While we’re on the subject of education (and Seattle Times editorials), here’s another of the Times’ line items which I found curious:
• $926 million — Cancel the Initiative 728 money, or most of it. Officially this is for class-size reduction in the public schools, but the schools have folded it into everyday operations. Cutting I-728 money was done in 2003, when the budget was in a crisis, and has to be done again. That is the danger of budgeting by initiative.
“That is the danger of budgeting by intiative.” Cutting taxes by initiative, apparently, the Times has no problem with that, but spending money, well that’s a no-no… despite the fact that taxing and spending are both part of the budget process. But again, that’s not my concern for the moment.
No, I just wanted to point out that a $926 million cut comes to over $900 per K-12 student over the course of the biennium, or roughly $450 per student per year. For a typical elementary school with about 400 kids, that’s about $180,000 out of the annual budget. How many teachers will need to be cut? Do they increase class size for all the kids, or do they eliminate art or music or gym or reading tutors… assuming they have any of these left to cut?
And don’t think local school districts can make up these cuts by raising local levies. In fact, some districts may have to reduce their local levies in response, as state law limits the amount of money raised from local levies to a fixed percentage of the district’s total state and federal funding.
The Times argues that this money was cut before and “has to be done again,” because raising taxes—any taxes—simply isn’t an option. No doubt tough choices have to be made to respond to these tough economic times, but raising taxes is an awfully tough choice too, and it just doesn’t make sense to automatically eliminate one half of the budget equation when something as important as our children’s education is at risk.
*Rollback salaries & benefits for all education related personnel.
*Eliminate ALL outside Education “Consultants”
*Consolidate School Districts eliminating duplicate overhead expenditures.
*Close school buildings wherever possible.
*Eliminate ESD’s
*Eliminate Assistant Principal’s & related staff.
*Eliminate costly non-essential classes and ESL.
*Eliminate the Superintendent of Public Instruction
I’m just startin’!
auctionz bitchez!
So how does the legislature get around a state voter-approved initiative merely by refusing to fund it? Sounds like another lawsuit to me – which would be yet another waste of money. What would be the state’s position in that lawsuit – using the attorney general’s office to defend the initiative, or defend the legislature’s budget process? Clearly a conflict of interest. Would the state have to fund both sides of the litigation?
And, of course, the argument is rather circular. The first thing that happened, thanks in large part to Dino Rossi, was that the initiative was de-funded. Then the school districts had to make do as best they could. Then the Times argues that because the initiative was never fully implemented, it should be considered precedent for ignoring it completely.
Kind of like shooting a guy in the kneecap, and then arguing that since he’s already unable to keep up, it’s no great crime to just go ahead and shoot him again to put him out of his misery.
#1, combined with the Seattle Times editorial, is pretty much a description of the Republican plan to starve the public education system until it is near death, and then argue that it should be killed off completely because it doesn’t perform well (after being starved). The plan is to then force the public into a private education system which is expensive, not universal, and with which the content can be controlled to teach Republican values (i.e., Democrats bad, Republicans good, taxes bad, wars are good).
Way to promote IGNORANCE and a NON-competitive work force.
How selfish, short-sighted, stupid, stupid, bone-crushingly STUPID you are.
Fucking moronic bastard…live in Montana?
FUCKING STAY THERE!
Leave our kids alone.
Initiative 728 wasn’t “budgeting by intiative” was telling the state leg. how to prioritize state spending and telling them that we were down with spending more on education.
Spend MORE money on schools NOW!!!
More Public Shools!
Better pay for Teachers NOW!
More School Buildings!
SMALLER classes!
MORE ESL!!!!!
MORE Course Offerings (esp. Arts and Humanities)!
THIS is the time to BUILD not tear down.
TAKE away business tax breaks, raise import tariffs and stop outsourcing jobs overseas…it’s time for Business to invest in their future workers AND…
…THEIR FUTURE CONSUMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GET IT????
Or is that concept too complicated for you dumbass “Conservatives”?
re 1: How much money would be saved with your recommended cuts?
How STUPID do you have to be to be a “conservative”.
That’s what I want too know.
One can only hope that some day, schools will be fully funded and the Air Force will have to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.
Obviously The Times figgers they won’t need “readers” (who can read) or “writers” who can write)when as a media outlet…
…they don’t exist.
