The Dockery Dilemma

Gubernatorial candidate Paula Dockery is trying to convince people she's a true conservative despite the fact (or perhaps because of the fact) that she's been siding with more liberal viewpoints and organizations.

For example, Friday afternoon Paula Dockery released an op-ed saying why she's siding with the state's largest teachers union and voted against a bill that would determine a teacher's salary based on performance.

She calls SB 6 an unaffordable "power grab" that will "destroy jobs" and eliminate individual responsibility.

But the Republican Senate Majority, from whom she's dissenting, calls it a way to hold teachers responsible for their performance in the classroom.

So, who are real conservatives? Dockery or the Republican Majority she is breaking from?

Dockery and the unions claim that the bill takes power away from the local school districts. If that were true, voting against it might be considered the conservative thing to do.

But Jill Chamberlin from the House Speaker's Office says that's just one of the myths that's been spread around.

"The Department of Education will work with individual school districts, teachers and principals to come up with ways to evaluate the teacher," said Chamberlin.

"The teachers won't be expected to work miracles, but they will be evaluated on how their individual students progress," she said.

In released statements on SB 6 Sen. John Thrasher said, "SB 6 will reward quality teaching and quality teachers for their hard work."

Adding incentive and rewarding better performance instead of determining salary based solely on credentials and time served is generally considered a conservative value. But Dockery is adamantly voting against it, which calls into question her view of conservatism.

And because we're speaking of conservative values and Dockery's position, we could also bring up her opposition to privatized prisons, but that might be another blog entirely.