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The Stupendous Failure Of Big City Education: How The Philly Teachers Union Loots The Schools
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
It’s that time of year again – when the little juvenile delinquents, future prison inmates, and functionally illiterate junior members of the free shit army pick up their “free” backpacks and “free" school supplies they will never use and shuffle off to the decaying prison like schools in the City of Philadelphia to eat “free” breakfasts and “free” lunches, while being taught government sanctioned pablum by overpaid mediocre union teachers.
It’s a repeat of every year for the Phila school district. As the school year approaches they are shocked to report a massive deficit and beg the State of PA for more funding. The $12,000 per child simply isn’t enough, even though Parochial schools provide ten times the education for $9,000 per child. The district has a slight $80 million deficit this year. Last year they had a $100 million deficit and the mayor proposed a soda tax to fill the gap. It was defeated, so they raised property taxes instead. Mayor Nutter’s name is fitting. He is just another in a long line of Democratic mayors who have ruled Philadelphia since the 1950′s and whose policies of welfare handouts for their voting base paid for by taxing the producers, has resulted in a population decline from 2.1 million in 1950 to 1.5 million today. Doug Casey captures the essence of Philly with this definition:
Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy): a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
The liberal solution to an ever decreasing tax base and an ever growing level of benefits for the free shit army and government union drones, is to increase taxes on the few remaining producers. They then flee the city, leaving fewer producers to tax. Rinse and repeat. Your neighborhoods then look like this.
The mayor, school district superintendent, and teacher’s union use the liberal mainstream media to sound the alarm about “devastating” budget cuts that will imperil the tremendous education the cherubs will receive. They warn that the school year will have to be delayed. They peddle mistruths about the governor cutting education funding in an attempt to influence public opinion. Their “solution” to the budget deficit this year is a doozy. I’ll get to that later. First I have to provide a mural update.
I drive past the Morton McMichael grade school in Mantua every day on my way to work. It sits across the street from the $27 million low income gated townhouse community called Mantua Square, paid for with your Obama stimulus funds in 2011. (Update: The 8 storefronts built into the project two years ago and touted as a way to revitalize commerce in Mantua still sit vacant – 100% NO OCCUPANCY. This follows the old liberal economic theorem of build it and they won’t come.) This school looks like it could be in a Dickens novel from the 1800′s. That’s fitting since Morton McMichael was a prominent citizen of Philadelphia during the 1800′s as founder of the Saturday Evening Post and Mayor of Philadelphia. That was back when a white man could get elected mayor of Philadelphia.
The building is decades old. It is dilapidated, run down and crumbling. The windows have never been replaced. Of course, you would have to remove the bars and cages to get to the windows. The neighborhood has a bit of a crime problem. An 8 year old boy was raped on the way to this school last year. There are a couple ancient air conditioners poking out of some windows. The parking lot/play area is crumbling blacktop with weeds, strewn with garbage for good measure. Graterford Prison is more inviting than this institution of learning. The parking lot was empty all summer. The Phila School district had no plans for any capital renovations at this school. No new windows. No new classrooms. No new technology. No central air conditioning.
Then about a month ago I noticed scaffolding going up in front of the school. Maybe they were going to actually do some renovations to improve this blight. Then I noticed they were just painting the bricks white. A few days later it became clear. Rather than making actual improvements to the decaying structure, it was another mural. Of course another white artist, not from the neighborhood, was getting paid to beautify the school to inspire the children on to great deeds. They chose an environmental theme rather than black people doing great things. It looks like graffiti to me.
Maf Is Hard
I’m sure this paint job, paid for with tax dollars, will really turn this school around. They have had four principals in the last three years. The discipline in this school is so bad that teachers fear assaults from students and parents alike. This is another classic example of liberals wasting money with shallow displays, while ignoring the true problems. This school has 408 students and 35 full-time union teachers. That is a ratio of 11.7 students per teacher. The ratio in Parochial schools is 17 to 1. When I went to school it was over 20 to 1. With an 11.7 students per teacher ratio, they should be getting a great education from these top notch educators. Check out the results:
Dark Blue – Morton McMichael; Light Blue – Phila Schools; Grey – PA schools
By 5th grade less than 30% can do math, less than 20% can read, and less than 10% can write at a proficient level. And you can bet that proficient level is not that high. The state results are bad enough, but the Philadelphia results are atrocious. In Philadelphia, only 33 – 13% of the district’s 250 schools met state standards, down from 41% in 2011. It was uncovered that they were cheating on the test scores in 2011. Liberals lie and cheat when it comes to getting funding. The Morton McMichael school has 35 full-time union teachers earning good money, with gold plated healthcare and pension plans. And this is the results they are producing? I came across a quote from William Arthur Ward today that applies:
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
Based on the results achieved in this school there doesn’t appear to be even a mediocre teacher in the bunch.
You have a better chance of finding a woman with a wedding ring, a man with a job, or a kid with a book in his hand in Mantua (highly unlikely in all three cases) than ever finding a great teacher in a Philadelphia school. But at least they are well paid.
The Philadelphia school system educates (I use the term loosely as 50% dropout) 200,000 kids per year with a tiny budget of $2.4 billion. The district has been so poorly run and corrupt that a state commission now runs the schools. They insist that $2.4 billion isn’t enough to achieve SAT scores not much higher than you get for signing your name. How is it that a school district that spends more than the national average per student can’t manage to educate children properly? One look at its personnel costs and perks, including exploding pensions and legal services for union members, gives you an idea why.
The storyline from the liberal media, greedy teacher’s union, and captured Democratic politicians is that the evil Republican governor Corbett has gutted their funding. It’s a completely false storyline. The $800 billion Obama porkulus plan doled out payoffs to teacher unions around the country. The temporary stimulus funds expired. In the mind of an idiotic liberal, this is considered a spending cut. Temporary = permanent in the demented mind of a liberal. The truth is that Philadelphia union teachers are overpaid and under-worked. The PA government pension plan is a ticking time bomb that is destroying the budgets of every locality in the State. It’s just that Philadelphia is the worst run, most corrupt, and most union controlled in the State.
