“It’s a small world after all. It’s a small world after all. It’s a small world after all. It’s a small, small world.” — The Disneyland Chorus
I hear tell Professional Education Services Group (PESG), the company that provided substitute teachers for public school districts, abruptly went belly up Tuesday. I shed no tears.
I worked for PESG as a bottom-feeder substitute teacher from 2008 to the end of 2011.
I learned just today that indeed it’s a small world — Clark Galloway, the man behind the Leighton Township air strip, was vice president of operations of Caledonia-based PESG from 2006 to 2009. The company at one time covered 65 schools in Kent, Ottawa, Barry and Allegan counties.
PESG contracted services for substitute teachers with the claim it could save school districts anywhere from 7 to 12 percent, “which can then be put back into classrooms in the form of teacher salaries and equipment.”
PESG also offered an a la carte selection of benefits, should a substitute teacher want to take advantage of it.
“Sometimes people will complain that by contracting with a private company, the subs are losing the benefits they had with the school,” Galloway said in a story published in 2006. “That’s not something schools offer to substitute teachers in the first place, so they’re actually gaining something with us.”
Galloway graduated from Cornerstone University with a business degree and became involved in managing health care benefits. He left PESG in 2009 to become CEO of rival EduStaff, which now reigns supreme as THE substitute teacher service for West Michigan. Many area districts dropped PESG after 2013, but the company was still in business elsewhere in the state — until Tuesday.
The Detroit Free Press published a story, but did not disclose why PESG went down so suddenly, leaving many districts without a pool of subs.
I published a column back in 2014, telling somewhat sordid tales of my personal experiences. Here are a couple of for instances:
“Though I had two part-time positions, I still was declared eligible in the fall of 2008 for much smaller unemployment payments, according to the State of Michigan, to supplement the pittance I was getting.
“The unemployment office the following June told me I owed PESG money for not working certain days during the recently completed academic year. I had routinely declined offers to work at elementary jobs because I was hoping for a secondary post that might be available later that morning and because I never had any training at the elementary level. My old teaching certificate was for grades 6-12. I felt woefully inadequate in grades K through five.
“PESG insisted I repay the company for days I did not work in elementaries and the unemployment office concurred. I had to write PESG a check.
“A year later, PESG filed another complaint about me because I did not do any work as a sub for about three months — because I was working for the U.S. Census Bureau, and I appropriately blacked out the days on the calendar to let PESG know what days I wouldn’t be available. PESG maintained I could have worked, but willfully did not.
“I had to defend myself again, but this time I was found innocent. I then complained to the unemployment office that I had to suffer a penalty the year before, so I insisted PESG should be penalized for lying about my performance. At one point PESG tried to avoid paying my unemployment by insisting to the MESC I didn’t work for the firm at all.”
I resigned at the end of 2011 and a month later launched Townbroadcast. I predicted back then:
“There are much easier jobs out there. When times are hard, there will be many subs. But if temporary or part-time jobs are more plentiful, many will opt for other low paying jobs because they’re less stressful… I had had enough of being treated like a low-life indentured servant. And PESG did not treat me with respect, instead treating me like a bottom feeder in its quest to maximize profits on the backs of the hired hands. Just like a corporation that cares only about money and not a whit about people.”
My experiences with PESG taught me to become more than a little cynical about privatizing public services, yet such an ugly process continues to flourish. And we wonder why wages for the middle class are stagnant while managers and CEOs and their lieutenants make big bucks?
