion of the bill Wednesday, October 19. Weigh in now We must make sure that the Senate crafts a bill that champions student success, promotes great educators and school leaders for every student, and ensures equi- table and safe schools for all. Please ask your Senators to make sure that: 1.Student Growth testing sys- tems are required, instead of the unrealistic, false notion embedded in NCLB that that all students will reach the same benchmarks from one test. These student growth mod- els must be fair, reliable and valid. (We know that the Senator is on board with this, by the way.) As our Senators already know, teachers and parents have been sounding the alarm on NCLB's test-label-punish approach for more than ten years. 2.Developing multiple measures to determine student growth are mandatory for all states, not just a choice, as we understand some at the USDoE are proposing. We urge him to oppose allowing states to opt out of using multiple measures of student growth. 3.The "multiple measures of stu- dent growth" must include all teacher and specialist areas, so that there are tests available that reflect the growth of the students each teacher/specialist has, not the growth of someone else's students. Take action today • Contact your Senators and tell them to slow down, think ESEA reauthorization through, and do it right for our students! Since we have members in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, click here for contact informa- tion for you U.S. senators. Stay informed at . October 2011 DSEA ACTION! 9 Chicago Sun Times Wall Street Journal wiz.com/nea/dbq/officials/?affili- ate_lookup=1 http://www.cap- votes.org www.education http://help.senate.gov/legislation /