Philadelphia school district pensions costs alone are going from the equivalent of 16.9% of wages to 21.4% of wages in one year. In dollar terms that’s an increase of $3,230 per average teacher in just one year. Pensions alone will cost $159 million next year. Philly schools also pay for a number of other benefits, including the equivalent of 3.26% of salary for unused sick and vacation days that workers can cash in when they leave. In all, these variable benefit items will add the equivalent of nearly 39% of salary to the cost of employing a worker.
The school’s budget also includes a range of per capita benefit costs, so called because they are expressed in dollars per worker, not percent of salary. Medical insurance averages $13,829 per worker, up by $1,000. Then there are health and welfare benefits, which are additional health perks, such as prescription eye benefits. H&W, as it’s known, costs an average of $4,447 more per teacher. They even offer legal services to workers at a cost of $165 per worker.
For the average teacher earning $68,700 annually, benefit costs pile on an additional $44,100, meaning the average cost of employing a teacher in the system is $112,700. Benefit costs, in other words, amount to two-thirds of salaries. By contrast, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, the total cost of benefits in the private sector amounts to 30% of salaries.
AVERAGE COSTS, TYPICAL PHILLY SCHOOL DISTRICT
So let me get ths straight. The average Philadelphia teacher is receiving compensation and benefits of $112,700 and 50% of the students dropout, while of the remaining students only 45% can do math, 35% can read, and 30% can write. But at least they have some nice murals dotting the decaying schools.
Every new year will bring higher pension payment requirements. PA has $55 billion of unfunded pension benefits payable to government union workers and teachers. Annual pension contributions increased by 25% or more in the majority of education systems last year and that more than three-quarters of districts are anticipating a similar increase this year. By 2020, school officials in the state estimate, pensions will amount to more than 30% of payroll, up from just 4% in 2009. This is a crisis that grows larger by the day and is willfully ignored by politicians beholden to these government unions.
Last year, on average, workers with 35-39 years of service who retired in a school system had a final annual salary of $80,285 and a pension of $60,396, or about 75% of final salary. Not bad for turning out functionally illiterate morons. Rather than accept the fact that the government pension system is a disaster and needs a massive makeover, the feckless politicians choose higher taxes and annual gimmicks.
What Are They Smoking
Guess how Mayor Nutter, the School Superintendent, and the Democratic politicians want to fund the $80 million school district budget? A $2 per pack additional cigarette tax in the City of Philadelphia. Cigarette taxes are supposed to fund the detrimental societal healthcare costs of smoking. Instead they are being used to fund bloated teacher pensions. Local governments are incapable of imposing excise taxes, so the PA legislature must pass this law. So far they have not complied, but they will come September because it is the easy solution. Why tackle pension reform when you can just increase taxes on the poor to pay for bad teachers?
The multitude of things wrong with this idea is beyond comprehension. Why foist the cost onto a minority — and given the demographics of those who smoke, a poor minority? Although local governments try to tax cigarettes and even alcohol, there’s no money in taxing vices. It’s too easy to purchase cigarettes outside the city. Why would anyone buy cigarettes in Philly when they can go into the next County and pay 50% less? There is already a $1.60 PA state tax on every pack of cigarettes. Adding another $2 would put Philly just behind NYC and Chicago on the tax scale. The imposition of this tax will increase bootlegging, smuggling and other criminal activities. Just what Philly needs – more crime. They can then use that as a reason to hire more union cops. It’s the liberal circle of life.
The people who should be most angry about this “solution” are the very people who keep voting idiotic Democrats into office for decades – poor black people. Only 23% of Philadelphians havea college degree. Those without a degree are more than twice as likely to smoke. Cigarette taxes are a tax on the stupid.
There are 580,000 households in Philadelphia. The median household income is $34,000 and 26% of the population lives below the poverty line. Approximately 300,000 of the households make less than $36,000 and 400,000 make less than $60,000. The lower the household income the higher the percentage who smoke. So the master plan of the Democrats who run Philly is to deplete what little disposable income the poor have left in order to pay the bloated salaries and pensions of terrible teachers.
The average income of a worker in Philly is $22,000. 38% of these people smoke, versus 12% of those making over $90,000. This cigarette tax is built upon the same warped logic as government run casinos and lotteries. It’s a tax on the ignorant and least able to afford the tax.
The sheer idiocy of this plan to “save” the schools this year is lost on the brainless media twits mouthing the teacher’s union talking points. The $12,000 per year per child is more than enough to pay for a decent education. The $2.4 billion budget should be geared to improving facilities, providing books, and paying excellent teachers for excellent results. Tenure should be scrapped and lousy teachers should be fired. The government pension plan needs to be obliterated and replaced with a 401k plan like the rest of the world is stuck with. It will never happen. The democrats who have controlled Philly for the last 60 years will raise property taxes, raise sales taxes, and raise cigarette taxes until they drive every producer and business out of the city, while further impoverishing the very people they pretend to care about. Detroit here we come.
Remember, smoke a cigarette for the children. And remember to buy them in Philly for 50% more than you pay in the suburbs. It’s always for the children.
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"The building is decades old. It is dilapidated, run down and crumbling. The windows have never been replaced. Of course, you would have to remove the bars and cages to get to the windows. The neighborhood has a bit of a crime problem."
So what's the message here? Not enough government spending on brick and mortar, or too much government spending on teachers willing to teach in areas that have crime problems? I'm confused. And so is the author. Then again, everyone can hate public unions so let's all blame them for making too much trying to teach in areas that are blighted by offshoring and welfare designed to prevent revolt so that the oligarchs can continue to concentrate wealth in their own hands. No doubt the problem is teachers making too much. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Wow, this gig is almost is good as Chelsea's no-show job at NBC. Straight up mob style.
The Stupendous Failure Of Big City Education
Okay... but to put is more accurately... and ever since the '60's...
The Stupendous Failure Of Liberal-Controlled Public Education
It's liberals' fault.
Listen up .. only two minutes.. what it’s all about.. from five years ago
It ain’t about the little bastards.
Watched it. I think I just verped...
Hi. A staunch liberal here. Am I supposed to be offended by this article? I don't get it.
Wait a minute...Was this article racist?!?!
HANDS UP! DON'T SHOOT!