The stupid DOES have consequences.
@1
* Lose good staff the that you have and fail to attract quality new hires.
* Would create more state employees and cost more. There probably are some positions that can and will get cut.
* Maybe in a couple of places. But, we have all these districts because people want access and control at the local level, partly because Righties have been screaming that you can’t trust the gov’ment for the last 20 years.
* Again people want their local, neighborhood schools and for the most part are willing to pay for them. It was you righties that pushed for a huge amount of local control over schools. Don’t like the results of that? Too bad.
* What’s your beef with ESD’s again? I don’t have a clue on this one.
* And who would do their work? Sorry, it takes more than just teachers to have a functioning school system. And again, as budgets get tight, things will get cut.
* I thought you righties wanted everyone to speak English only? Now you don’t want to teach people English? Make up your mind!
* What good do you think would come from eliminating the SPI?
It’s thinking like yours at @#1 that have kept the Republicans out of the governors office for the last umpteen years. Keep up the good work.
I thought the State of Washington’s primary purpose as defined by the Washington State Constitution…
…oh wait…
1. Decide how much educational support we need (I suggest a lot).
2. Pay for it with a progressive tax.
Period.
I ran across this Latin quote that some German scholar of the Nazi era had cited. Hopefully, we have nipped the Cynicals of this world in time to do something about it.
In 2003, George Bush said somethinbg to the effect that once he got the course of the country changed, it would be very dificult to stop it.
“Principiis obsta and Finem respice-‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.'”
@7 TAKE away business tax breaks, raise import tariffs and stop outsourcing jobs overseas…it’s time for Business to invest in their future workers AND…
————-
Big corps such as Microsoft benefit mightily from the state’s education system.
Isn’t it interesting… most of my suggestions involve cutting excessive overhead in our schools, not actual $$ to the classroom. Yet the LEFTIST PINHEADS go beserk. Makes you wonder how many of them have their hands in the pie. I know headless lucy works for a School District…I think it’s Edmonds, isn’t it??
It’s time to use zero-base budgeting.
Let’s define the core of what we are trying to accomplish and do it as cost-effectively as possible. The Education System is filled with mini-fifedom’s…all costly, with little impact on the schools.
Re; Salary/Benefit Rollback’s–
We are entering a period of deflation. Folks are lucky to have jobs and why should they BENEFIT from deflation in tough economic times for many taxpayers??
Interesting how many government workers, current, family or former, we probably have on this site.
Now is the time for Government to more reflect the economy and be leaders in reducing cost!
In Washington, the taxpayers seem to work for the government employees. Need to reverse that mindset.
How exactly are my suggestions going to hurt kids??
*Rollback salaries & benefits for all education related personnel.
*Eliminate ALL outside Education “Consultants”
*Consolidate School Districts eliminating duplicate overhead expenditures.
*Close school buildings wherever possible.
*Eliminate ESD’s
*Eliminate Assistant Principal’s & related staff.
*Eliminate costly non-essential classes and ESL.
*Eliminate the Superintendent of Public Instruction
They may slightly impact teachers….but mainly they get at the Bureaucratic Tub of Goo that has continued to grow sucking precious taxpayer dollars out of the primary mission…educating our kids.
Let’s try to get as close to 100% of Education Dollars in the Classroom as possible. Say bye-bye to non-teaching Bureaucrats and Consultants.
@1
The fact of the matter is we need more spending on schools. More options of classes to take. More and better continuing education for teachers and class room aides.
By investing MORE in our kids (health insurance for everyone under 18. Now!) and schools we will get a better product out of our schools. Those smart kids will help attract employers that have skilled, high-wage jobs.
Those kids with those high-wage jobs will have little need for unemployment, welfare and those other social programs you righties seem to hate. Hell, give the kids comprehensive sex-ed and the pregnancy rate will go down and the number of abortions will go down. But hey, if abortions are few and far between and the welfare rolls are slim who and what would you righties have to scream at and about.
I’m starting to think the right doesn’t want to invest in our kids or have sex ed because if they did welfare rolls would shrink, the abortion rate would go down and they would be without someone call the devil and cast out. It’s them! They are the problem!
Like I said…
…and WHY IS IT that when anyone disagrees with you guys it’s always because there is a monetary benefit to the one who disagrees? That’s the way YOU think. Some of us believe in the COMMON GOOD. Some of us BELIEVE in public service…the betterment of ALL.
