Term Paper on "Labor Relations Lot of U.S. Nationals"

Term Paper 5 pages (2204 words) Sources: 8 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Labor Relations lot of U.S. nationals are conceited of the educational benefits that are accessible to our children in schools. Yet, our educational system might be rotting from inside by an impasse which has been bothering a lot of teaching aspirants. (Slayter, 2004) Several teachers discover the pressures of discharging the duties of an educator in present-day schools problematic and during several occasions being stressful. At the time when pressures of duty leads to teacher burnout, it can have severe effects for the well-being and contentment of teachers, and even for the students, professionals, and families which they communicate with regularly. (Wood; McCarthy, 2004)

According to Cummings, the crisis of the decay in the present educational system is primarily because of the considerably low remuneration offered to teachers. When teachers opted against joining the profession, they cited low salaries as the primary cause for not taking up a teaching job. (Lewis, 2002) the disparity in remuneration between teachers and other similar skilled employees have widened in the last decade, rendering it increasingly hard to employ and prevent the attrition of expert teachers, as per a report published by the Economic Policy Institute in 2004. (Slayter, 2004) Going by the1998 research report published by the American Federation of Teachers, remuneration remains an important reason as to whether one takes up a teaching post or not. The abysmal initial remuneration can be mostly disappointing in case of those who become involved in teaching during the middle of their career having families to support for, except for cases where the person may have accepted a premature retirement or have a spouse who is earning a great deal. (Lewis, 2002)

As per the American Federation of Teachers, in the bygone several years, remuneration proposals in case of college graduates in every discipline have risen at double the rate compared to those for the new teachers. (Lewis, 2002) From 1996 onwards, the salaries of teachers lag when compared to other college graduates, with teachers' weekly salaries which are adjusted with inflation levels-adjusted with just a mere increase of 0.8% as against 12% in the case of other college graduates. Across the country, the median salaries of teachers range from $39,810 to $44,340. Teachers staying in the Washington area take home a median income of $44,150 and the median cost of a home in the area is $352,400. (Slayter, 2004) to add to this, the teachers within the nation are still receiving pay as per the single salary schedule. (Koppich, 2005)

Since schools are regarded as a formal organization, teachers are prone to organizational pressures of role conflict apart from getting low remuneration. According to Katz and Kahn in 1978, role conflict has been described as the concurrent happening of two or additional role opportunities so that accomplishment of one would make accomplishment of the other more intricate. The schedule of duties which school teachers are required to discharge are nearly infinite. (Kim-Wan, 1991) the work which almost all teachers perform daily are assigning grades to papers, lesson planning, answering parent enquiries through email, participating in meeting with grade level groups, meeting with department, authorities and guidance counselors regarding weak students. In addition to that, teachers are required to perform extra duties like assisting in the maintenance of school website, proving assistance to enroll students in the classroom websites, studying professional literature, researching regarding the manner in which to apply technological instruments in teaching, gathering resources for future studies, writing newsletters intended for parents, extending and receiving suggestions on students or directives and so on. (Ferriter, 2005)

The most recent study of teacher working conditions in North Carolina reveal that over 50% of the teachers belonging to North Carolina devote in the range of 3 to 5 hours outside the school day every week participating in exercises such as counseling, giving tuitions, arranging excursions and supporting clubs. About 60% of the teachers in North Carolina and 70% of the teachers located in Wake County devote between 5-10 hours outside the school day per week preparing the lessons, assigning grades, conducting parent meetings and participating in meetings. Eventually, nearly 85% of the teachers in North Carolina complain that they have less than an hour of time for planning for schedules daily in order to accomplish these responsibilities. (Ferriter, 2005)

Due to the schools and classrooms being over-crowded, teachers encounter the tensions of classroom management and a lot of teachers have grievances due to this. Classroom management is very complex in this new decade. Classrooms are assuming greater sizes and becoming increasingly varied and providing mainstream facilities has ushered more students having learning deficiencies into K-12 classroom, and finances of schools being constrained, have compelled the removal of counselors, associates and other important resources. The requirements of students inside a standard classroom are higher compared to what was earlier. Various teacher education programs across the nation either overlook the concept of classroom management or entrench it in separate courses such that a substantial amount of useful information is wasted, or not at all talked about. (Floyd, 1997)

In fact, efficient classroom management entails a diverse set of expertise together with the potential of counseling, appreciating legal matters, and the application of management approaches based on the foundation of human rights as well as social responsibility. Classroom management has been found by an increasing number of teachers as an unending cause of struggle and tension. Majority of them, according to her, have a common attribute- the anxiety of losing authority. That anxiety frequently results teachers to discard popular management practices and regress to greater disciplinary actions they contemplate will culminate wrongful behavior. School districts which are required to perform a better task of favoring teachers in their endeavors to apply constructive classroom management practices are not adhering to them, which brings about the need for the unions to assume these grievances on their behalf. But how much the unions are really making attempts at removing or even reducing the grievances of the teachers are at stake. (Floyd, 1997)

Regardless of their rhetoric that labor unions of the teachers has extended the negotiation exercise to cover budgets, size of class, recruitment of teachers and assessment, the school agenda and schedule, and maybe most vitally, matters of educational criteria, syllabus and instruction part from remuneration negotiation, the National Education Association --NEA and American Federation of Teachers -- AFT and other labor unions, have bargained extremely incompetent deals including such items like hours of employment as well as remuneration, volume of assignments of teachers and responsibilities, skills of teachers, teaching assignments as well as the issue of superiority, teacher assessment and duration of teaching, subsidies of taxpayer paid to unions like paid time devoted to union work, utilization of school mailing system, payroll reduction for outstanding dues and retirement credit for regular service as an employee of the union. (Haar, 1998)

With unbelievable specificity, the teacher union/school district contract greatly impacts the daily functioning and self-esteem of a school. Howard Fuller, George Mitchel and Michael Hartman in their study showed that the 174-page deal between the Milwaukee Public System and Milwaukee Teachers Education Association is a nearly impregnable document. Rendering it too much intricate, they stumbled upon a deal behind a deal consisting of about 2,000 alterations, complain-adjudication decisions, and several state declaratory decisions. Similar to legislators who never goes through a bill prior to voting, neither the school board members nor the teachers probably read the labor union contract. But union officials who receive handsome salaries and political people popular in the NEA as 'UniServ directors' not just read the conditions of the deal, but also design them. The AFT local officers bargain AFT affiliate contracts, often taking the help of AFT national representatives. (Haar, 1998)

Attempts to enhance the quality of instruction in all schools can be strengthened only by novel strategies of enhance remuneration of teachers. (Erskine; Urbanski, 2000) but teacher unions and the most die-hard supporters of the standard compensation concept are opposed to new strategies to teacher compensation, and are held responsible for creating this salary structure. The NEA and AFT coalition are resolute for a uniform salary structure, which implies that every teacher receive the same salary not taking into consideration the subject they teach or their capability. Indeed, the teachers' salary structure is a handiwork of civil service. Formulated during the initial stages of 1920s, the method received acceptance after thirty years as a means of making salary at par between elementary teachers, the bulk among who were females, and secondary teachers -- the bulk among who were males. With the passage of time, teacher unions have concluded to maintain the standard single remuneration schedule in the style of employee parity and equal justice. (Koppich, 2005)

This renders a hurdle in drawing specialized mathematics and science teachers who command more pay in other vocations. The teacher unions are vehemently up against the apparent decision of giving higher remuneration to math and science teachers. The unions are also against rewarding outstanding teachers with pay hikes. (Julka,… READ MORE

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