THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502150199
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
I am not surprised that Jim Darden resigned his position as chairman of the Virginia Beach School Board. That body has become the laughingstock of the community, thanks to the Virginia Beach Education Association. The VBEA has proved itself to be as self-serving as its parent organization, the National Education Association. After the ``Dr.'' Charles Vincent fiasco, why would anyone take its endorsements seriously? The VBEA would endorse anybody for a seat on the School Board as long as he (or she) promised to ask no questions and keep the funding coming.
A word to our public school teachers: If you want your profession ever to be honored again, you'd better free yourself from the yoke of the VBEA. It cares nothing for education, only for socialist indoctrination and greed. Virginians may be slower to catch on than people elsewhere, but sooner or later they will join the taxpayer revolt that is sweeping the rest of the country. Sadly, a lot of good teachers will be hurt in the process.
Some of them deserve it, though - at least those with bumper stickers that read ``If you can read this, thank a teacher.'' By the same logic, why shouldn't parents sport bumper stickers that read, ``If your child can't read this, blame a teacher''?
They must also be partly to blame who remain silent while the administration collects part of their wages and forwards it to the VBEA. Can you imagine the howling that would take place if Superintendent Sidney Faucette's team withheld a portion from the salaries of conservative teachers and forwarded it to Citizens for Better Education? How ironic that, from the teachers' own salaries, they are funding the very organization that is making public education a stench in the nostrils of more and more people.
Joseph L. Gwynn, President
Citizens for Better Education by CNB