Cash Cow

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Cash Cow

Rob Jones, VEA's Government relations director, sent an email out today calling attention to a dire threat facing every one of Virginia's educators during the next General Assembly session.

In the General Assembly session ahead, one thing we can count on is that the benefits offered by the Virginia Retirement System will be under attack. In these tough times, legislators will be looking under every rock to find ways to cut costs.

Thanks to a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission(JLARC) report released a year ago, seven proposals are up for consideration, including eliminating the current traditional pension plan and replacing it with a 401(k) personal risk account.

According to Rob, many of our members simply do not understand the true benefit and promise of our current system. Why? Perhaps they haven't experienced the real ebb and flow of investment life. More likely, they have never invested at all.

Do you realize that before Roanoke County Schools revamped our 403-b investment program last year, about 18% of our employees took advantage of the program? When we switched over to the Hartford management team after an intense selection process necessitated by IRS tax law changes, participation has dropped to 9.6%. Folks, the industry average for 401-k (similar to 403-b) participation in the business world is 79%. Given time and a strong effort by our Hartford representatives, Kyle Scully and Rob Mangano, this percentage should slowly grow back.

As a career educator, I fully understand why it’s easy to let retirement thoughts slide. We face so much in our daily PRESENT lives serving others that it's hard to carve out time to think about our own futures.

My wife and I are that unique educator couple. We both teach elementary school and have been investing in 403-b's since the mid-1980's. We began investing simply because we wanted a full retirement option when we decided that teaching was over for us. We wanted the ability to live comfortably and maybe travel a bit.

We were confident to develop an investment plan because we knew that we had two components in place already, the defined benefits offered by Social Security and VRS. With that security in mind, we scrimped and saved pennies from our meager salaries (I started at $10,500 a year) and strode out into the investment world. We developed a relationship with a financial planner in whom we have grown to trust implicitly. We knew that, between VRS and Social Security, we could expect a constant sum of money that would allow us to live. Our 403-b’s would just be icing on the cake and allow us to experience life.

Like many others, the 403-b dream has been mixed. We’ve invested faithfully for over 20 years in solid funds but the inherent risky nature of the product doomed us in the down times. The technology bubble burst bashed our accounts and the recent crash sank us.

Here’s what I’m getting at. We knew the risks and were willing to take them because we had security in our hip pocket. Now, some legislators want to take my security away. They want to turn my DEFINED BENEFIT RETIREMENT PLAN into a PERSONAL RISK ACCOUNT.

On top of switching VRS from a defined benefit plan to a personal risk account, the General Assembly is eyeing the giant pile of money being held by VRS in our name. They covet these billions. Even though these billions were earned by us and were kept in guarded trust for us, sometimes in lieu of salary increases, this money is a very tempting pot of gold that could cure the state of what ails it in the short-term, so they believe.

According to Rob’s analysis of JLARC’s report, a retiring teacher can expect a 48% REDUCTION in benefits from VRS. 48% . I’m trying hard to understand why someone could possibly think that idea is acceptable or advised. Perhaps such people are taking advantage of Math SOL 4.5 (Front End Estimation). 48% written as a decimal would be 0.48. Using the front-end method, underline the front digit and drop the rest 0.48. Hence 0.48 can accurately be estimated as 0 or 0% using front-end estimation. Of course, most of the rest of us would simply round off 48 to 50 and advertise the 50% reduction in benefits (Also Math SOL 4.5).

That’s right, there are people who don’t care and may even be blind to the fact that educators will endure a 50% cut in benefits if we go to Personal Risk Accounts. I fully expect Rob to share more information in the coming weeks of how exactly these accounts will impact us.

We need to educate our colleagues about both the benefits of the current system, which provides a guaranteed benefit for life following retirement, and the shortcomings of the 401(k). The current issue of Time magazine includes an excellent article entitled, "Why It's Time to Retire the 401(k)."

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1929119,00.html

Please read this article and share it with friends.

Our current pension system is worth fighting for.

What Rob said. Some things you just have to fight for. But, hey, maybe you think we should all just be thankful to have a job.

VRS in a Lurch

Robert T. Schultze is the director of the 24th largest public or private pension system in the United States, the Virginia Retirement System (VRS). On Monday, he and his staff reported to the Virginia General Assembly's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) that VRS assets have lost about 21% over the first half of this year. You can read more about the Monday meeting from several media sources: Richmond Times, Forbes, Washington Examiner.