HANDS UP! DON'T SHOOT!
If you're a staunch liberal...
WTF are your doing here on ZH?
Satire account. C'mon guys.
Unfortunately LTER is not.
I'm sorry...
But Liberal satire is always a FAIL!
There is no such thing...
Only "fall-on-your-face" failure.
Says the non-partisan with the Obama icon. Let me make this clear, Ah, I am not a partisan.
Please tell me when I said I was non-partisan.
Alas, you're trying to put words in other people's mouths yet again. You're bad at doing that.
But you very clearly stated, "Let me make this clear, Ah, I am not a partisan."
Yeah, what a joke! Nixon also once proclaimed... "I am not a crook!"
Hey, if the (uncomfortable) shoe fits... wear it!
So easy to call out the tribals. At least you don't hide it, I suppose. That makes you an admitted tool of of the oligarcy, instead of a hypocrite. So you've got that going for you.
Apology accepted.
I'm a victim of the public school system. I can barely read.
stupid kids, stupid parents, stupid teachers.
All the money for education goes to superficial fancy new buildings constructed by builder owned by mayor's cousin.
give money to people with education so that people aspire to get educated.
Philly is another Detroit shit hole about to get flushed down the Delaware River.
Maybe Putin will do us a favor and nuke it along with Camden NJ, Detroit, St Louis and DC.
Here we go...
(CNSNews.com) – The mayor of Lynn, Mass. says that some of the illegal aliens from Guatemala who are enrolled in her city’s public schools are adults with graying hair and “more wrinkles than I have.”
“They are not all children,” Judith Flanagan Kennedy told reporters at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday
“One of the things that we did notice when we were processing some of these students coming in was that they were adults,” she said.
(lol...how very perceptive of you)
"She added that the federal government will not allow school officials to verify their ages, even though one of the students turned out to be 35 years old."
Fucking Holder, a one-man crime wave.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/mayor-adult-illegal-aliens-graying-hair-enrolled-public-schools
i used to employ operating engineers, teamsters and laborers. $3000 for a 40 hour week for an operating engineer...without counting over scale and pick up truck (if he was actually capable). when i HAD to calll the hall for more men they were inept, but i couldnt use qualified laborers in the operating engineers place. what a fucking sham. sold all the machinery....and am now a free man.
We are clearly in the final stages of the current system
Why wouldn't a liberal read ZH ? Being poor, I am interested in programs which benefit the non rich, but I'm not stupid as to the ineffectiveness of government in administrating anti poverty programs. People rise out of poverty via their own effort or fortuitous circumstance. Very few initiatives from the top down are directed at ending poverty, only to administer it.
You live in the past. A liberal used to be someone who pursued liberty. Now a liberal is someone who is liberal with other peoples money and aspires to put liberal amounts of said money into their own pockets.
The ugly truth that none dare speak...
But here we go!
The average Black IQ comes in around 85-87 depending on the study. Couple that with a culture that does not value learning and mix in a steadily declining Black family unit (thanks, Uncle Slaver) and the results listed are guaranteed.
No amount of money, no teacher student ratio, no shiny building will over come nor make up for genetic limitations.
The kvetching about US test scores compared to "the World" is periodically trotted out to fleece the dullards of yet more tax monies. And we will NEVER compare favorably to the numbers that Japan or Korea put up.
Next time you see the traditional report drill down by race ... And you will find American Whites compare quite well to global scores ... In top ten if I recall correctly; and American Asians do better still.
But we neeeeeed more money, every year to pour own the rat hole of Uplifting Blacks and to a lesser extent, Hispanics.
Human Biodiversity is real. Neither Race nor Gender is a social construct.
Frankly I'm resigned to having my currency, which is in reality my time, which in reality is my life, stolen from me by an endless, faceless cast of Lib-Progs whose only solution to the insoluble genetic truth is: MOAR!
More money, more teachers, more free lunches, dinners, breakfasts, more special programs, more after-school programs, more outreach, inreach, upreach, community involvement, drug testing ...
Someday, if we don't run out of other people's money first, you'll see public housing and the public schools merge into one compound with the Black residents coddled from cradle to grave, from dawn to dusk with a river of free this and special that ... And the test scores then will be even lower than today.
The Science is done; the results are in; the living laboratories have returned the same same dismal data, Nationwide - in fact globally - for 2 generations.
But hey, it is the Truth that none dare speak, so the only answer is MOAR of your money, of your life, to support the fantasy of Equality of Results, of Equality of Race ...
And it continues until the money runs out.
Jesse Jackass and Al (NotSo)Sharpton...
As well as AG Eric (with)Holder...
And the sycophantic Obama-ass-kissing MSM...
Will be all over your ass in 3... 2... 1...
Be afraid... be very afraid... are your taxes in order?
Negroes are scary. It's not bankers. It's the negroes.
No, it's not Negroes...
It's the racist Lib pimps like you (and including this Admin)
Exploiting and abusing them...
For the last 50 years.
And if you must change the subject...
(you're good at that... on subjects you'd rather avoid...)
Yes, bankers are evil too...
But for entirely different reasons.
Math is raycisss.
That is a beautiful observation.
So the question becomes, what to do with 10s of millions of low IQ morons, who have a culture of violence and entitlement? They can't pick cotton any more. The screw turning manufacturing jobs are gone. The simplest and cheapest thing to do is give them a minimal living so they leave the rest of us alone.
The problem is the liberals who think they can all be turned into engineers or doctors... with just a little more money spent. It's idiotic and it's ruining our society. Just give them their subsistance living. The few who have the brains and motivation to better themselves are already finding a way.
Stop forcing people to attend school when they have no interest, and just ruin it for the few who want to learn. Those are who the liberal assholes should concentrate on. Make schools useful to those who want it.
"The simplest and cheapest thing to do is give them a minimal living so they leave the rest of us alone..."
I'll have to respectfully disagree on this one. The simplest and cheapest thing to do is for Homeland Security to put a 40 cal hollow point in their head. It's only a matter of time.
Maf
@LTER
As usual, if you cannot dispute the facts - attack the messnger. Typical.