But that’s a little above shitheads like you Cynical. Obviously. Reaganism is dead.
It really IS morning in America.
michael, michael, michael…
Get a grip.
The issue I’m raising is about EDUCATION OVERHEAD.
You say “The fact of the matter is we need more spending on schools.”
The Fact is???
Where is your justification?
You defecate all over yourself rather than objectively look at where every dollar is currently being spent.
*Excess Buildings have O&M costs.
*”Consultants” suck off the system taking teachers away from their primary education mission.
*ESD’s, asst. Principal’s, excessive School Districts, Office of Public Instruction, unnecessary, feelgood classes….all excessive overhead and unnecessary.
And you bet michael, if the Public is suffering, Government Employees should shoulder the pain thru rollbacks of salaries & benefits.
If they don’t like it, move somewhere else.
But I can assure you, Washington Teachers do just fine relative to cost of living compared with most States.
Get a grip michael. The tax “Gravy Train” Days are over.
Do more with less.
The taxpayers have to.
The fact of the matter is we need more spending on schools. More options of classes to take. More and better continuing education for teachers and class room aides.
————
This is an interesting observation since Gregoire ran on a “no new taxes” pledge even when a big deficit was projected . . . how did people think the hole would be plugged if not by big spending cuts?
Even now, when the deficit has skyrocketed to possibly 6 billion, the Governor has not budged from that position:
http://www.theolympian.com/sta.....71181.html
Gregoire is leading the way on the issue taxes and “ugly spending cuts.”
“No doubt tough choices have to be made to respond to these tough economic times”
Yep, and one of the tough choices that might have to be made in these tough economic times is make the top 20% pay 5% instead of 4% of their income to local/state taxes. If the bottom 20% can pay 17%, they should be able to manage it. It’s for the public good.
@1 So you think a beginning teacher’s $26,000 salary should be rolled back to what? Minimum wage?
@3 “So how does the legislature get around a state voter-approved initiative merely by refusing to fund it? Sounds like another lawsuit to me – which would be yet another waste of money.”
Because courts can’t order legislatures to raise taxes or appropriate money, the legislature indeed can refuse to fund a voter-approved initiative, and these lawsuits produce nothing but pontificating language from the courts.
Consider the enormous expense that taxpayers bear to educate employers’ workers at taxpayer expense, the wingnut opposition to this massive taxpayer subsidy of employer training costs is somewhat mystifying.
However, if wingnuts succeed in eliminating public education, then employers should bear the cost of teaching their workers to read and write.
Public education is, after all, a gigantic subsidy for business, which needs a literate workforce.
How much money could we save by abolishing the WASL?
However, if wingnuts succeed in eliminating public education, then employers should bear the cost of teaching their workers to read and write.
———-
Wingnuts? The governor is leading the way with her solemn pledges time and again not to raise taxes. She’s focusing on higher ed, with possible cuts of 600 million there, and that number could go up with the next set of budget numbers. She’s providing the leadership on this issue far more than anyone else.
rujax shrieks:
Ah yes, the Common Good….the Marxist Progressive Mantra. How can one question or oppose the COMMON GOOD. How can one question or oppose ANYTHING done in the name of Public Serive or the betterment of ALL!
Rujax’s shrieking is precisely the problem. We blindly vote for School Levy’s cuz “it’s for the Children”.
The reality is it is for a bunch of government bureaucrats who know little about Public Service but a whole lot about their slary, benefits, paid time-off and especially their Retirement Progam which Rog Rabbit brags about and we will soon find out is $7 BILLION Underfunded….
Get a grip.
The Good Times are over.
Many of you KLOWNS have no experience with bad times and somehow believe it is government’s role to make your pathetic lives EASY!
The University of Washington had nothing to do with educating me to invest in these companies last Friday:
Symbol Price Change % Change
AAPL 92.95 +10.37 +12.56%
JRCC 7.75 +1.77 +29.60%
WFC 26.02 +4.26 +19.58%
Wake up you KLOWNS!
Here is how many tax-paying, job-creating business people feel:
The Half-Wit
The interesting thing I am finding in talking with employers is that productivity is UP…dramatically. WHY? Because most people value their jobs!
