ON THE TOWN:Teachers union is right to abandon school board incumbents

There was an earthquake last week, but you won’t find the reading on any Richter scale. There will be no structural damage, assessment, no need to break out the generator and fortunately, no need to rely on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The temblor, you see, was caused when the local teachers union, the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, which has never backed a losing candidate, decided to campaign against every incumbent on the school board.

That’s right, every incumbent.

All I can say is “hallelujah,” “woo hoo,” and “it’s about time.”

My reasons for wanting some turnover on the board may be different from those held privately by the union leaders, but it doesn’t really matter.

If there is a governing body desperately in need of a makeover, the school board is it.

Judy Franco, the senior member of those up for reelection, has been on the board for 26 years. That’s a long time.

When she was first elected, some of the people teaching in our classrooms were not yet born.

When she was elected, Jimmy Carter was president. Gas was $1.13 a gallon, and a first run movie cost about $2.70. A first-class postage stamp was 14 cents.

Publicly, union President Jim Rogers says the union has “reached a point where we’d like some fresh eyes looking at things.”

Board member Serene Stokes raised the issue of her position on union contract negotiations as the main reason for the lack of an endorsement.

Yeah, that has to be it. It could not possibly be because in the 12 years she has served on the board, her legacy, as it will be with many of her colleagues, is that they saddled homeowners with nearly a half a billion dollars of debt, much of which was due to their foot-dragging on maintaining the public buildings in their charge.

If you are a teacher, you should break open a bottle of champagne and rejoice at the backbone your union has shown.

Teachers, you see, have been shortchanged by this board for far too long.

This opinion is an informed one. One of my brothers is a teacher in California, my wife’s side of the family is filled with teachers (and one principal) in California, and my niece is a teacher. In addition, I have spoken to dozens of California teachers over the years since my first kid entered the school system in 1995.

If I were to pick one subject on which teachers were all in agreement, it is that they have been given too much to teach. These teachers tell me that the massive curriculum they have to cover each semester does not allow for much individual attention; creates too much homework, which adds to the student’s resentment of school.

With those conditions, and the relatively low wages that teachers collect, it’s no wonder that many would-be teachers choose another career.

Most teachers tell me they would not mind the relatively low wages if only they could really teach. Teachers want to teach, not baby sit students or be a drill instructor. But it’s hard to teach effectively when you have to cover the Civil War before lunch or explain pi before P.E.

Someone up the chain of command has to lobby Sacramento on this point. Franco, with 26 years experience, should have led the charge by now. She should have offered a resolution to the board that would then make its way to Sacramento.

Simply put, the resolution would have called for a curriculum review to determine whether the amount of information that teachers are being asked to teach is actually having an effect opposite of what was intended. That is, instead of learning more, kids are learning less, and teachers are getting burned out as a result.

But in 26 years, she never found the time. Serene Stokes, on the board for 12 years, never found the time either.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they did not know. Perhaps they have not been talking to enough teachers.

Passing a resolution and trying to capture the attention of Sacramento on this important issue takes a lot of work. It also means change, and bureaucrats don’t like change — they like things just the way they are.

One proof of this is Franco’s reaction to her rejection by the school board.

“I was not shocked, if you will,” the Pilot reported Franco as saying. “I’m still doing my campaign, and doing it as I have done it in the past.”

That’s it — it will be done as it always has been. Why change?

Franco and Stokes are to be thanked for their service for the combined 38 years they have been on the school board.

But the time has come, not only for the fresh eyes Rogers wants, but for some action people to take their places on the board. The world has changed much since Franco and Stokes began their tenure. Students and teachers want different things now and we need to adjust to those changes.