Romney Economics: Fewer Teachers, Fewer Firefighters, Fewer Police Officers

Fewer of Me: the public sector workers who don't matter.

If your house is on fire, there is a crime, or your kid needs an education try to go to a vulture capitalist to do it.

Chicago teacher union call for a strike with 90% of the vote

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

Chicago teachers have shown their solidarity in massive numbers. More than 90 percent of teachers have given the OK for a work stoppage, multiple sources told NBC Chicago. That number is well above the 75 percent needed, by law, to authorize a strike. Chicago

Teachers Union spokesman Stephanie Gadlin declined to provide an official number but said that some schools have seen 100 percent of teachers approve a strike.

 "We're pleased," she said, but added: "We know there will be challenges by [Chicago Public Schools].

CTU is analyzing and double-checking the numbers before releasing any information on the vote. That may happen Monday.

 CPS officials declined to comment until official numbers are released.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel last year rescinded a four percent pay increase and pushed for a longer school day. CPS has since proposed a five-year contract which guarantees teachers a two percent raise in their first year and lengthens the school day by 10 percent. Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/chicago-teachers-union-ctu-strike-authorization-vote-158260415.html#ixzz1xJcr02R8

Obama's radical idea teachers matter when it comes to education. Shocking

For more on the GOP's war on knowing things. http://laborspains.blogspot.com/2011/08/americas-love-affair-with-ignorance.html

Thank God we have Jonathan Alter protecting teachers when is he coming to help out. Oh I guess he's already done enough

LP - This is impressive as Jonathan Alter shows what a great supporter he is of education as he once took his fat salary and bought a bunch of kids a couple of pencils and a paper clip or two. What Alter doesn't express in this piece is who determines what is best for kids: teachers that are sitting beside them every day in class or one overpaid reporter who really only gives a damn about them for a three minute segment on television. I think the teacher should weigh in and have some more accountability on their public air waves. I don't think this MSNBC reporter would be getting a passing grade.


> yes.

>> and i'm a huge supporter of teachers, and i have been involved for 15 years in donors choose which helps teachers with classroom supplies and i have always thought that teachers are badly underpaid and this idea in pennsylvania of the republican governor cutting $1 billion from public education is insane, but having said that the interests of adult interest groups are not always congruent with that of kids. we have to ask what's best for kids, not what is best for the adult interest group, and they are not always the same. so what we need is a grand -- what we need is a grand --

>> and we should not always pit them against each other.

>> well, no, but part of the pitting is that partly because every time somebody criticizes the teacher unions, we are teacher bashers. we are not bashing the teachers, but critical of some and not all, but certain practices of the union to protecting incompetence who are inflicting educational malpractice on the students, and we need grand bargaining and a lot more pay in exchange for a lot more accountability and not necessarily through a standardized test, but broader assessment of the teacher quality.

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Updated: Scott Walker and Cronies Prove No Low is Too Low | Crooks and Liars

Updated: Scott Walker and Cronies Prove No Low is Too Low | Crooks and Liars:

'via Blog this'

That image is of a full-page newspaper ad taken out in the Janesville Gazette, the local newspaper in Paul Ryan's district. What it is, is thuggery in typeset letters. The names you can't read in the image are the names of teachers in Janesville who signed the petition to recall Scott Walker. Next to their names, is their salary. At the bottom of the ad, there is a space to sign to "opt-out" of any teacher's classroom who signed the petition.

Conservative group caught lying ... they repeat lie anyway

Conservative group caught lying ... they repeat lie anyway

Madison conservative group Reforming Education And Demanding Excellent Results-Wisconsin, or READER-WI, recently put up a billboard on US 12-18 (the Beltline) that uses a quote purported to be from the late Albert Shanker, a former head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The quote?

"When schoolchildren start paying union dues [...] I'll start representing schoolchildren."

There's only one problem: He never said it. If you do some digging on the quote, this is what you find:

The incident in question occurred during a speech Shanker delivered at Oberlin College, while he was still president of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers (probably during the early- to mid-1970s). Although nobody recalls the exact wording, it went something like this:

I don’t represent children. I represent teachers... But, generally, what’s in the interest of teachers is also in the interest of students.

LP - Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

From Huff Post when Walmart tried this I think it was called Dead Peasant insurance

Rick Perry Sought State Profits From Teacher Life Insurance Scheme

First Posted: 8/25/11 12:21 PM ET Updated: 8/25/11 01:24 PM ET

 

WASHINGTON -- Two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2003, top officials from Texas Governor Rick Perry's office pitched an unusual offer to the state's retired teachers: Let's get into the death business. Perry's budget director, Mike Morrissey, laid out a pitch that was both ambitious and risky, according to notes summarizing the meeting provided to The Huffington Post. According to the notes, which were authenticated by a meeting participant, the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live. Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation. Rest of Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/rick-perry-texas-life-insurance-scheme_n_935666.html?page=1

From The Wall Street Journal. I know this doesn't go with the storyline

Number of the Week: U.S. Teachers’ Hours Among World’s Longest

By Phil Izzo

1,097: Average number of hours U.S. teachers spend per year on instruction.

Students across the U.S. are enjoying or getting ready for summer vacation, but teachers may be looking forward to the break even more. American teachers are the most productive among major developed countries, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data from 2008 — the most recent available.
Among 27 member nations tracked by the OECD, U.S. primary-school educators spent 1,097 hours a year teaching despite only spending 36 weeks a year in the classroom — among the lowest among the countries tracked. That was more than 100 hours more than New Zealand, in second place at 985 hours, despite students in that country going to school for 39 weeks. The OECD average is 786 hours.

Full Story here: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/06/25/number-of-the-week-u-s-teachers-hours-among-worlds-longest/