Greater than $103,000,000 is being spent and they still can't get it done right. Why is that? Why is it we have programs like Gourmet Cooking, or Fashion and Clothing Design? Why is it Three Village residents are paying for courses providing college credit in law, forensic science and economics, while the average household school tax burden exceeds well over $5,000.

Why is it we offer more in Special Education opportunities than required by law and provide a Mecca of sorts for families having children with physical handicaps? Why do parents and members of the PTA find themselves advocating all manner of things of greatest benefit to teachers?! Why do we hear about the alleged need to learn Chinese to ensure our children's future, when English is dominant worldwide, replacing even French as the language of diplomacy? Why is multiculturalism emphasized? Why were district English certification standards LOWERED, while almost simultaneously the New York State Legislature chose to raise standards, insisting that ALL children meet more stringent requirements? And, then there are the outrageous teaching salaries, now reaching $105,000. The average tenured teacher salary is morer than $74,000. Just a few years ago, when Smithtown school district made known that it had 30 available teaching positions, it was overwhelmed by more than 2,000 qualified applicants looking for work. What's wrong with this picture? When supplies are up are not costs supposed to go down?

Every single one of these costly ills, and more, may be laid at the office door threshold of the Three Village Teachers' Association. The Union did its homework: schmoozing the administration, the Board of Education and the public. But however well they performed, the Union would never have been as successful as it has been if WE had all paid greater attention to things that were and remain OUR ultimate responsibility. WE all helped to "kill the golden goose."

We elected people supported by the teachers' union, that supported policies favorable to increasing curriculum offerings. The greater the number of programs, the greater the number of teachers, the greater the amount of collected union dues and, not coincidentally, the greater union influence. Those we elected did not insist upon negotiators holding the line on collective bargaining agreements. They continued to sit idly, while classroom teaching hours, performance standards and student teacher ratios were lowered, under the pretense of providing distinct advantages to the students. They sat in silence while salaries went ballistic and union rules, through collective bargaining efforts, gave teachers unconscionable influence in the management of the district.

With so many teaching positions, there were still few opportunities for upward mobility. After all, staying in the classroom for 30 years is not to the liking of everyone. So, to entice them to stay, more managerial and executive positions were provided. In witness thereto, we saw Assistant Principals and a directorship of a Humanities Division initiated. Can you imagine, a high school Humanities Division? The now gone to the great beyond of Colorado, the "Super 'B' for Barter" district superintendent Mary Barter, must have thought she'd died and gone to Junior College Heaven. One can only hope that Superintendent John Sonedecker suffers not from the delusions of his predecessor.

Ladies and gentlemen, the single most insidious condition prevailing in the Three Village Central School District, perhaps every Long Island school district, is teacher union influence. It must be stopped. And to those who would say that the finger of guilt, if pointed at all, should not be directed at individual teachers, The Waking Bear has a brief message.

Every union, every single union in this country tells its membership:

"It's your union. Tell us what you want. The union represents you."

And, it's time for the ewes in the union to start telling the leaders to back off before negative public opinion reverses thirty years of self-delusional progress.