One friend told me in the last 3 months, he has fired 20 people, hired 15 people to replace them and fired 5 of the replacement workers.
He now has 10 quality workers do the same amount of work that 20 used to.
His attitude is “I put up with slackers for years because the job market was so tight for employers. The worm has turned. Those same folks who were half-committed to the Company are now known as “FORMER EMPLOYEES”!
It’s official. Horses Ass is now Goldy’s thoughts on various stories he’s read in The Seattle Times.
@1,
I have to disagree with most of your cost cutting recommendations.
Many of those people and programs provide buffer so the teachers can simply teach the kids with less interruptions.
Local schools allow kids and parents to support the community.
I’d love to have you elaborate on “Eliminate costly non-essential classes and ESL.”
What are non-essential classes? Art, Music, Shop? If so, those classes teach creativity, the only thing we cannot easily ship over seas. We need the creative class to make innovations here.
ESL. I’m like you, I’m a bit Xenophobic. I’d like all the illegals to go home. However, I don’t want to create a slave class that can’t speak English, that will work for nothing, and can’t object. That leads to unrest. I don’t want to be like France, with generations of non speakers who don’t feel part of the US.
It’s official. Troll is obsessive-compulsive and incapable of independent thought. If not fed from the Fox News trough each night, he wails and gnashes his teeth. Poor, Troll, what an unsatisfying existence he leads.
What is Cynical still doing here?
I would think the checks from BIAW would have ended long ago.
Must have extended his contract through the legislative session.
YLB–
You are hilarious.
Are you so retarded and paranoid as to believe anyone would get paid by anybody to post comments on HorsesAss.org?????????????
I do it because it is quite a learning experience in how the alleged mind of a LEFTIST works….or primarily does not work.
You PINHEADS sit around bitching. Your guy wins…and you are still bitching. Your guy wins…and you cannot even tell me one thing he is going to actually do to cause me pain.
It’s pretty comical.
Does the State Employees or Teachers Union pay you YLB to post on HorsesAss.org???
If they do, they deserve to become extinct.
Oh.
Really.
…so the shithead thinks that the roads, sewers, Court System, Police Dept., Fire Dept., Libraries; City, State and County Government and OH YES…the Public Scool System ect. are part of a “Marxist Conspiracy” because they are “citizen owned” and part of the “commons” that allows regular folks (and selfish assholes like him) to own property, enter into legally enforcable contracts, operate businesses, conduct commerce over viable rights of way…etc. ,etc.?
That CAN’T be what the moron means. Can it?
Never had kids either I’ll bet. I’d feel sorry for ’em if he did.
The vapid mind of the (fake) “Libertarian” right wing asshole.
The vast waste land.
Leaving aside Cynicals illegal and meaningless suggestions, he is not a lot dimber than the Times.
Lets see … we are in a global competition based on high worth jobs. So first thing we do is cut back on education? Cool!
Hay .. I have some other ideas ..
lets put tolls on all the roads and then not maintain them, cut costs in the prisons by executing anyone who is sentenced for more than 12 months, etc.
Why not sell the Olympic Peninsula to Canada?
This just sickens me. Why is it ok to slash and burn education budgets? And, supposedly a Cynical pin=head thinks he’s just trimming waste. Oy!
It really makes me sad that we continually cut, cut, cut from the weakest, most vulnerable citizens; kids in public school.
Sheesh. Thanks HA for bringing this to my attention. Time for a firey LTTE to the Times. Shitty rag that it is.
# 35
Jesus, Mr C., you’ve managed to do a piss poor job of even that! Is there nothing in life that you have not fucked up at? I imagine that is why you identify with neocons. They are a bunch of complete fuck ups as well.
I am convinced that no one who self identifies as a conservative that last 40 years has ever accomplished anything but complete failure. IF they didn’t have family money and privilege to clean up their total ineptitude they would starve within one week.
And no, Mr. C don’t bother spinning up a fable of how you earned everything you have. I am certain you would even fuck up that lie.
Advantages of Zero-Based Budgeting
– Efficient allocation of resources, as it is based on needs and benefits.
– Drives managers to find cost-effective ways to improve operations.
– Detects inflated budgets.
– Municipal planning departments are exempt from this budgeting practice.
– Useful for service departments where the output is difficult to identify.
– Increases staff motivation by providing greater initiative and responsibility in decision-making.