Yeah, this whole averages thing counts for very little, especially IQ. I can listen to Dr. Ben Carson, Walter Williams and a host of other blacks who are very intelligent and/or skilled. The common denominator is that they valued education and worked at being excellent.
The root problem is the modern progressive collectivist leftist statist who uses people and communities like this to empower and even enrich themselves. They will let the rot go on as long as they profit politically. Philly is just as dead as Detroit and any city who practices the same will get the same result. It will not matter what race they are, as well. It is just that blacks have been sold on this stuff to a higher degree than anyone else, at least as a percentage of their population. I sometimes wonder if in some ways it is not a legacy of slavery. You trade in the old white southern master who provided everything for free, made all the hard decisions and all you had to do was what you were told. Generally, that was some kind of work. Today, it is even easier. No work is involved and you need only sacrifice your personal pride and ambition.
I do stronly agree with your last paragraph on Equality. It is actually an impossible task even though on the surface it sounds noble. It is the path to political favors, dependence, impossible to achieve and ends in autocracy.
It is an indisputable fact that Black IQ scores are meaningfully lower than whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Jews.
And yet, 60 years ago, when black children were educated separately, they had much more successful educational outcomes. Of course, at that time, the majority of black children were born into married, 2-parent households, so it may be difficult to separate the relative contribution of both factors. But I'd guess they both played a part.
This is true. When I was a child, my personal hero was George Washington Carver. Coming from such a background and accomplishing what he did inspired me to continue my goal to study science even when my mother scoffed at my ability. His circumstances were incredibly worse.
Having the lowest IQ in my family, I know how this can be used to label people as incompetent. I just had to work and study much harder than those who had a higher IQ and could grasp the material more quickly.
I think people suffer greater when their culture is not supportive. There I had the advantage because my family valued thought, debate and learning( formal as well as self taught). It is hard to separate nature vs nurture definitively as the cause to problems but I agree both probably play some role. However, these are just trends and individuals get lost in the statistics.
Miffed;-)
I think the whole IQ thing is bullshit.
you're bullshit.
A guy called "Kobe Beef" talking about bullshit? Hmmmm.
Right - if you controlled all variables to make the comparison absolutely equal, I think you'd find different IQ results. But since that's impossible, they can't and so people are left with their predilections about race.
Fact - all human beings have only .5% differential in their genetic code. So where does that leave people's pet theory?
It is an indisputable fact that Black IQ scores are meaningfully lower than whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Jews.
Yes, IQ by race is infallible. Average eithopian is functionally retarded, African Americans are ~30 points more intelligent than their avg counterparts in Africa, Jews are a lot stupider than Italians, Greeks are a lot smarter than Cubans but a lot dumber than Austrians...
Whites are near the top but those gawddamn south koreans just gotta take it all! Clearly no other factors than straight intelligence could play into IQ scores...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121219133334.htm
Interestingly, I happen to know an Ethiopian maths instructor who could run circles around the asians back in school. Guess he's the chosen one!!
Thanks James.
an Ethiopian can have 150 IQ... if we assume IQ is normally distributed. I dont think you understand statistical concepts. I think the point here is that on average i.e the mean, for that population is much lower than other populations such as American whites, or South Koreans. read something for a change.
Why read? We've got Equaaaality!
Imagine all the people, everywhere the same!
I have a dream...
and then i woke up. It was just a dream. It was just my imagination.
Wake up. You have been lied to about race your entire life.
Count the number of books on your shelf, then realize that the number of books produced in Sub-Saharan Africa before European contact total:
Zero.
Now tell me we're equal. Tell me we're all the same. Tell me all gracile hominids have exactly the same intellectual capacity. Don't quote neurological studies, don't quote IQ scores, don't quote history. All science is raycist, because white men do it.
Please, tell me what to believe. I want to join your cult. I will say anything. The sky is orange, the sky is vibrant, the sky is a social construct. 2 +2 =5. Please, more lies, and more funds to hide the lies. Please. People are starting to wake up. They are beginning to see.
an Ethiopian can have 150 IQ... if we assume IQ is normally distributed. I dont think you understand statistical concepts.
Like I said, he's the chosen one. And according to IQ research there's no indication any Ethiopian has an IQ above ~110 (and anyone above 75 is EXTREMELY rare).
I find it rather curious that IQ so closely tracks cultural and geographical variables. Another curiosity is video game playing and high IQ score overlap, and what do yea know, South Korean comes out near the top in both!
Parents, get your kids starcraft! We can do this!!
"African Americans are ~30 points more intelligent than their avg counterparts in Africa"
Maybe because "African Americans" have a greater percentage of white genes than their counterparts back in Africa? Barack is 50% black, 50% white. His family back in Kenya? Not so much.
Ethiopeans are also nutritionally deprived and so on. I do not think IQ tells us as much as we might think. Look at how valedictorians in school do in real life. It is almost a negative correlation.
Buckaroo: the IQ test is not an absolute test and should not to be used to compare across cultures; ie 'whites' v 'blacks'.
Any of you that believe otherwise are ignorant, myopic and, most likely, racist.
I read on here that math is rayiss, maybe science is too?
I bet if you compared for wealth, health, and family stability that that controlled set would have much closer mean IQ test results. But hard and expensive to do that, and much more enjoyable for people to wallow in their illogical, convenient racial fallacies and fantasies, than to explore this angle.
Let's pretend "IQ" has a definition and that it is measurable, then watch what we can say and do to individuals whom we've placed at the lower ends of the fictious scale.
Let's just watch what they do to themselves.
@RafterManFMJ: You speak more racism than truth. As if whites are high up on the IQ chain? With all their corporate greed, welfare (yes more pale people on gob'ment cheese than minorities), etc. The system is set up for Blacks to fail, and racist gluts Repuke pigs like yourself make it worse.
103 average for a white in USA.
"The system is set up for Blacks to fail, and racist gluts Repuke pigs like yourself make it worse."
Spoken like true low IQ person. How is "the system" setup for blacks to fail? I'd love to hear you try and articulate that.
I can't associate with any retired govt union person....or those in any union.
I just see $ signs.....my dollars.
I feel the same. I really cannot be in the room with any government workers, especially the fat and happy retirees. Virtually all of them made a living off harassing and abusing their fellow citizens and got paid double the private sector to do it.
