I have brought up the supply/demand part to say that I think the BCTF demand of 15+%/5 years is unreasonable given the supply/demand numbers. Somehow my other comments where I agree that they should take the offered pay raise that have been accepted by other public sector workers are translated as "OMG you hate children!!!".
Standard NBR I suppose.
in 1998/9 the bctf negotiated to have classroom size and composition as part of the bargaining process. that was stripped away from them by the liberals and the courts decided that was unconstitutional. the liberals re-wrote the legislation to say the same thing and this was again struck down by the courts. the liberals are continuing to appeal. teacher want the right to bargain on class size and composition as a way to ensure that children get the quality education they deserve.
in the past, teachers have given up wage concessions in order to make gains in class size and composition. they are willing to do so again but the gov't has stripped that right away from them.
the last contract (which was legislated btw) had no pay increase at all.
classroom conditions continue to get worse, and they are far worse than 20-30 years ago when we were all in elementary school. the stress load on teachers is increaseing b/c of this and the quality of the education in our public school system is decreasing because of this. as well, family lifestyles are not the same now as they were in the past. talk to long term teachers, there are more behavioural issues to deal with in the class room now than in the past. in short, the job has become more difficult while the resources and support have shrunk.
the $44-88K salary number gets dropped a lot but not all teachers even make the minimum. many teachers work a number of years on call before they get a full time position and make even less than the stated minimum. but even in light of supply and demand, do you think treating teaching as simply a lowest bid gets the job is the way to go about it? does it not make more sense to establish teaching as a well paid profession in order to attract and keep the best teachers on the job? there are good teachers leaving and taking early retirement because the job has become too stressful.
oh and you've also asked about performance reviews - there is a system in place. it does need to be tweaked, but teachers do get reviewed. one of the things the gov't wants to bring in is the ability to dismiss teachers who have even just one poor peformance review - i think that sets up potential problems.
for those of you who really don't understand the issues but think you do or who get the majority of your info from the media (which is typically gov't spin), take the time to talk to some teachers. ask them the questions that you have in a non-aggressive or intimidating manner and listen to what they have to say. the picture the liberals are painting is far different from the reality that teachers today are facing in the classroom.
We don't know what our limits are, so to start something with the idea of being limited actually ends up limiting us.
Ellen Langer