– Increases communication and coordination within the organization.
– Identifies and eliminates wasteful and obsolete operations.
– Identifies opportunities for outsourcing.
– Forces cost centers to identify their mission and their relationship to overall goals.
Disadvantages of Zero-Based Budgeting
– Difficult to define decision units and decision packages, as it is time-consuming and exhaustive.
– Forced to justify every detail related to expenditure. The R&D department is threatened whereas the production department benefits.
– Necessary to train managers. Zero-based budgeting must be clearly understood by managers at various levels to be successfully implemented. Difficult to administer and communicate the budgeting because more managers are involved in the process.
– In a large organization, the volume of forms may be so large that no one person could read it all. Compressing the information down to a usable size might remove critically important details.
– Honesty of the managers must be reliable and uniform. Any manager that exaggerates skews the results.
WHat I think is that determining what is “cost-effective” is not the way to provide real quality education.
Are you so retarded and paranoid as to believe anyone would get paid by anybody to post comments on HorsesAss.org?????????????
BIAW wasted 7 million on that loser and whiner Rossi. No doubt in my mind they’d waste money on you albeit not very much.
Goldy has even claimed you are paid.
So for all intents and purposes I claim you are paid and paid through the upcoming legislative session.
Anyone can see that you worship money. So why not? I think it’s perfectly logical for a retired CPA to want to seek payment for trolling. I’ve known a few CPA’s in my time.
You PINHEADS sit around bitching. Your guy wins…and you are still bitching. Your guy wins…and you cannot even tell me one thing he is going to actually do to cause me pain.
Look at the mess this country is in. Any sane person would “bitch”. Obama can’t fix it overnite.
In 2011 after the midterm elections, your federal taxes will go up. You can afford it. You might say this will cause you no pain but aren’t you the guy who split a gut over the gas tax going up 9+ lousy cents?
In 2011 after the midterm elections, your federal taxes will go up. You can afford it. You might say this will cause you no pain but aren’t you the guy who split a gut over the gas tax going up 9+ lousy cents?
———————–
“Obama’s tax hike for the rich may be delayed”
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....taxes.html
You have to wonder why the Times goes after education so hard-core. Really, half their suggestions are cuts to education.
Our pal, Roger Rabbit, thinks education is a tax subsidy for business owners. We need an EDUCATED populace, not a trained one. We need people who know how to think and how to vote. So it’s important for all in society that we have educated citizens. (I can’t believe I actually had to point this out but I forgot who’s been in the White House the past 4 years and Caribou Barbie who just ran for VP.)
Seattle Schools will be announcing, tomorrow as a matter of fact, up to 9 schools they may close. So they are doing what needs to be done.
But wait, that’s wasn’t the only recommendation that the State Auditor made. He also said they have too many staff at headquarters AND they haven’t been keeping up with basic maintenance (and that would likely explain why they are drowning in backlogged maintenance). But the district and the School Board are strangely silent on these issues.
The Board did manage to give the superintendent, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, a raise before she had finished a year of work. And the Chief Academic Officer, Carla Santorno, has been given a 20% raise since she got here 2 years ago. Nice work if you can get it.
The district claims to have a hiring freeze and yet found money in their BEX capital building program for not one but two new staff.
This kind of nonsense is what makes people mistrust public education when public education is the backbone of our society.
Let’s see, what do these High-Crime cities have in common besides Black Mayors and Heavy Black Population?????????
Oh yeah, they heavily supported Obama for President!
Since Mr. Cynical thinks teaching can be done on a dime, I vote we send all 455 kids at my school over to Mr. Cynical’s house where he can homeschool them for free! Might as well let the expert show us how it is done.
The kids are coming out of the system uneducated. When the kids are really educated, then come and hit me up for more money for education.
@42
Daddy – you forgot to include the complete article from Wikipedia and to discuss all aspects:
“Incremental Budgeting
Incremental Budgeting uses a budget prepared using a previous period’s budget or actual performance as a base, with incremental amounts added for the new budget period. The allocation of resources is based upon allocations from the previous period. This approach is not recommended as it fails to take into account changing circumstances. Moreover, it encourages “spending up to the budget” to ensure a reasonable allocation in the next period. It leads to a “spend it or lose it” mentality.
