Letters to the Editor

I am pretty sure you will not print this because it interferes with The Journal's right-wing dreams, but I feel compelled to write anyway. In their compulsive effort to eliminate seniority Providence Mayor Taveras, the school board and the School Department administration have come up with a system rife with nepotism, incompetence and lack of accountability.

What is happening right now is pitting teachers against principals, teachers against teachers and principals against teachers. Is this poisonous atmosphere what we want our children to be educated in?

By eliminating seniority you get rid of the protection that lets teachers speak, up and stand up when an administration is hurting children. In my time as a special-education teacher in Providence, it was common for administration to save money to shortchange or totally deny students the services they were required to have by law.

Only when students had teachers protected by seniority was there someone to advocate for those students. It is not only special-needs students who can get ground up in by administration. Often students need an advocate. Sadly, any teacher who speaks out now might find themselves without jobs.

If there is a job worse than being a teacher in Providence, it is being a principal in Providence. So under the new Match.com system for hiring teachers, principals will be looking for staffers who will cover their backs. So whether a teacher is good bad or indifferent will not matter; they need to be loyal. There will be a strict unspoken code of silence.

If their goal was accountability they will not get there by ending seniority. They are slamming the door on creativity, accountability and cooperation -- the very things they say they are trying to achieve.

Eloise Wyatt
Providence

Comments

MGP said:

Eloise, I didn't even read past the first sentence to know you're not just a liberal; you're not an uber liberal; you're an ultra uber liberal. Anyone who calls this paper "right wing" is INSANE! They only endorse EVERY Democrat in the RI and national races. You don't get more left than that.

Link | June 2, 2011 7:02 PM
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kingj said:

Don't we all just love our public education system that we are FORCED to fund?

Link | June 3, 2011 8:11 AM
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