According to Charles Grant, CIO of VRS, the teacher fund has dropped to 69.9% funding level. Whenever a fund drops below 70% funding, red flags begin to fly. Grant went on to predict that he expects the fund to drop to a 60.3% level by 2013.


Robley Jones, who heads the Virginia Education Association Government Relations office, has another perspective on the current VRS dilemma. While the media covering the VRS retreat have characterized it strictly as a market loss scenario, Jones points out that it's much more than that.

On December 17, 2007 the Pew Center of the States released a study about state pension systems entitled "Promises with a Price." The Virginia fact sheet released with that report stated that "...Virginia's funds aren't in as healthy shape as they used to be, and the state has stumbled a bit in making its full annual contributions toward its long term obligation. The funding ratio of Virginia's pension plans dropped fairly substantially between 2001 and 2005, and in the last 10 years, the Commonwealth has frequently made less than the annual required contribution, as set by its own actuaries."

You combine this historical underfunding of the VRS system with the 2008 market meltdown, and you find yourself in the mess we are in today.

Last October, VRS advised JLARC of six actions that could be taken to help bolster VRS. Monday, the six options were brought up again at the meeting. Without a doubt, implementing all of some of these options would radically redraw the VRS upon which teachers have come to rely. VEA GR summarized the six options and added brief comments.

1 - Impose an additional 2% employee contribution. This would be in addition to the 5% employee contribution now paid by your employee who also pays the employer contribution. This 2% might be phased-in .5% at a time in years when raises are granted.

2- Increase the minimum retirement age for non-vested and new hires from 50 to age 60. Note: One becomes vested in VRS after five years of service.

3 - Change the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) on retirement benefits by capping the increase at 4% a year rather than the current 5%. FYI - if, for purposes of illustration, you retroactively applied this change in the COLA to one who retired in 1978, the reduction in benefit would be 6% over the first 10 years and 12% after 30 years in retirement.

4 - For new hires and non-vested employees combine a defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans. The DB plan would have a lesser benefit than the current VRS benefit. Employees would contribute to both. The COLA would only be included in the DB plan. This plan would provide 85% of the benefit in the current plan.

5 - Require a Cash Balance Retirement Plan for new hires and non-vested employees. This is like a traditional defined contribution plan, except for the fact that a 5% return is guaranteed. Employees contribute with an employee match that increases with years of experience. There is no COLA on benefits. Entire balance can be withdrawn when separating from service.

6 - Require a Defined Contribution Plan for new hires and non-vested employees. The matching contribution from the employer would increase with years of service. No COLA would be provided and the entire balance could be withdrawn when separating from service. Only two states now have this. The plan would provide 52% of the benefit value of the current VRS plan.

Politically speaking, this is the second time that VRS officials have reported to JLARC in the past nine months. Both times, VRS officials have raised the six options in the minds of the audit and review body. If this battle were a bike race, this tactic would be known as positioning the rider for the sprint to come. From the perspective of a public employee, Rob Jones says it best, "The recession is only part of the reason for the current VRS shortfall. The failure of the General Assembly to honor the VRS actuary's recommendations plays as large". [emphasis added] Without a doubt, the battle for VRS is positioned to be a main topic of discussion during the upcoming General Assembly session.

FY2010 Budget Priorities Resolution

With the budget cycle becoming serious, the RCEA Representative Assembly decided at its regular monthly meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss options. We believe it is important to have a unified message as budget discussions advance. Out of that discussion came this official resolution.

Roanoke County Education Association

FY2010 Budget Priorities Resolution

Approved Unanimously January 26, 2009

By

The RCEA Representative Assembly

WHEREAS the United States is currently in a recession; and

WHEREAS Commonwealth of Virginia expects significantly reduced revenue; and

WHEREAS the County of Roanoke is experiencing a decline in revenue which negatively impacts revenue for Roanoke County Schools; and

WHEREAS a deep and prolonged recession may require future budget reductions;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Roanoke County Education Association that:

The RCEA affirms its strong opposition to the use of school division funds to support new programs in whatever manner or under whatever circumstances they may be presented, to the extent legally possible (unless the following items can be fully funded first); and be it

RESOLVED that We support the maintenance of effort for all benefits for all employees; and be it

RESOLVED that We support at least the maintenance of current salary for all employees; and be it

RESOLVED that We unconditionally confirm our strongest support for keeping current employees employed over funding any other budget category or item.