Advantages of incremental budgeting
1. The budget is stable and change is gradual.
2. Managers can operate their departments on a consistent basis.
3. The system is relatively simple to operate and easy to understand.
4. Conflicts are avoided when departments appear to be treated similarly.
5. Co-ordination between budgets is easier to achieve.
6. The impact of change can be seen quickly.
Disadvantages of incremental budgeting
1. [2]Assumes activities and methods of working will continue in the same way.
2. No incentive for developing new ideas.
3. No incentive to reduce costs.
4. Encourages spending up to the budget so that the budget is maintained next year.
5. The budget may become out-of-date and no longer relate to the level of activity or type of work being carried out.
6. The priority for resources may have changed since the budgets were originally set.
7. There may be budgetary slack built into the budget, which is never reviewed. Managers might have overestimated their requirements in the past in order to obtain a budget which is easier to work within, and which will allow them to achieve favourable results.
Daddy – you forgot to include the complete article from Wikipedia and to discuss all aspects:”
Please be more through in your discussions.
this is why education was wasted on cynical – he never learned the ability to THINK!
Hey cynical, crime has always been higher in cities. But I guess you didn’t know that when you tried to make this bogus argument.
Alos, crime is higher where there are more poor desperate people without good educational ooportunities.
Since you are an expert on crime – you should have figured that out too.
Question for cynical: What is the most important factor in lowering crime rates?
Maybe your first class education in pre-school will help you answer this one – before you make a fool of yourself again with idiot racist comments like the above.
what was your highest grade? third?
@51: Did you know that white collar crime is more prevalent with upper income people than lower income people? Did you know that overwhelmingly upper income people are white?
The conclusion is obvious. I rest my case :)
@50 Daddy – you forgot to include the complete article from Wikipedia and to discuss all aspects:
—————
In fact, he neglected to mention he was lifting his entire post from Wikipedia . . .
From Seattle Times Editorial:
Taxpaying families and employers are having to live within their means and their government must do the same.
Its interesting that in the name of working families the Times wants to increase the amount they pay for tuition. Even though a tuition hike can hit many families harder than a tax increase. A 600 mil decrease in education funding means thousands of college students will begin their adult lives in a shitty economy and with a shit-load of tuition debts.
I wonder how much the Seattle Times’ editorial writers paid for college when (if) they went. Chances are it was less that what people my age (23) have to pay today.
The road to the high-tech economy that fuels Seattle today was paved with the kind of affordable education that was effectively undermined by decades of Republican policies that must now be reversed.
@52
Duh!! Your question is nonsense.
Wikipedia – “White-collar worker refers to a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative, and sales coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor. “White-collar work” is an informal term, defined in opposition to “blue-collar work”.”
“Generally, the pay rate is higher among white-collar workers, although many of the “white-collar” workers are not necessarily upper-middle class or of privilege as the term once implied.”
Do you have any references showing the demographics of ‘white collar’ vs blue collar’ workers and also any references of crime rates for both groups?
11/24/2008 at 7:13 pm
Now the motherfucker shows himself as a racist bigot.
Nice.
Just some personal notes from a teacher:
Our largest class (a math class) has 42 students. 33 is the usual limit.
Our budget for classroom supplies is already dry. We can order no more paper, pencils, lab supplies, tape, staples, glue sticks, pencil sharpeners, etc. My grade level is currently out of paper, pencil sharpeners, tape dispensers, rulers, graph paper, binders, correction fluid, and we’re almost out of printer cartridges. Unless we can find the money somewhere, teachers will be buying our own supplies for class.
Teachers on Mercer Island have created “book clubs”, where they review teaching resources: new math programs, classroom management techniques, the latest in teaching problem solving, writing programs, WASL strategies. They mentioned it was because they wanted more professional development opportunities than their district was offering them.
Thanks to all of you who don’t bash us. Many of us are subsidizing the education of our poorer students, and coaching on the side (admittedly, because we need the money). Is my district wasting money? You bet it is, and I’d love to have someone look at our books because I’m not good at budgets. But redistribute the money: cutting the budget and telling the districts to suck it up inevitably means that the students, teachers and families suffer.
@35
Hate to be the one to break the bad news too you, but the Republicans haven’t had the governors office in over 20 years. We’ve got both of the state house, the house, the senate, over half the governors and soon the presidency.
