When you thought the buffoonery was over…

With the Tacoma “Education” Association finally ending its strike, I expected things to immediately go back to normal. Teachers would return to their classrooms where they would destroy the natural desire to learn and cause significant irreversible mental and emotional harm. Apparently, Andy Coons has still kept out his clown shoes so that we may (or is that must?) laugh at him.

What’s happening is that Andy Coons has whined to the media that the district isn’t paying them for not working. Part of the money that was originally supposed to be paid for their next pay period will be delayed until the teachers actually earn it. He even goes as far as insisting that paying only for time that teachers actually worked is a form of retaliation against the teachers for striking.

What if this strike would have continued? Would the teachers have demanded that their pay continued regardless of whether or not they ever returned to their classrooms? What about the possibility of teachers becoming fed up and quitting? If the district paid them, was there any way to get the money back? Who do these teachers even think that they are? Why should they be treated so differently than everybody else? Why should they be the only people to get paid without actually having to do anything?

In all fairness, doing nothing is much more desirable than the actions that these lawbreakers usually engage in. Even so, they will be just as destructive as they would have been without the strike. After all, the district has to make up the days when the teachers were on strike. In other words, these teachers are not going to take any kind of financial hit for their selfish actions. They just want their money before they earn it.

On top of this complaint, the district is dealing with extra unexpected expenses. Some teachers actually did show up for work during the strike. The district isn’t going to refuse their pay due to the actions of others. This means that the district is actually increasing their payroll expenses as a result of the refusal to work. If the union really wants the normal pay schedule regardless of whether or not teachers were working, perhaps Mr. Coons should insist that the district does not pay the people who actually earned it.

As I have said before, the issues between the district and the TEA should not be about my personal amusement. It’s time for Andy Coons to put away his clown shoes. Even though mental harm is more depressing than hilarious, it’s time to move away from Andy Coons making a fool out of all of the teachers in Tacoma so that the teachers can go back to making fools out of themselves.