In a nutshell, the RCEA believes that our human capital is most vital component necessary to maintaining a quality school division. In that spirit, we oppose any movement to terminate employees or to relax salaries and benefits. We believe that if cuts need to be made, they should be carved from programs and other non-employee categories.

We understand that building a budget that does not directly impact personnel will be very difficult in these challenging times. We will continue to keep lines of communication open with the School Board and Superintendent's office to foster constructive discussions. In light of the Governor's proposed budget amendments, we will continue our efforts both locally and statewide to highlight the very real impact that catastrophic cuts to public school education would have on our school division.

January Newsletter

With the budget season in full gear, you may wish to read our latest newsletter. Just click on the link below and you will be taken to our Drop i.o. box where you can view or download the newsletter.

Stay tuned here for news from our next rep meeting on Monday.

January RCEA News

...And It Begins

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia officially released his proposed budget amendments today. The details on how his budget amendment proposal would impact our beloved county is still to be understood, but it's impossible to cut money out of a budget without there being an impact. Brace ourselves, we must. (I don't know why I just wrote in Yoda-talk.)

According to Rob Jones of VEA, there are supportable details found within the Governor's amendments. Tackling an announced $2.9 Billion deficit will not be easy. Rob passed along the following notes this afternoon.

He cut education less than any other area.

He looked at both sides of the ledger, and raised the cigarette tax, tweaked the land-preservation tax credit and eliminated the “dealer discount” (paid to merchants for collecting the sales tax) to reduce the harm to essential state programs.

We have grave concerns regarding the fact that:

He made $400 million of the cuts to education permanent cuts that will be with us even when the recession is over ($400 million in SOQ funding reductions partially offset by $60 million in loss mitigation for the 2009-2010 school year). The impact on next year is $340 million. The impact into the future is $400 million per year. This eliminates the state share of funding for 13,000 positions including custodians, finance officers, HR directors, assistant superintendents and central office personnel).

What we know about the cuts for the next school year?

$340 million SOQ cuts to support and administrative components of the formula
$78 million in teacher salary
$82.5 in school construction

Total = $500.5 million, or slightly over ½ billion

No doubt many of you will want to know what can be done faced with the reality of the budget shortfall (could end up being larger than $2.9 Billion). I can almost say with complete certainty that the budget will be amended. What we must do is help direct the amendments in a positive direction for public school education.

On January 9, I plan to join our education coalition partners in Lynchburg at a state budget hearing. At that hearing, I will no doubt push for examination of different revenue generating plans that would soften the blow. Re-instituting the estate tax, along with the cigarette tax increase, is one idea that is being considered (tax on estates valued over $2 million).

Most importantly, we must fight hard and strong to keep any cuts that happen from becoming permanent. This is paramount! Any cuts made in the remainder of the biennial budget must remain temporary. Virginia is already ranked 37th in support for public schools in America. That dubious ranking would slide further if these cuts were to become permanent.

President Boitnott will present a petition at the budget hearing in Richmond on January 19 that all members, friends of members, relatives, parents, and citizens are invited to sign. The petition clearly speaks to the issues we care deeply about. Please sign this on-line petition and urge your colleagues, family and friends to sign on as well. Our battle is to prevent permanent cuts to education funding.

The petition can be found at:

http://www.fundqualityschools.org/

Penny Hodge, Assistant Superintendent of RCPS, is working on getting a clear picture of how the proposed amendments may affect Roanoke County. Right now, this early in the budget process, it's really too early to tell. However, brace ourselves, we must.

On a side note, I'm experimenting with a new service on this blog. I realized that from time to time, I want all of you to be able to see documents that relate directly to a specific topic. Meg Swecker, master of all things technology, pointed me to a site called, Drop.io. With Drop.io, I can upload all kinds of documents, sound, and pictures and have you access them at your leisure. You can view and download the files as you wish. So far, I've added all of the back-issues of the RCEA News from this year, Governor Kaine's press release from today, and a few other documents that will be related to future blog entries. You can test out the service by clicking on the link in this article for proposed budget amendments or you can visit the whole RCEADistrict4 site.


Thom Ryder
RCEA President

Most Likely To Succeed

The New Yorker has published a piece by Malcolm Gladwell that delves into the murky world of determining who is and who isn't effective as a teacher called "Most Likely to Succeed." Gladwell compares predicting who will be an excellent teacher with determining who will succeed as an NFL quarterback. He notes that NFL scouts have failed more often than not when trying project NFL success onto a college quarterback (Jim Druckenmiller anyone?). So it is with projecting the success of teachers.

