Two wings of CTA have low opinion of much bigger wing

May 10, 2013

By Chris Reed

If you think the California Teachers Association is the biggest villain in state politics — and you should, you should — then you’ll enjoy the Golden State implications of this national survey. This is from the Long Beach Press-Telegram:

“Yes, they’re ready. No, they’re not. A new survey shows a wide gap between high school teachers and college professors when it comes to the question of whether incoming freshmen are prepared for higher learning.

“Just 26 percent of college instructors believe students are well-prepared for first-year courses, compared to 89 percent of high school teachers, according to the ACT National Curriculum Survey.

“‘We’ve seen for a number of years that there have been gaps between what skills colleges say are most important for students to learn and what high school teachers and school districts are teaching,’ said Ed Colby, spokesman for ACT. ‘There doesn’t seem to be enough collaboration between local schools and colleges.'”

So in California, who represents the most high school teachers? Why, that would be the CTA. Everyone knows that, Chris, you big dummy.

CTA reps all CSU faculty, many community college instructors

But in California, who represents the most college instructors? Why, that would be the CTA — which not everyone knows.

“CTA has more than 1,300 chapters chartered as affiliates. Two unique CTA chapters are ‘statewide’ affiliates: The California Faculty Association is the bargaining agent for professors in the California State University system, and the Community College Association represents members in 42 bargaining chapters who work in 72 community college districts.”

So CSU and community college professors who belong to the CTA have a low opinion of the job done by their fellow CTA members in California high schools in educating our kids. Join the club!

What’s funny is how totally this undermines the CTA’s contention that is as concerned about school quality as every other “stakeholder” in California public education. If that were true, wouldn’t the union be especially inclined to heed the complaints of CTA members in the California Faculty Association and the Community College Association about the problems they see with K-12 graduates?

Of course the union would.

But then that takes seriously the CTA’s claims that it cares deeply about students. After Mark Berndt, that’s really not possible.

So for now, I will merely content myself with the enjoyable idea that two smaller wings of the CTA find a bigger wing of the CTA to be full of incompetent chumps.