The many lessons of the teachers union

Re “United in name only,” editorial, Oct. 8

As elementary vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles for eight years, I believed that my job was to serve and protect the interests of the UTLA members and help preserve quality public education. My personal voice was seldom heard -- my job was to represent the voice of members who elected me. Their voice was heard through me at every Los Angeles Unified School District meeting I attended.

The Times’ editorial is correct -- many of the current UTLA officers do not have a clue what the rank-and-file membership has to say about education reform or raising student achievement and do not seem to take the time to even bother to find out. But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for -- most of the membership didn’t vote, and these are the officers they got. Hopefully this is a wake-up call to the “silent majority” out there that they can’t be silent any longer.

BECKI ROBINSON

San Gabriel

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You are making yourself look silly by wanting to have things both ways. On the one hand, you say that the low turnout in UTLA’s presidential election is proof that it doesn’t reflect the opinion of the teachers who “think more about their classroom than the union.” Yet on the other hand, when the same percentage turns out for a vote on the legislation that gives the mayor more control over the LAUSD, and you like the results, you say the members “voted by a convincing margin” to oppose President A.J. Duffy’s stance on the bill.

Why does a 25% voter turnout not reflect teacher opinion in one case but reflect it in another?

JIM SMITH

UTLA Chapter Chairman

Narbonne High School

San Pedro

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I have been a classroom teacher for more than 15 years (most of which have been spent in LAUSD classrooms). You certainly have a valid point that the teachers union ought to focus less on international issues and more on teachers in Los Angeles. But you are wrong to imply that Duffy is out of step with most teachers regarding standardized testing. If you actually talk to most of us -- not the few “kiss-ups” hoping to become administrators -- we are in hearty agreement with Duffy about the disservice done to students through the current high-stakes testing mania. There already are measures of student progress: They’re called grades. The tests we are forced to administer year after year do not measure critical or high-order thinking, nor do they help teachers really educate students. They do send a message to students and their families that teachers can’t be trusted to judge student progress. Like Duffy, most of us smell a rat.

LARRY A. CARSTENS

Francis Polytechnic High School

Sun Valley