Gladwell also looks at some pioneering research being done at UVA's Curry School that is trying to identify what is excellent teaching. He takes that research a step further and suggests that what we sorely need is an open enrollment of teachers, credentials aren't important. Enrollees would need to complete a rigorous apprenticeship where they must prove themselves effective by raising test scores by a significant amount or be released. Those who make it through the apprenticeship successfully would be richly compensated.

Currently, the salary structure of the teaching profession is highly rigid, and that would also have to change in a world where we want to rate teachers on their actual performance. An apprentice should get apprentice wages. But if we find eighty-fifth-percentile teachers who can teach a year and a half’s material in one year, we’re going to have to pay them a lot—both because we want them to stay and because the only way to get people to try out for what will suddenly be a high-risk profession is to offer those who survive the winnowing a healthy reward.

I remember when I was teaching in Albemarle County back in the late 1980's, the school board decided to do something about "bad" teachers, so they imposed a merit pay scheme. Turns out that so many teachers proved themselves meritorious that the school board was forced to pay out rewards to a whole lot more people than they anticipated. After a couple of years of providing a "healthy reward" to so many teachers, the school board abandoned the whole plan and went back to a more traditional teacher pay scale.

Merit pay schemes have always seemed like empty ideas to me. While the research going on at UVA is intriguing, do experts really know enough about what makes a great teacher to confidently identify it so that those teachers can be rewarded? What's with this idea of teaching a year and a half's material in one year? Doesn't the author realize that we teach rigidly prescribed amounts of material every year...no more, no less. Are we really going to base a reward system on what are arguably flawed tests. It's already sad enough that we place so much emphasis on them; is more emphasis a good thing?

These are all questions that came to my mind as I read Gladwell's piece. I would certainly reccommend you read the piece and form your own opinions. Feel free to deposit your comments here.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=7

Bail Out

Robert Reich, most famous for his time spent as a cabinet secretary in the Clinton administration, opined recently that, regarding public school education in our country, we're all out of whack. We bail out corporations, while we are starving and throttling our educational system.

Our preoccupation with the immediate crisis of financial capital is causing us to overlook the bigger crisis in America's human capital. While we commit hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street, we're slashing our outlays for public education.

Education is largely funded by state and local governments whose revenues are plummeting. As consumers cut back, state sales and income taxes are shrinking; three quarters of the states are already facing budget crises. State revenues account for about half of public school budgets and most funding of public colleges and universities. In addition, as home values drop, local property taxes take a hit. Local property taxes account for 40 percent of local school budgets, on average.

The result, across the nation: Teachers are being laid off and new hiring frozen, after-school programs cut, so called "noncritical" subjects like history eliminated, schools closed, and tuitions hiked at state colleges and universities.

It's absurd. We're bailing out every major bank to get financial capital flowing again. But we're squeezing the main sources of our nation's human capital. Yet America's future competitiveness and the standard of living of our people depend largely our peoples' skills, and our capacities to communicate and solve problems and innovate ­ not on our ability to borrow money.

Reich continued,

It's our human capital that's in short supply. And without adequate public funding, the supply will shrink further. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying funding is everything when it comes to education. Obviously, accountability is critical. But without adequate funding we can't attract talented people into teaching, or keep class sizes small enough to give kids a real chance to learn, or provide them with a well-rounded curriculum, and ensure that every qualified young person can go to college.

So why are we bailing out Wall Street and not our nation's public schools and colleges? Partly because the crisis in financial capital is immediate while our human capital crisis is unfolding gradually. Headlines scream what's happening to our money but not to our kids.

As our state stares a $3.5 billion budget deficit in the face and as our school division considers what and whom will be axed, Reich's words ring with a sense of authenticity. When will people wake up and start investing in the foundation of education in our country?

Some will say that the educational system has all the money it needs and that there is tons of waste embedded within the system. As a teacher, I've learned that there is some merit to those arguments. Waste does exist in the educational structures, but that waste generally is does not filter down and enrich anyone at the teacher/student/classroom level.

