Teachers are the strength of our school district. To degrade their profession is to degrade Portland Public Schools. Yet the school board's current contract proposal is astonishingly degrading and disrespectful to teachers. The proposal seeks huge new concessions on the issue of teacher compensation. It would also eliminate basic employment rights that have nothing to do with saving money.
Any new contract that resembled this proposal would all but destroy the viability of a teaching career in our district. In that case, Portland would lose the ability to attract capable folks to teach our young people. Pursuing such an agenda in contract negotiations cannot possibly serve any constructive purpose.
We certainly do have a budget crisis in Portland. We also suffer from a profound failure of leadership. To intelligently address the first crisis, we will need to confront the second one as well.

Ann Nice & Jeff Miller December 12, 2002




By Erin