A distant relative (relative of an in-law) posted his retirement celebration on FaceBook today. I have met him and his "partner" and they are nice enough people. He has wound up a relatively low stress life and based on his years will retire at 75-100% of his full pay. I am not sure how many years he had but last I checked he made more than a family practice doctor. I also believe the pension was noncontributory. All I know is that he and his sister who also is retiring make enormous money right outside the D.C. hub working for the Feds.
I, on the other hand, have been in a heavily regulated industry taken 20% pay cuts and am redoing my resume' this very day. Revenue's are not so great in the free market and I need to be on my toes. We do not run 17trillion dollar deficits in my industry to keep things humming.
I cannot congratulate the guy who works for the outfit that prospers by making my life and my industry's life miserable. It grates on me to even think of it. Maybe I am a jealous twit, but my self check is that I have never felt this way about anyone retiring from private industry and a truly productive life.
Well then...
There you have it.
Fuck you Timmy.
I'm going to Greece for the summer.
You know, if that speech had been made by any conservative, the media would have been in high dudgeon over such a cavalier, amoral point of view. Screw the NEA and their members!
It's liberals' fault.
haha yes, apparently everything wrong in the united states has a genesis in two places: libtards done gon crazy & greedy labour unions.
The Philadelphia school situation is a total clusterfuck, this is known. The rest is probably not easy to figure out. What I got from the article here is that the author is very pissed about an increase in smoking prices (cause you know, black people will have to pay more for cigarettes).
The other interesting thing I've observed is countries far more liberal than the US (finland, sweden, switzerland, germany, canada etc.) have somehow magically avoided the clusterfuck the US is currently experiencing in this regard. Also, the only country among the previous whose politicians question evolution and other established science is also the same country with a giant ass education funding crisis..connection??
Also, in terms of education outcomes - everyone and their mother should know by now that in the US wealthier families have GOOD education outcomes. It's the poor people and non-white who fuck up all the statistics.
The other interesting thing I've observed is countries far more liberal than the US (finland, sweden, switzerland, germany, canada etc.) have somehow magically avoided the clusterfuck the US is currently experiencing in this regard.
These days only two words easily refute the so-called Scandinavian Utopia...
Radical Muslims!
Yes, Muslims are scary too.
You're Alan Greenspan, aren't you?
James -100,
You know shit about Canadian Education system...its fucked..by Liberal governments..dumber kids = raises for teachers...pensions that are absolutly disgusting to everyone but the teachers...banked sick days..extended medical..all the same shit described by the author..to a T!
Tell me what are Unions for? To protect employees from abusive and unscrupulous employers?
The government is the employer, does that say that the govie is an abusive employer?
Why do teachers need a Union? Fuck them for their looting ways...politicians buy votes from the union with productive peoples money.
Canadian education system is a liberal clusterfuck, just not full-retard clusterfuck yet..give it 3-5 more years and it will be the same as the shithole system in Philly, cause it is run by the same kind of liberal full-retard teachers unions.
Yep, "professionals" don't need a union.
I remember rumblings of a tech union in Silicon Valley back in the 90's. NO F'ING WAY!!! I am prefectly happy competing for my job.
Canadian education system is a liberal clusterfuck, just not full-retard clusterfuck yet..give it 3-5 more years and it will be the same as the shithole system in Philly, cause it is run by the same kind of liberal full-retard teachers unions.
Canadian education system has been a liberal clusterfuck since....the early 90s? And how have they done? Pretty excellent!
Only recently did they switch from a centre-left liberal government.
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/529db2aa6bb3f7f9318b1f62-1009-7...
^ Canada near the top... ON EVERY FUCKING METRIC. LIBERAL CLUSTERFUCKKKKKKKK
Comparing the Canadian and American education systems is like two retards arguing over who is smarter. Congratulations canada, you are slightly less retarded.
A falling tide drops all boats. Modern public education systems all suck to one degree or another. An eighth grader from 1900 (or any modern homeschooled 14-year-old) could kick a modern public high school seniors ass, educationally speaking.
An eighth grader from 1900 (or any modern homeschooled 14-year-old) could kick a modern public high school seniors ass, educationally speaking.
Lol, congrats on making it to 130(+?) years old Banzai.
And dear gawd i hope you didn't homeschool your kids..
Buckaroo, if you published a daily column, I would read it. You bring a gun to the leftist knife fight.
Well said. Now, let's compare single payer health systems and armies.
James,
Lets simplify for you, only 2 questions
Why do teachers need unions?
Do you think that teachers unions and teachers change their political affiliation with each election,,,i.e when a conservative gov is in power the teachers union is then conservative?
Historically yes they were needed for public teachers pay and benefits were $hitty and in large cities in particular they were treated as political patronage jobs that when a new adminitration would come in they would see fit to fire and get rid of teachers with no rhyme or reason to give to their political patronnages.
Today it is a more difficult matter but what you see in charter schools is that instead of unions is that the teachers have notably lower wages and benefits while the benefits are sucked off by investors. Certainly don't spend more on per student than public schools in Philly and their results are just as mixed and varied as public schools.
Why do teachers need unions?
Do you think that teachers unions and teachers change their political affiliation with each election,,,i.e when a conservative gov is in power the teachers union is then conservative?
I don't know and could care less. The point is, without unions wages are attacked. Without some pushback on unions they go crazy. It's about finding an equilibrium.
Germany is an excellent case study of this, they have a lot of unions in lots of industry and they make it work. Canada has made it work for a long time as well.
http://anticap.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/unions-us-canada.jpg
http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/09/07/Bus...
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/famil108a-eng...
http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/household-income-m...
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/charts/census/adjusting-median...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/US_GDP_per_capita.PNG
http://www.fin.gc.ca/ec2005/images/agc3_7e.gif
James Cole
Don't know much about the counties you mentioned do you. Read Raftermans comment above. Sweden is a Muslim shit hole with test scores on par with USA thanks to insane immigration policies. The only two countries you mentioned, Switzerland and Finland, that have above par scores also put limits on who is allowed in their respective countries. Go figure.