The greatest waste both financially and instructionally is the propagation of the ridiculous national and state accountability systems. These mandates, which are easily recognized by their acronyms- SOL, NCLB, and AYP, strike fear into the hearts of communities, administrators, teachers, and students. The tacit threats attached to them have encouraged the development of a seemingly slimy accountability business resplendent with guides, formative assessments, data-driven analyzation tools, and testing materials all peddled to frightened school divisions by data sharks.

The ultimate result of this destructive movement, is that the real art and process of teaching has become hopelessly caged and filtered. The intentions may have originally been good, but the results have been destructive.

So I'm with Reich. We do need to bail out the public education system in America. We need to bail out of the myopic accountability mandates. Accountibility is important. Teachers must be accountable for what they teach, but parents and students must be held accountable for their end of the bargain as well. We need to bail out of inferior funding formulas for our schools. State and local governments must be held accountable for providing funding that is more than basic. The nonsensical SOQ game our state plays with public school funding as it seeks to further and further reduce and shirk its responsibility for fully funding its share of the budgets for our public schools needs to stop. We need to improve the physical infrastructure of our schools, reduce class size, fully fund preschool initiatives, and attract highly qualified professionals with highly attractive wages and benefits. Education needs to be the priority.

If you don't bail out a canoe as it charges head-long down a turbulent stream, it will eventually sink.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/03/of_financial_capital_and_human/

Hard Times

Hard Times honors one of my personal heroes, Studs Terkel, who passed away earlier in the month.

Robley Jones sent out another Budget-gram today...For those who follow the budget, the news is rather ominous. Folks, the budget shortfall in Virginia keeps growing. Back in the summer, it was predicted to be $1 billion. Then it eeked-up to $2.5 billion. Now..$3.2 billion. I've even heard whispers of more earth-shattering deficits. Times remain serious and uneasy.

Here's the full text of Rob's letter today:

The two day Senate Finance Committee Annual Retreat immediately followed the House retreat. This time the setting is the Fredericksburg Hospitality House Conference Center.

Four straight days of reports of doom and gloom have me paring my Christmas list.

Chairman Colgan’s opening remarks were shocking and courteous. Shocking in that the size of the budget hole has grown to $3.2256 billion. The Chairman was courteous in his emphasis on a desire for a bipartisan approach to the crisis. In my time as your lobbyist, exceptional individuals have chaired this most powerful committee in the Virginia General Assembly. Colgan maintains the high standard set by Andrews and Chichester.

Staff analyst, Becky Covey, said we have been in a “slow motion recession – probably since the beginning of 2008.” She asserted that, “A deeper recession lasting several quarters in now the likely scenario.”

When the discussion shifted to education, Education Committee Chairman Edd Houck pointed out that, “There really has not been a percentage change for K-12 since 1998. It has remained basically constant.”

What was most interesting is that staff presented the Compound Annual Average Growth from FY1998 to FY2010. Listed were the state programs that increased more than the 5.85% annual growth in revenue. What follows in a list of the programs and their growth:

Car Tax 14.7%
Child Support Enforcement 13.9%
Debt Service 11.0%
Comprehensive Services Act 10.2%
Aid to Localities – Police Dept. 9.8%
Indigent Defense 9.2%
Medicaid 7.5%
MHMR Grants to Localities 7.0%
Student Financial Aid 6.6%
Total General Fund Budget 6.0%

Why isn’t education on the list? The compound annual average growth of public education’s share of the budget was less than that of the growth of the budget – despite enrollment growth, expansion of pre-school programs, and new burdens on public schools such as NCLB. The growth for public education was slightly less than 5.85%. This refutes the claims of our enemies that education spending is out of control.

Given the size of the budget hole, there appeared to be consensus among those present to cut public school funding. VEA will fight cuts, but if they must be made, we will fight to make them temporary rather than permanent, with an eye on restoration of funding as we come out of the recession. We will also work to ensure attention to pupil equity.

Cuts presented to the committee included increasing class size, decreasing state support for school employee health care insurance costs and reducing the state share of SOQ funding from the current 55%.

In contrast with the House, the Senate seems willing to look at the revenue side, possibly revisiting recent tax cuts, to lessen the severity of the cuts to public education. While support for permanently reducing state support for public education seems broad in the House, the Senate leadership is resistant to that method of addressing the current budget shortfall. Hopefully, the Governor will align himself with the Senate in this regard.

Please encourage any non-members at your school join us. it's not too late. While we can't guarantee a future job, we can guarantee support and strength during these difficult times.

