By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Even though I have been a teacher (high school and college), and enjoyed it very much, I don’t think I would want to be a teacher now. Teachers are in the crosshairs of school boards, politicians, parents and students. Their unions are being blamed for the state budget collapse. Through these unions, they are perceived as having too much power, power that they use unwisely.

Do teachers deserve all this blame? Years ago, teachers had no unions, and they were treated like second-class citizens. If you were a woman, and you happened to become pregnant while you were teaching, you lost your job. Some school districts didn’t allow their female teachers to marry. They couldn’t date or have a drink in public in the same town where they taught.

All teachers, men and women, were paid at the bottom of the local wage scale, whatever it was. While they didn’t necessarily need a college degree, if a teacher did have one, it didn’t mean he or she would get much of a raise.

When I was growing up, the teachers in the schools I attended had to work second jobs to make ends meet. This included working in potato warehouses, checking groceries and cooking in restaurants.

When teachers began organizing into unions, and signing contracts with school boards that raised wages and improved working conditions, it was because the school boards had left them little choice.

Now, 40 years later, the unions are perceived as being too powerful. But remember this: Those labor contracts had to be signed by the boards as well as the teacher representatives. If you are going to blame the teachers for a contract, you also must blame the board. And if you are going to blame the board for financial difficulties, you also must blame the teachers.

By sharing power, the teachers also must share responsibility. Blame on both sides should be put away so problems can be solved.

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