Sure you can say that about Sweden, they've seen a major drop in their overall score since the 90s. Along with immigration, sweden has also gone hardcore on privatization (including schools) but anyway..
EIDT: I actually forgot about this in Sweden, was a big story at the time, sweden does have some US&A style clusterfuckedness but not on anywhere near the scale:
When one of the biggest private education firms in Sweden went bankrupt earlier this year, it left 11,000 students in the lurch and made Stockholm rethink its pioneering market reform of the state schools system.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/10/us-sweden-schools-insight-idUS...
What I was referring to was the clusterfuck management in philly - you don't see that in the countries I listed.
And Germany, Finland, Switzerland & Canada all far exceed the US scores and each, except switzerland, pay a lot less.
http://simplystatistics.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/pisa2.png
By law in Sweden they are required to instruct students in their native language no matter what it is. The entire system is bankrupt by design and in a state of chaos thanks to the open border policies of nearly every major political party over there.
Help me get this straight; How much over what you are now earning, would it take for you to do your thing in a combat zone?
And how did the schools become a combat zone? Obviously throwing more money at the problem should fix it.
so says the mighty jim quinn who happens to be employed by the univ. of penn. in philly......LOL.....LOL....WOW
So, Americans think they're number one because they can't count to two.
'Nuff said. What a bunch of thick fucks...
This pretty much sums it up.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
Well screw you, I'm gonna participate in watching America's greatest past-time: Baseball.
Who's on first anyway?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg
Is there something wrong with the picture that the streets are weedy and dirty, things need to be cleaned up, and there is a lot of maintenance needed everywhere and yet there is a huge paid, labor supply sitting there doing nothing? All the welfare recipients in that public housing across the street should be out there doing useful work for what they're being paid. When that starts the kids will start to learn quickly.
to put is more accurately... and ever since the '60's...
I went to school in the 60s... it SUCKED.
Sending your child to public school is child abuse.
The end.
"80 miles per hour" Brought to you by public schools and parents(or the lack of).
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202517290999274
"Then again, everyone can hate public unions so let's all blame them for making too much trying to teach in areas that are blighted by offshoring and welfare designed to prevent revolt so that the oligarchs can continue to concentrate wealth in their own hands. No doubt the problem is teachers making too much. Yeah, that's the ticket."
The teacher's union supports the politicians who support the oligarchs. Obama is a huge supporter of oligarchs such as Warren Buffett.
"The teacher's union supports the politicians who support the oligarchs."
They certainly do, and for that they can be blamed. Which has nothing to do with click bait like this article that just seeks clicks from the Drudge crowd. And please name a politician who does not support the oligarchs.
You know this blog was established communicate to a libertarian base. How does this article not line up exactly with those sentiments?
Haven't met more than a handfull of true Libertarians here yet. Lots of guys who claim to be, yes. Like you.
There's a point at which libertarianism comes too close to anarchy, which becomes counterproductive and burdensome to business and life in general. I believe Jesse Ventura said there's the big "L" and the little "l" libertarians. I'm one of the little l's.
I used to think that way. I think by the end of my life I might become a big L or full anarchist. The illusion of government goodness, genius and moral superiority wears ever thinner on me.
I guess I'm a nazi. I don't believe the government is good at anything other than killing people. Luckily, there's a lot of people who need to die, and a big enough government will eventually get around to killing everybody. No one will be spared. FORWARD!
I had to parse your comments, but I agree with your point on what governments do best. They make the Crips and Bloods and even ISIL look like boyscouts.
There's a point at which libertarianism comes too close to anarchy
Old (true) joke:
What's the difference between libertarianism and anachy?
About five years, if you're paying attention.
Voluntaryism for the win!
"And please name a politician who does not support the oligarchs."
Ron Paul. Need help with any more questions you're having a hard time with?
Many teachers are shameless. They claim to belong to a profession, but fail often fail to do the right thing. Most factory workers can be counted on to do the right thing and reject defective products off the assembly line. Many teachers will look the other way and pass students on to the next grade instead of doing the right thing and ensuring that they learn before passing off the problem to someone else.
I believe that most have given up and are just marking time until they collect their pension check with a COLA for life. Utterly disgusting class of people. Not unlike the SS loading human cargo onto the rail cars. Just doing their jobs.
As a former teacher in an earlier life...
Who stayed in the profession for only 2 years...
And left after getting thoroughly disgusted...
I agree 100%!
Background: I taught way back when we had to reproduce tests and handouts on those stinky mimeograph machines. Some may remember those times. The Big-Union Libs were just beginning then to poison the public education well. I saw what was coming... and I promptly got out!
I loved the smell of mimeographs in the morning!
Fortunately they were used back before the "glue-sniffing" craze hit.
You weren't missed.
Yes he was dipshit. Good, honest teachers suffer under the system and are often forced out. Its like the often told story of the college student on summer break working along side union workers who is threatened for working too fast. You don't slow down and quit showing off, we are all going to kick your ass.
If you actually teach and care and don't buy into all of the stupid progressive methods, you get ganged up on and run out on a rail.
I have a sister who teaches math is an urban school district. She tried to stay late, once, to help a kid with his math. She was asked not to keep doing it. She did it again a little while later and was escorted out by the union rep.
Nice.
Yes, my wife was helping one of my children's 1st grade teachers late one school year. There were a handful of kids struggling with sounding out 3 letter words. This was an upscale suburb. My wife studied elementary Ed and had taught our 4 children to read by age 3.
Well, to make a long story short, the teacher informed my wife that she no longer needed her help as the year was winding down. The wife was flabbergasted as she probably could have gotten these kids to read 3 letter works by the end of the year. Just passed along in the system. No need to sound any alarms and get some intervention. 2 years until retirement who needs that shit.
FUCK ALL of the losers who support robbing the taxpayer and fucking over generations of children by the MALPRACTICE OF EDUCATION.
Fancy buildings do not education make.
Motivated students do well.
Parents must motivate their kids.
But many of the parents don't give a shit.
They shouldn't have had chil'ren in the first place.
More abortions!
And maybe forced sterilizations.
Der Fuehrer had a good idea or two.
