The Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers’ Association’s decision to begin a teacher “slowdown” as a method to reach a satisfactory end to contract negotiations is a viable way to increase awareness for the issue, even though it is seen as unnecessarily harmful toward students.
MBUTA initiated the slowdown, in which teachers do not work outside of their contractual hours, to call attention to what MBUTA sees as “indifference, manipulation and corruption” on behalf of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. In effect, teachers will not write letters of recommendation, grade papers outside of school, hold club meetings during lunch or have more than one Advanced Placement study session each.
Although it seems that the sole effect of the slowdown is negative, the reasoning behind it makes its implementation justifiable. According to MBUTA President Shawn Chen, teachers are being asked to do more than what they believe they should contractually do as teachers. Their complaints center around salary disputes, the implementation of Common Core standards and technology into the curriculum and mandatory attendance of 12 hours of professional development. Due to the situation at hand, teachers have used their relation with students as leverage. Though a seemingly-flawed tactic, the teacher slowdown is a feasible way to get parents to take action.
In an open letter from MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews, he claims that $1,033,000 will be added to the MBUSD General Fund, which includes teachers’ salaries. This extra funding is a result of the district inappropriately charging expenses to the General Fund for wireless internet and other amenities that should have been provided for under other funds. Considering that the district did make a mistake allocating funds that would have influenced teacher salaries, the teachers’ actions to rally for raises in salary are justifiable.
MBUTA is suspicious of intentional mismanagement of the budget on behalf of the district. However, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Rick Bagley claims that this was human error and is in no way indicative of malicious intent. Even so, had the district allocated the correct amount to the General Fund, this dispute may not have occurred at all.
Although the teacher slowdown is justified in its methodology and intent, it is not without repercussions for students who are powerless in this struggle between MBUSD and MBUTA. The threat of no letters of recommendation, an incredibly integral part of the college application process, has a far more lasting impact on students than community awareness. Additionally, the lack of AP study sessions negatively impacts the strong academic tradition at Mira Costa, which is damaging to all involved.
The MBUTA’s use of the teacher slowdown to promote community awareness of educational issues is warranted considering the limited alternatives available to the MBUTA; however, some of the constituent facets of this slowdown leave students without the proper resources for academic development and success.
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