Thom

More Than A Bubble

More Than a Bubble

Well, here we are approaching another American Education Week, the annual week devoted to our profession where honors are bestowed, expressions of appreciation are extended, and reflection is encouraged. Such reflection, as you might expect, is inevitable. How do we feel about the state of our professional lives? In the current environment in which we are asked to do increasingly more with less and for less as inflation eats away at our modest compensation and as funding for our retirement seems vulnerable to negative economic realities, it is often hard to focus on the realities of what we are charged to do. The pressures that we sometimes feel to perform tasks often at odds with our professional experience and personal philosophies can be depressing and demoralizing.

I say take a few moments to ponder the real good that we do in spite of the shifting currents in which we are caught. We are, happily and reverently, in the position of shaping the future of the world. Our responsibility for influencing the lives, personalities and values of future generations is peerless. Think of each time you have witnessed a light bulb suddenly illuminating above a child’s head, each time a child has confided something deeply moving- filling you with the knowledge of your influence, and the ponderous sense of responsibility that you share with your peers in the world of education. How often have parents expressed their gratitude for what you have done with your life? These are the benefits of our profession. Yes, it’s great to have health benefits and, potentially, a pension waiting for us as well as a steady paycheck and a restful summer layoff. But we all know, those of us who remain in education, that we’re not in it for the money. There is no compensation like the feeling of proudly being called teacher. It isn’t just the teachers who wield influence and express a caring function in the lives of young people. Support personnel, administrators, kitchen staff, bus drivers, custodians, and all other school employees alike have equal opportunities to make a difference in the lives of children, thereby shaping the future.

Sometimes when you least expect it and are most in need of it, something will happen that brings you back to life; gives you an opportunity for a kind of mini-apostasy. Something will remind you that what you do has meant something to the life experience of some other person. Recently, I had such an experience. I was contacted by a student whom I taught many years ago near the beginning of my career. The student had been particularly challenging. I feel comfortable in saying this because the student admitted as much in their letter to me. In fact, it was in the form of an apology for engaging in difficult behavior in my classroom. Without going into detail, I learned that I had had a positive influence on this student. There have been other such experiences over the course of my career. Each time I feel a little taken aback as I had not really taken notice of making any significant impact in the day-to-day ordinariness of things.

So, while it is tempting to dwell in the darkness of what makes teaching among the most stressful of jobs, it may be worthwhile to take time to experience the things which make this the most joyful of professions. While these are difficult times, they are also profoundly hopeful times. We are powerful in our ability to make things better. The future will reflect the way in which we weather the storms of our time. Wishing you all well. Happy American Education Week.

~Tim Summers
RCEA Vice President

Extinction of a Species

A friend of mine, Joe, chided me today for not adding new content to this blog for quite some time. I took his ribbing in stride and agreed with him that new additions are long overdue. So beginning today (at 12:25 am) after taking the summer off, I'm going on a new content blitz. Beware!
~Thom

Another friend of mine, ex-RCEA President Bud McWhorter, presented me with a most amazing gift. At an estate sale over the summer, his wife uncovered a treasure-trove of papers from the 1960's. At first glance the papers didn't look all that unique, but upon closer examination, the McWhorter's were in possession of the October 1963 edition of the R.C.E.A News. Bud has entrusted me with that newsletter along with two NEA newspapers from the 1963-64 school year as well as an NEA Journal from 1960. I plan to feature the two NEA newsletters a little later on in my content blitz, but I thought I'd focus a bit on the RCEA News.

The times were different. John F. Kennedy was the U.S. President, a sad thought knowing how soon his life would end. Segregation was the practice and the law in Virginia. Already in Virginia, students were being denied public school education (Prince Edward County)with rankle and dissent bubbling to the surface. The RCEA was a strong professional organization back then, but it faced the challenge of unification. Back then, membership in VEA and NEA was optional. However, out of the 603 RCEA members, 594 also chose to belong to VEA and 445 joined NEA. The feeling of the RCEA Executive Board was that..."only by participation in NEA could teachers hope to change policies that they are not in accord with."

The newsletter was professionally published with content collected by local association building reps. The newsletter was packaged and edited by a man I respect immensely, Dr. Fred R. Eichelman. Dr. Eichelman was a career teacher at Northside High. He taught government and ran the school newspaper. Dr. Fred is also the father of our very own RCEA member, Carol Webster-the dramatic English teacher at William Byrd High School.