We've granted guaranteed money to anyone engaing in behavior that is the opposite of self-supporting or contributing positively to society. We've subsidized stupidity, and consequently you enable the lowest IQ among us to have the most kids without consequences, and these people have absolutely no value for education. Only the smartest and luckiest in the bunch have mothers that teach them how to reach for a run on the ladder, the rest dont' give a flying fuck about education since they get $$ regardless.
Combine that with the Union Teachers' regional cartelsand politics who will gladly fuck Peter to Handjob paul for a vote, and you have the clusterfuck that is government run education.
Wait, everybody knows the bastard children of gangbangers and high school dropouts make the best brain surgeons. Everybody knows that. What are you, some kind of waycist?
"You might say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
We control your institutions,
And watch your world become undone."
"der fuehrer" ?!?!?
Kill yourself
Charlotte Iserbyt, The intentional dumbing down of America (also interesting interview on youtube).
Long and old plan of the globalists (red and capitalist share the same goal of world government and destruction of souvereign nations).
The globalists do not want an educated people, a middle class. Because the middle class is dangerous for the globalist plan: the middle class is conservative, has virtues and lives in families, where the old values and virtues are inherited.
World government need a dumbed down, sexualized, hedonistic and indiviualized mass, not people feeling as part of a bigger community. The old principles of commitment and work ethics, virtues, is strenghtening the mass, while hedonism and destruction of the families, feminism, taking away the male element, makes them wax in the hands of the globalists.
Thank you for paraphrasing both Marx and Lenin for the ZH audience. Both proposed destruction of the familiy as a way of destroying Bourgeois (capitalist) society. More of their modern "useful idiots" should read their Masters' writings.
But they won't. They'd rather call you "ignorant" if you understand the origins of their cult.
This is a subject that domino, I am Teacher.
Taught to students of 5th year the Federal and State University.
Today, what is missing is DISCIPLINE, that's all.
Imbeciles who invent fashion in Education saying that children need to be overprotected should be hanged.
Hit with a ruler at the head of a student or put out of the classroom or give a suspension should be the prerogative of the professor, not the social worker.
Another moronic thing I hear: "school is to educate."
Education comes from the house where the unhappy born.
School is for learning skills, school was not meant to educate, teachers are not parents.
Teachers are people with specific knowledge to be taught to children will assimilate this knowledge.
That's it.
Rote learning sucks and is a horrendous form of educating people with specific knowledge. A bunch of studies shows it has worst performance in the short-term and long-term retention among students. It literally it worst way to educate students. Ditto the US school year being 9 months long and giving students off 2-2.5 months where there is a serious atrophy in knowledge and skills.
MeBizarro:
I'm 52 years old, almost retired.
Learned things in a disciplined manner and was never arrested.
Not killed me yet despite having served Army.
I wish you mentalizasse as is 9x8 or 15x6, times tables and know that what is the fusion of Niobium, Iron Gold in the periodic table etc.
The above data we learned and memorized, I know at my age today its loser!
You can know how many folds today has the ass with your iPad but do not know hitting a nail.
Atrophy by rote learning?
Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
Measure your Ignorance Quotient.
hehe.
My uncle is a certified carpetner, my godfather a fairly large contractor in Eastern PA, and I have done Habitat on and off since high school. Yeah I know how hit a nail in and a lot more about construction from the application of seeing and doing it from a young age on a regular basis.
Students HATE learning rote memorization with no application and for good reason. It is largely useless, tedious, and something quickly forgetten. It is not how humans successfully learn and retains and the only reason it worked is because at the time we needed an approach to supply a minimal amount of education starting in the early 20th century to the US population for jobs that required a minimal amount of reading, writing, and mathematical ability.
How long did you stare at the hammer until it explained to you how you should use it?
Rote memorization in the early years is the best method for 90% of the population. Lack of this approach is why most perform poorly. Not everyone is gifted.
Bottom line is homeschooling means personalized to the kid's needs. Critical thinking process always has to be at the forefront, because real life is entropy in action and dynamic, not static and with simple textbook solutions.
Bizarro; Rote learning is how kids learn to write and do arithmetic, learn calendars, geography, history.
Teachers, kids,parents don't like it because it is HARD WORK! So they get create easy smeasy liberal educational theories. How's that working for you?: America is 33rd in the world in education.South Korea, Japan, China, the leaders in student education use ROTE LERARNING.
If one desires to be successful in life one cannot avoid hard work.
Japan does not use rote learning and encourages an approach with active hands-on approaches that actively involves the students and strongly encourages a high degree of participation by the students.
You can argue you all you like but putting a teacher in front of a classroom where he/she just talks to students for an hour with little/no participation is a complete waste of time. It is a method that works poorly and without any reinforcment or application of the learning results in almost zero retention.
Hell, I had this same issue when I was an afternoon teacher at a black after school program. Kids hated math and struggled with it because they didn't see the relevance. I got permission and I brought in dice to teach them odds (on playing craps) and use basketball and shooting percentags to teach them why it made more sense to shoot from certain spots and situations. Teacher approved of what I was doing, kids generally enjoyed it, and I got to teach the black males (12-15) math while doing something they wanted to be doing (shooting basketball). There were always a couple of students that wanted to screw around but generally there wasn't a tolerance for trouble makers at this problem and it worked well.
Discipline is another virtue the globalists and 1% want only for themselfes.
A disciplined people is dangerous, the hedonistic, atomized individual is what neo-feudalism wants.
So the school system is working PERFECTLY.
The problem is, that people do not understand the real goal of it in this regime, they believe it was there to learn and educate. People need to view it with the eyes of globalists: the school system is good, if it makes the middle class less disciplined, if it dumbs the average joe down, if it doesn't makes children stronger, but weaker, if it supresses the healthy and normal ones and makes the inferior rule. The 1% has their private schools, their Swiss schools with uniforms and high discipline.
Disclipline is a real issue but you advocate violence against the students by teachers? Completely agree that there should be a 'no violence' tolerated by any student against a school official but it is a two-way street and teachers should be allowed to just hit students as they see fit. Just as screwed up a policy.
"No doubt the problem is teachers making too much"
No, the problems is not firing the incompetent teachers.
Unions specialize in preventing the public school systems from firing incompetent teachers.
