Oh yeah, also,

>She was basically being paid as
>a substitute teacher—no benefits, no CBA—while she
>developed the program.

I should probably clarify this mention of a collective bargaining agreement a little. The teachers in Maine's public schools are unionized... kind of, on paper. I mean they are required to belong to an organization to which they pay dues and which bills itself as a teachers' labor advocacy group, but... well, imagine if instead of a traditional union, a group of workers banded together and formed an organization tasked with policing their own tendency to make demands and generally making sure they don't take advantage of management too badly. That's pretty much what the Maine Education Association is. The adjective "supine" doesn't get used often enough, and it applies here, so there, I have just used it.

To be fair, they haven't got access to organized labor's traditional weapon of choice; teachers' strikes are illegal in Maine. The state Department of Labor will not help them. About the only thing their pseudo-union is legally able to do when the town government offers, say, even more terrible pay than is customary in exchange for continuing their health insurance when they retire, and then years later pleads financial hardship and drops retirees' health insurance,* is wave its hands and fret like C-3PO. "Oh dear, oh dear. This wasn't part of the arrangement."

--G.
* which happened
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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