Providence teachers give back to retain their colleagues

In case you missed it, Providence, Rhode Island public school teachers voted to give back a number of benefits in order to guarantee their jobs and those of teachers who would have been laid off. This is an interesting action of collectivism that can be seen two ways. In a sense it is a great act of cooperation with the district and support for those who would have lost jobs. In another sense, it may merely keep people on the job who are not needed. As with many situations, this may be a combination of both of these. Still, it's one of the first major admissions by a union that the economic downturn is real and that teachers have to sacrifice as well as everyone else. I applaud the teachers' union for this effort, even though I'm sure that some of those teacher should have lost their jobs for other reasons. I'm sure that the district and the union would not have allowed lay offs based on performance, so as we continue to wonder what will happen to the future of our economy, it's good to know that someone is dealing with reality.