The most destructive unit of force acting upon the public school system is the teachers union. Whether it is San Juan County, or anywhere in the United States, the degradation of the education model lays at the feet of the teachers union. Do they care?

Should any entity in this country have this amount of control over the future of our children? They should not, but they do. “A University of Pennsylvania study estimates that each month of school closures costs students between $12,000 and $15,000 in future earnings.” WSJ 2-11-2021.

Where else could you get a job that pays a full-time salary and benefits for half-time work? That is exactly what has been happening since the remote schooling revolution started. What is the incentive to go back to teaching full-time, in-class instruction when they will be paid in full anyway? And this is not even taking into account the 20 half days that the SJI teachers have during a normal school year. Public schools are mandated to 180 full days a year, yet the aforementioned half-days are counted as full days. What a life!

It used to be that teaching was an admirable profession filled with people who saw their job as a quasi-craft, or calling, for an adult to gift their knowledge to a child. Those days unfortunately are long behind us. Do the good teachers, the engaged teachers, the altruistic teachers realize the irrevocable irreparable damage that is being done to their once very respectable way of making a living?

All the great societies in the world have always put the child first. Since when have adults been deemed more important than children? That is exactly what the teachers’ union dogma postulates.

The very recent adoption of this so-called hybrid model gives parents and children something to grasp, like the last straw, but is nothing but a dog and pony circus act to placate and assuage one constituency, the teachers’ union.

Every parent and taxpayer should be very concerned about the beginning of the next school year. Where is the protestation? Where is the outrage?

Michael Pignatiello

San Juan Island