Listen to Jim Livingston, president of the Prince William Education Association. Jim knows that Prince William County has been operating on the cheap for years. He knows that he and his colleagues have not received competitive compensation for years. Jim also knows that class size counts. These issues must be addressed this year. Will the advertised tax rate suffice in fixing PWCS’s operating on the cheap problem? No. Not even close but it is a start.
Prince William Education Association has been sounding the alarm about salaries and class size for quite some time. This is not a new phenomena and the local association has been vigilant about asking for these measures to be corrected. Yet, if one glances about the blogosphere, one would think that a certain blog from Gainesville discovered the problem, all by their lonesome. Teachers have been insulted and accused of being led around by the school board. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I rarely quote from other blogs but its time to defend Prince William County teachers.
So the teachers who
showed up at the Board of County Supervisors meeting on Tuesday were
simply hapless pawns who were duped into playacting to support Chairman
Johns and his band of big spenders on the School Board (with the
exception of Trenum, Satterwhite, and Bell) who falsely were reassuring
teachers that by demanding the highest tax rate possible that it would
mean a significant reduction in class sizes that they have to teach in.It is a flat out lie.
Frankly, parents have a right to expect better of teachers.
No Sheriff of Lyingham, our teachers are not hapless pawns. Prince William teachers have been fighting for competitive compensation and best practice teaching conditions for decades. You are a political beast pushing your candidates and you will be called out for attempting to use PWC teachers and their students to manipulate the public. You can’t push this one off on “a certain person” like she is the only person who objects to your tactics. You push this one off on Moonhowler because I also find your insinuations vile. Let ME be blunt. I think you should be ashamed of your behavior.
The PWCS budget has been skimmed and stretched to the point of being anorexic. There is no fluff or fat–the budget is barebones and has been that way for many years. Prince William County school system has long faced financial restraints that have often times put the county at a competitive disadvantage when compared to other Northern Virginia jurisdictions like Fairfax County. To ignore these decade long problems simply demonstrates a clear lack of historical understanding and knowledge of the local budget limitations that seem to be inherent in the Prince William County educational system. Teachers have faced low pay and over crowded classrooms for at least two decades. To pretend that there is some conspiracy to pad the already strapped school budget is stupid, political and obvious.
Since when does advocating for a sufficient budget make you a rube? How does the Sheriff reconcile calling teachers stupid because they advocate for themselves and their students and in the next breath pretend to defend the very teachers he just insulted? The Sheriff of Lyingham implies that you must be intellectually deficient to dare go to the Board of Supervisors to plead for your own pay raise and better working conditions especially since it is they who set the tax rate that will bring in the bucks. The BOCS holds the money card.
Jim Livingston is no newcomer and he is no rube. He is a professional educator first, professional association president second. He knows the historical budget background for the past several decades and he knows children. Believe what he is telling us. Jim is an intellectually honest man and will not attempt to manipulate a situation for political gain. Week after week, month after month he has told us the straight, simple truth. No one cares more about children and education than Jim Livingston. He has been in the trenches for years. The audacity of the Sheriff to insult Jim Livingston is beyond the pale:
But an equal measure of
blame goes to the leader of the Prince William Education Association,
Jim Livingston. it is impossible to fathom what he thinks he is
accomplishing in selling out to the School Board and School
Administration by allowing his teachers to be abused in such a fashion
to become lobbyists to pour money into the school budgets without much
of that money at all being spent to improve the working conditions of
teachers, enhance the classroom experience for students, or to increase
teacher pay.
The above is probably one of the most uninformed, ignorant statements I have ever read. Jim Livingston is no sell-out. Once again, the Sheriff continues to insult hard-working county employees in a public forum. Some things never change.
Only someone who has no real experience in education would degrade teachers for advocating funding for their profession. I chose to work in Fairfax County as a school counselor because of pay AND the investment that FFX put into its education system. Something I was NOT hearing about PWC when I was researching where I wanted to work once I finished my graduate work.
Oh, and this was 1999.
Lots of interesting comments from teachers–in Private email.
Constitutionally, the school board is in charge of operating the schools, not the BOCS.
Sheriff is passé…old
When county teachers are attacked and ridiculed for asking for a raise, then it’s time to call out those who would deny them their rights.
I am just very tired of decent county employees being demeaned, ridiculed and mocked. This time he went after MY peeps.
Pete needs to distance himself from this kind of behavior. He will soon not be able to wash the stench off. Pete needs to tell his admirers to clean up their behavior. Enough is enough.
I am tired of politicians acting like bad behavior is someone else’s fault.
It is very obvious what’s going on.
Before anyone starts thinking the teachers are living high on the hog, people need to realize that the state has mandated that all employees put in 1% more towards VRS. See the huge raise being sucked up? It offsets the state mandate.
People also need to realize that any raise is an across the board raise for ALL employees. That would include your cafeteria workers, security folks, custodians, bus drivers, administrators, etc. The raise, such as it is, isn’t just going to teachers.
While I am at it, the people in Gainesville, including the supervisor, need to start speaking more positively about the county and the school system. If I were to listen to some of what I am hearing coming out of blogs and reports from town hall meetings, I would think we lived in a real incompetent ghetto county.
How can we attract businesses to the county when our own people talk about the county like it is a trip into Hazard.
Pete, promote the county. Don’t talk about how shoddily it is run. Your communication broadcasts a very poor image of the county. It sounds stupid and plus, someone might start believing you. You are aware that many of our county employees have a national reputation?
I am just sick of the negativity. Put a stop to the nastiness out of the fan club. It is just unbecoming.