The Newton Teachers Association has announced its endorsement of candidates for aldermen and Charter Commission. The questionnaire they sent to candidates for Charter Commission were an odd choice for people not running for legislative seats. I can’t imagine what NTA leadership was thinking when asking Charter Commission candidates to answer the following questions:
As an educator union, we would like to know what you think about some of the following issues that affect Newton’s employees:
- What do you think Newton needs to do to make sure that it has adequate finances for its schools?
- Would you support overrides of proposition 2 ½ , and if so, under what conditions?
- Do you support the Mayor’s capital improvement plan?
- How do you think the city should address Other Post Employment Benefits funding?
- What is your position on Newton’s pension obligations?
- Do you think Newton should continue to self-insure its employees’ health insurance? Do you think Newton should reconsider providing its employee health insurance through the GIC?
- Do you support the collective bargaining rights of Newton’s municipal and educator unions. Are you committed to protecting the collective bargaining rights of Newton Educators and municipal employees? What do you see as the role of collective bargaining in the city and schools?
I agree with you Gail. I did not respond to the questionnaire because it made no sense to me. I suspect I was not alone among the 22 CC candidates.
Now we have an explantion for the results. This post and numbers are as of 4:50pm friday regarding the poll results and the NTA endorsements:
NTA endorsements Place on the poll
Frantz (3)
Barrash (4)
Lipsitt (10)
Haywood (9)
Steele (1)
Krintzman (7)
Kidwell (5)
Larner (6)
Manning (12)
Obviously, the NTA people voted on the poll. Not to take away from the talent of the top 9. Parker (2) and Mansfield (8) are the only 2 that broke into the top 9 that wasn’t endorsed by the NTA. Very odd for a group who put no thought into their endorsements.
Yes Tom, the only possible explanation as to why the Village 14 poll and the teachers endorsements largely match up is because Newton school teachers have spent their day voting on Village 14!
Jane rightly pointed out on a different thread that I didn’t post all of the questions from the NTA questionnaire.
The union also asked:
The questions I originally posted were just the ones that baffled me.
Greg, thats it!!
The mission of the charter commission doesn’t affect the NTA. Furthermore, it is silly for the NTA to be seeking to endorse candidates. What’s in it for the candidates to have the NTA endorsement? NOTHING. NTA members don’t vote in Newton. NTA members can live in less expensive communities like Boston or Watertown and send their kids to the Newton Public Schools for free (unlike Brookline that charges significant fees). This is the reason that most of them are not registered voters in Newton and have zero effect on the outcome of elections. So, why should regular Newton voters (aka struggling taxpayers) care what the NTA thinks or endorses? Their endorsement should be considered a political kiss of death, in my humble opinion.
On issues that have to do with educational excellence that benefit Newton kids and educational reputation, whether it be facilities quality, learning time or important issues such as full day kindergarten, the NTA has NOT
been a parental/taxpayer ally for educational excellence. . They’re only about maximizing salaries and minimizing work requirements– and have a dental plan that few of us can take advantage of, even educators in comparable districts. So, why should candidates — or Newton voters — care about the NTA? Right now, there’s nothing in it for Newton kids or enhancing education. If you guys want to be a player in Newton elections, then have more of your members actually PAY Newton property taxes and be eligible to vote here..Your salaries definitely allow it. Then, I’ll care about your endorsement. Don’t live in West Roxbury, send your kids to our schools and not pay for it. Just saying.
KarenN:
Just for the record, I think it is a net positive for Newton teachers to be able to send their kids to Newton schools. I know nothing about the costs I admit. But I personally think the schools can only be stronger when the teachers are personally invested, and the most personal way to be invested is to have your kids attend the same schools. You make it sounds like the teachers are somehow fleecing the system, which I think is unfair.
@Gail, thanks for posting the questions. This was strange to me but I was also answering questions for the Tab and LWVN so I filled out the one from the NTA. My answers were more comments on how the charter seemed to be unrelated to the questions.
I also was dismayed that the writing was rather poor. Perhaps I am overly critical as an editor for a scientific journal. You may note that question #1 was redundant and I think you missed the second question #3. I was tempted to send it back graded as nearly passing. I hope these are not teachers writing the questionnaire. The one positive, the sender provided an immediate response indicating receipt of my submission.
@Groot: I did, in fact, notice that the questionnaire was very poorly edited. I chose not to repeat the errors.
I just emailed Mike Zilles asking him to make the questionnaire results available. Let’s see what he says, but it hard for me to imagine why anyone would say “no.”