If the shit you’re trying to sell worked why wouldn’t we be doing it? Wouldn’t people be embracing it instead of running from it?
Somewhere back up the thread Rog told you to move to Montana. Rog seems to have forgotten that Montana’s governor and both its senators are Democrats. I doubt you’d want to live in such a liberal place.
@57
My mom was a teacher. She got paid for 180 days of work a year. Her “work day” started about an hour before the morning bell rang and went on long after the last bell rang in the afternoon. She was at work for a week after summer break started and back in her class room two weeks before school started in the fall.
If my mom had gotten paid by the hour instead of for her 180 day contract she would have doubled her pay. So, yeah, hell yeah, pay the teachers more.
Better pay= better teachers= a better educated population= high wage employers moving to and staying in your state. And that’s just for starters.
Proud of yourself Cynical?
56. Rujax! spews:
Now the motherfucker shows himself as a racist bigot.
Nice.
Rujax–
I expect the typical “racist” label on anyone who points out FACTS and criticizes Obama or those who support him will have a half-life you are shortening every time you use it.
Ignoring reality is…….racist.
Playing the race card endlessly is….RACIST.
You know, you bigotted son-of-a-bitch…I just knew you were going to roll that stupid right-winger defense, and of course you didn’t disappoint.
Fact is, you take every opportunity to denigrate anyone who does not act or believe or think like you do. No nuance or sophistication of thought is allowed in your narrow little world. Nope… no, siree bob.
Well you are a bigot, sir. A racist, a bigot and a hate-filled, miserable small minded fellow, you are…as you have proved here time and again.
Good times.
Like you would EVER give a flying fuck about what any one else would have to say.
Very few teachers need to be cut, if any at all. There are a number of nonteaching positions which have cropped up through the years under the guise of “job creation” which were wasteful. A good example is the postion of “parent coordinator” who’s only job that I can see is to lock and unlock a gate and to keep parents from interacting with administration. Just another wasteful level of beurocracy. If there is no money, well there is no money. If all you can afford is tofu, then no steak tonight.
Do you really think throwing money at the teachers will make them better educators? What you need is parent involvement in their children’s education and not just expect someone else to teach them. Education is a privilege and will not be valued by those who insist it is a right. If you want to make more money, be a better teacher and go work in a private school or find another occupation.
Hey #65…
50 me
Nope, sorry. I’ll do what the fuck I want, as I am sure you will also.
But when I “discuss” something, you’ll know it. That was not a discussion.
53 Dave
Wikipedia is not copyrighted.
What high crime areas usually have in common is lots of poor people and few prospects.
Does math or reading information not go as far with 30, 50, or a hundred in a class? Sure some kids need more attention. Get them a tutor or supplement by being your child’s parent. Instead of video games give them a book. Read with your kids. Do homework with them. Don’t squeeze me more because you are too lazy to teach your children. I have my own to take care of.
Is the Seattle Times Editorial board absolutely crazy?
@70 Why are you so stupid? Do you know anything about education?
Allow me to answer that – NO.
Most studies have shown that class size is the MOST important factor in student success. If you learned anything in school – it should have been to not shoot off your mouth when you have no idea what you are talking about.
Let’s see. I have 2 bachelor’s degrees, one doctorate and am an assistant professor at a major university in nyc.
I have 2 children in public school.
I suppose you are more qualified to speak?
studies? another waste of time and resources. How about results?
do you think the russians, japanese and chinese are wasting time and resources on feel-good studies? do you think they have smaller class sizes? what they have is discipline and value education as a way of getting ahead, not relying on beaurocrats to tell them their retarded problem child is just ADHD and needs ritalin
well stinky…you’re handle is sure appropriate….
…sure man, just box ’em up and warehouse ’em and beat ’em when they don’t learn. That’s what you want isn’t it you effing pervert.
@68 53 Dave
Wikipedia is not copyrighted.
————————————
“Plagiarism is not copyright infringement. While both terms may apply to a particular act, they are different transgressions. Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a copyright holder, when material protected by copyright is used without consent. On the other hand, plagiarism is concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author’s reputation that is achieved through false claims of authorship.”
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
“to use (another’s production) without crediting the source”
See:
http://www.plagiarism.org/lear.....arism.html
Why is it that programs that actually matter to our country’s and our state’s future always get cut but wastefull subsidies and departments never get touched?