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E. Providence taxpayers group pleads directly to teachers

12:16 PM Fri, Jan 16, 2009 | Permalink
By News staff

By Alisha A. Pina
Journal staff writer

EAST PROVIDENCE -- If the city could, it would pay "our most outstanding teachers more," a spokesman for the East Providence Taxpayers Association said at a its news conference today.

Yet the reality is "this is not possible in the context of our current financial crisis," William Murphy said, while speaking about the city's growing $8.3 million deficit.

Murphy was the sole representative of the group that scheduled this morning's talk with the media outside East Providence High School. He said they had done so because the group was denied a chance to speak at Tuesday night's School Committee meeting, when heckling teachers forced the meeting's closure. Murphy said he and other group members wanted to speak mainly to the city's more than 500 teachers because they believe the educators have been misinformed by the leaders of their union, the East Providence Education Association, and its parent organization, the National Education Association Rhode Island.

"We are concerned that our teachers are being ill-served and misinformed by stubborn, intransigent union leaders, who are out of touch with reality. And we are pleading with our teachers to engage in dialogue with us and listen to our argument," he said.

The association said one misconception is that the teachers were "attacked and victimized" by the School Committee when it decided earlier this month to reduce the teachers' salaries by nearly 5 percent, force the educators to pay 20 percent toward their health insurance costs, and several other unprecedented moves. The taxpayers group believes the changes were "in no way motivated by the ill will toward teachers."

The taxpayers group this morning also said union leaders "falsely assert" that the city's financial crisis is caused by mismanagement on the part of current School Committee members. Murphy attributes the crisis to mismanagement on the part of past board members, who he said approved an unaffordable contract because they were "retired teachers, School Department employees and union officials who had horrendous conflicts of interest."

"They and members of their family were receiving benefits from the very contracts they were negotiating," Murphy said. "They took care of themselves, their friends and their families; not the school children or the general public.

"The big difference in East Providence today is that we have an independent School Committee that is dedicated to acting in the public interest, not the union's interest," Murphy said. "They are the ones who are bringing to light the sins of the past and working to make thins better, not the teachers' union leaders who oppose their every attempt at reform."

Murphy said there are several teachers who agree with the taxpayers group. He said a secret ballot vote by the teachers may show "how the teachers really feel about these issues when they are able to express their opinions free of watchful eyes of their union overseers. We are pleading with our teachers not to let an out-of-touch leadership lead them off a cliff that perhaps will result in layoffs, missed payrolls or even the closing of the school system. Solidarity is little consolation at the bottom of the abyss."

One of the NEA leaders, assistant executive director Patrick Crowley, was holding a video camera next to the half dozen or so media cameras this morning. When asked what he thought of the association's speech, Crowley said it was "more misleading facts." He said teachers from as early as 2004 have been giving concessions.

He also said the hundreds of teacher supporters who attended Tuesday's School Committee meeting prove "people of Rhode Island are standing with the teachers." He pointed out that there was no one standing in support of the taxpayers group at this morning's event.