A Reader Writes

My letter to the editor in the Loudoun Times-Mirror. I actually documented all my claims with links, and you’d think that since this is online, the links might be retained, but you would be wrong. They also stripped out the bit at the end identifying me as a candidate for office. Oh well. That’s show business.

The nation’s workers are restless. In 2022 the number of people involved in strike activity jumped fifty percent. Upwards of 40,000 graduate students and teaching assistants at the University of California recently joined the United Auto Workers. Here in Loudoun, there has been ferment among public school educators and bus drivers. In Richmond, five Starbucks stores voted to unionize, joining a nationwide movement. Three more in Loudoun and Fairfax made the move as well.

Our public schools have a dual problem. The sad fact is that the profession of teaching is less inviting than it used to be. One reason is the money. Someone qualified to teach is often able to earn more in the private sector. As productivity and wages grow faster in the private sector, this problem keeps getting worse. What the Economic Policy Institute calls the “teacher pay penalty” shows a long-running, chronic gap.

There is also a question of morale. All manner of absurd accusations are hurled against the public schools by a hysterical minority, including charges they are indoctrinating students in “Critical Race Theory” (they aren’t), or even worse, slanders that they are “grooming” children for sexual abuse. Nor is it helpful when school management makes ill-informed decisions without constructive dialog with its employees.

Then you have the poorly-educated complaining about books by acclaimed authors in school libraries. Teachers who already have enough to do are obliged to contend with extra paperwork because parents are able to independently micro-manage instructional materials. Who would want to work for modest remuneration under these circumstances?

As would be expected, uncompetitive pay and unreasonable, ideologically-motivated harassment lead to shortages of qualified job applicants. Virginia’s schools are undergoing a brain drain – more teachers are quitting than being hired. In response, Governor Youngkin proposes to reduce hiring standards in Virginia. I’d say this is going backwards.

The Loudoun Education Association is seeking to bargain with the school board and ensure continuity of school operations. The board should be willing. A formal

collective bargaining process would facilitate collaboration between labor and management in formulating effective policies and preclude any disruption of the school year.

This would all be easier if the entire public school system was not under ferocious attack by interests seeking to divert public funds to private schools and home schooling, as explicitly proposed by our lieutenant governor.

As alluded to above, after a work stoppage of two months the bus drivers of the Amalgamated Transit Union returned to work without a contract. Their struggle continues, along with the threat of a resumed walkout. One option worth considering is dispensing with avaricious contractors like Keolis and taking the work back in-house, to be managed directly by the county. This is not a simple problem, but it is one that many business firms confront. Contracting out to for-profit operators is not an automatic win.

The bottom line is that work doesn’t pay enough to raise a family in Loudoun, where housing is hella expensive. The richest county in the U.S.A. can do better for the workers on which its citizens depend. We can afford to find and retain the best. Aren’t our children worth it?

Max B. Sawicky

Lovettsville