If you have figured out the 'magical formula' on what defines a good/poor teacher, you instantly should incorporate as an LLC, file a trademark patent, and do some VC rounds soaking up the cash because because would throw money at you.
"... the 'magical formula' on what defines a good/poor teacher..."
The "magic formula" is being practiced at SOME public schools:
1. Standardized tests measure student performance at the beginning and the end of the semester.
2. Student performance is compared to expected results.
3. If performance is below expected, teacher is suspected of poor performance.
4. Teacher performance in classroom is observed by competent administrator.
5. If classroom observation confirms test results the teacher is fired.
Currently about 90% of the cases, after about six months of get well plans and fighting the Union.
1. So you would have the student take 4 tests in a year which would leave out little instruction beyond anything else included in the test and it is assuming that the test has several types of characteristics that it can statistically measure successful adoption of knowledge by students.
2. How exactly are you going to determine this baseline and especially if it is under 30 students which means you run in to real sample size problems to determine statistical signifinance? How do you potentially risk-adjust for this and on what factors?
3. Districts that have done what you said have had incredible annual variartion between year to year and this approach has generally been a failure to determine 'good vs poor' teacher due to a number of the issues I mentioned above.
4. This is generally a better approach but again in is administratively-burdensome since it requires several visits and still has it problems as the teacher is not being observed on how they function with an administrator present in the classroom.
5. How do you determine what is the criteria for firing and if you did this would you be willing to deal with large annual turnover in teachers? That would be a disaster since teaching is a skill that requires several years to really begin to master and isn't ameniable to a retail approach where the workers are disposable.
No idea what the last statement means.
Eater of rand: You remember telling us you refused to allow your employees to unionize as you were the one who had in your words " taken the risks", apparently your employees are unionized now, right..
I would agree if they actually had teachers.
And I bet you blame "White Flight" for the condition of the inner cities, right? What large city do you live in? Suckah!
LTER- Public sector unions should not exist. You should not have the right to collectively bargain against the American taxpayer. You defend these people, saying they deserve over 100k a year in compensation when, by every single objective measure, they are failing miserably. And, thanks to unions and collective bargaining, they can get away with it since they have tenure. This union idea of not being able to fire someone ever is one of the most damaging things the school system does, it's despicable. End the department of education, abolish ALL public sector unions. Everything the govt does it either fucks up entirely or does it incredibly inefficiently, you yourself recognize that in almost every other area. Don't see why you would think it's any different with govt run schools.
The problems I see are when I was in school there was 1 principal and 1 vice principal. It was a large school of over 1000 students. Now a days, I see 1 principal and 6 vice principals each with their own administrative assistant all in the 70k+ area. They sit there and ask us for money because their budgets are stretched. I tell them to start firing people if they don't have enough money.
Once in a while you make a good post. I even up arrow you.
This time you are just showing your progressive partisan roots. He didn't blame the teachers. He blames management/government for not holding teachers accountable. He blames management/government for misappropriation of funds - a mural instead of actually repairing or maintaining. He blames management/government for not taking responsibility for the problems and solutions and laying to costs at the feet of the poor inhabitants whom they are supposedly meant to represent.
Ultimately I want to say he should blame the voters but who in their right mind believes votes are even counted in Philly?
As a side note, funny story about Philly. Went there this summer to take in the sights. It turns out that you are not free to see the Liberty Bell if you have so much as a pocket knife. By funny, I mean ironic and disgusting anti-American.
Naggers.
Nuf said.
Dat's raciss! ;-)
watch it, my son's a nagger...
See, more proof of one of the universal laws of government:
"Government, being a criminal syndicate of theft and violence, always accomplishes the opposite of the stated goal. Always."
And another:
Government, being a criminal syndicate of theft and violence, can only produce poverty, misery, death, and lies. All evidence to the contrary is a temporary illusion or insanity
Well said, kchrisc.
The fundamental problem of why government must always fail is the simple fact that they do not actually get paid for a result. They never have to produce any results. They are paid for process. Kids are "processed" through K-12 education. Pay in a government system, school system is not based on any result.
Look also at the VA system and the investigations going on. This has happened for the whole history of the VA. My dad talked about camping outside VA treatment centers with his stepfather waiting for care. It will be repeated over and over. After they "fix" this crisis or actually after they weather it and make window dressing type changes it will start over again.
You combine other people's money (taxes) with no requirement for results, no incentives for results and the power of government force and the ability to grant favors from that power...and then really explain why you are surprised at the miserable result. You have to be a moron or a leftist dreamer to expect otherwise.
Let's fight 2 major wars in less than a decade, increase the VA patient load by over 40% in less than 5 years, keep funding for patient services at or less than CPI over the same period, and magically wonder why there are massive issues in serving VA patients especially new patients while scapegoating the VA administration.
Dismantle the VA. Send them to local hospitals and the government pays the tab. So much waste.
I know healthcare very well and I have been in many many VA centers. You should see what doctors who have trained or worked in them say about them. Your solution is spot on. There is no need for a parallel system. If that were true then Medicare and Medicaid should have their own centers, doctors and system. How do you suppose that would work out?
Yeah because lying and letting people die while giving out BONUSES to themselves is not the VA administrations' faults and utterly proves your point about money being a problem false.
You are bizarro, and dumb.
So the more years you go to skool, the less likely you are to smoke?
Or was it that the more you smoke, the less likely you are to go to skool? :-)
Let those 8 year olds start funding teachers with their Kools money.
Probably the smarter you are, the more education you are going to go after (at least before the last few years when costs exploded), and the less likely you are to give a hundred thousand or so dollars to companies in exchange for a product that slowly kills you.
Age matters too. Once you are hooked it is hard to stop. This certainly applies to older people more than younger. Of course they apparently die faster so it'll work out in the end.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, is not a sound proposition of logic. (For the benefit of those who did attend public school in Philadelphia, that is the Latin saying, "After this, therefore because of this.")
Quit pikking on Philly teechers, they helped me lern to read an rite.
Lies! No one who went to school in Philly would be able to spell teechers correctly.
Whatchyu mean?... learn Ebonics!
Word!!! (Makes blatant "in-your-face" black-'hood hand-gesture)
uh huh, it's tit-cheers