In that newsletter, Dr. Eichelman opined a passionate defense of our profession. I transcribe it here for you, today's professional. I believe that what Dr. Fred wrote of 45 years ago, is just as relevant today.

Extinction of a Species

It has been said that the world would not end "with a bang; but rather with a sigh." Teaching as a profession could also well end this way.

A profession is defined as "a calling or vocation; especially one that requires mental learning and dedication" - dedication to become a successful teacher, the feeling of being called to duty.

We are now playing witness to those who wish to "debunk" this as trite sentimentality and those who may be someday responsible for the "death of our profession."

We tend to ignore those who will not join our professional organizations, those who will not pitch in to help our association leaders to set high goals; and reach them. We ignore those who will not go the "extra mile" to help in programs designed to improve instruction or to better community relations, just as we ignore those too intellectual (so they say) to take an interest in School-Community affairs and the building of citizenship by showing an interest in local as well as national government.

By ignoring this minority group we are most guilty of all. Dedicated people will spread their dedication and loyalty to others. Professional people want their colleagues to share ideas of loyalty in service and high standards in work.

The critics of education associations are vocal as are the critics of education in general. If we honestly feel we are members of the most important profession open to man, then we owe it to our community, our children, and to ourselves not only to be participating members of all three associations; but willing to speak out in answer to our critics.

The "Teacher's Union" in New York City* has caused its members to be classed as "non-professional" in the eyes of the public with a leadership status in the community that now may be considered "nil."

If we are indifferent to the job ahead of us, then teaching will slowly become extinct as a profession- just as extinct as the DoDo, the brontosaurus, and the round kitchen table.

F. R. Eichelman
October 1963

* {Editor's Note: Dr. Eichelman may have been referring to the one day teacher's strike in New York City called by rival teacher organization, American Federation of Teachers. The AFT was the sole bargaining agent for teachers in NYC back then, and they were being squeezed by both the education board and the state. The strike was a one day affair but led to chaos as students were left unattended in their classrooms all day. For the record, the NEA-the largest national education association- opposed strikes as being a counter-productive tool.}

{Click for large image}

In addition to that article by Dr. Eichelman, the R.C.E.A. News also provided a historical look back at public and private school education in Roanoke. I'll bring that article to you in its entirety soon, but I thought I'd leave you with a historical glance back at public schools and and teacher salaries. Again click on the picture for a larger image.

You may want to check out a couple of things. First, a Roanoke County teacher was paid $27.18 a month back in 1871. Those teachers worked on average of 4.5 months out of the year. By 1945, the salary had crept up to $1350 a year. By 1960, that had more than tripled to $4354.91 (Editor's Note: my first salary back in 1982 was $10,500 in Greene County, VA).

The chart had a perplexing notation. It took me several minutes to figure out what "W" and "C" stand for in the chart. Soon, it dawned on me. The early 1960's in Virginia were especially racially charged; however, segregation was still taken as a matter of fact. That would change soon. In this chart, the "W" stands for "White" and the "C" stands for "Colored." In 1960, there were 28 "White" schools and 4 "Colored" schools.

One other thing that interested me is how many schools there were in the county back in 1895 for example. If the figures are correct, there were 77 schools (57 White/20 Colored) in the county back then serving 3419 pupils. That's an average of 44 pupils per school. I suspect that most were one room schools. Those one room schools must have remained open until around 1925 when consolidation must have occurred.

So that's my look back at the RCEA in 1963. It's amazing how much times have changed, but how some things remain the same. I'll leave you with a little filler that Dr. Fred put on the last page of that issue.

The emphasis on good grades has become even more intense this year. Now the problem is not only to provide more schools and teachers, but to graduate 90 percent of the students in the top 10% of the class. :)

~Thom Ryder

Trouble in France

In France the battle is not over activity fees; it's over jobs.

Trouble in France

Here in Virginia, the issue is activity fees. Teachers were concerned after learning of a decision to erase all activity fees for the upcoming school year due to litigation brought against the school system by concerned parents.

The RCEA is extremely concerned about how the decision to nullify the fees will negatively impact the instructional program. Teachers may have to do without certain basic supplies or dig even deeper into their own pockets in these difficult economic times to provide the supplies the county no longer can afford.

We are also concerned about how the erasure of these fees, which will have a major financial impact (yet to be determined), will impact future salary considerations. As people are fond of saying, "The pie is only so big."

The RCEA will be vigilant and appropriately outspoken.