Civility on the Blogs
This article has spawned a considerable number of comments. We've decided to move it to a more easily accessable place so that more readers can join in.
Here's an interesting opinion piece concerning blog civility...maybe that's an oxymoron.
Read more: Canton Rep.com
This is a different take on the issue. See Article
31 comments:
CW and his OTBL people are the only ones who truly know if he is being a hypocrite. If you take a look at his posts OTBL as C...W.... he has always stayed clear of any flaming or degrading, however, if he as many assume is Towncrier then he has hid behind the anonymous name, as someone on this blog did, and has ridiculed, slandered and belittled private citizens in our community. Again, only they truly know so I, personally am going to give him the benefit of the doubt because if I don't he is as cowardly as they come, to reprimand someone for the same cowardice actions that are displayed OTBL.
I only wish one of the teachers in our district would take Kilber to task for the slander that goes on over there, it's too bad that Mr. Muchlinski, Mr. Bauman and of course Mr. Nelson have to be the ones to continually stick up for the teachers of Hudson, as a citizen of this community I would love to see them stand up for their profession and be proud of the product that they deliver.
Dispite the fact that salaries of teachers are a matter of public record, the way they are flaunted on OTBL is shameful in the extreme. They intentionally inflate them to supposedly include the cost of benefits that most employees receive from their employers and call it compensation only for the purpose of embarassing teachers. If people knew how this "compensation" translated into take home pay they'd be hard pressed to find a reason why some teachers attend and pay for 5 or 6 years of college to receive a salary in the low $30K range.
In this ragin debate over teacher salaries, I have a question: Does a kindergarten teacher with equal time and experience in a school district get the same pay as a teacher in the district teaching advanced college prep chemistry or advanced mathematics? If so why?
I'll tell you why, Kindergarten teachers have arguably one of the toughest jobs in K12 education. In all honesty, teaching an AP course in any subject is not all that tough, think of the students, motivated, smart, incredible drive. All three of those qualities add up to independence. Think of a kindergarten student, no think of 20 in a room, one needs to go potty, one needs their shoe tied, another can't hold their pencil, another is crying because Curt looked at her funny, or because Curt is funny looking, not sure, then another misses her mommy and begins sobb in the corner.
See if you pay an AP math teacher more are you not placing less value on Kindergarten? Kindergarten is an extremely important grade in k12 education, it begins to build the foundation for years to come.
nht:
You seem to be describing babysitting or daycare. What actually gets taught? I don't even see why a college degree would be needed to perform the functions you talk about.
If our future depends on having math and science grads, wouldn't you want to have a more attractive pay package for the advanced programs? That would give an incentive to bring more qualified teachers in these advanced placement subjects.
Likewise, as you described shoe tying v. advanced calculus, common sense would dictate that the more skilled position would get the higher paycheck. How well a kid ties his or her shoe isn't going to have a bearing of who well we are prepared to compete in a global business model. Shoe tying doesn't create wealth, advanced calculus does!
My point was to let you know that "teaching" kindergarten is tough because you have so many obstacles to be aware of in order to get to teaching. It is tougher to teach because of those other variables, with an AP class you can get right to teaching and then let your students work to find the solutions. You are saying Kindergarten teachers are baby sitters and you are devaluing what Kindergarten education is. Curt you are saying that since Kindergarteners do not create wealth they are not important. I would adamantly disagree. Skills in Kindergarten are lifelong lessons that are with us until death, calculus, not so much!
We you say "tough," what do you mean. You there for 8 hours a a day and go home. There can't be a whole lot of preparation for a kindergarten class. You get the finger paints ready, the shoe laces out, etc. There's not any homework to correct.
"Tough" is a judgement call. We are talking skill and expertise here. I private business, there are plenty of people who get paid way more than others who complain about their job being "tough." Are you saying the teaching kindergarten is more like manual labor and less a brain power job like teaching advanced science or math?
CW,
I see your point. If you have learned an advanced topic and convey that to students as well, that takes real skill and should be rewarded at a higher level. However, there are many people who are experts in complex fields that can't teach. Being a good teacher is really a seperate skill compared to being knowlegable in a subject area.
Also, the brightest people in private industry are usually not the best paid there either. No offense, but why should a sales person earn more than someone who actually designs or develops a product?
I wouldn't argue with you that there should be incentives for teaching well. But simply switching schools to a market base isn't going to insure quality. There are a lot of correspondance types schools cropping up all over. What they're selling is getting a degree without putting in the time.
You are correct sir, it is a judgement call, who gets to make that judgement? Since I am neither a Kindergarten teacher or an AP math teacher I don't get to make that judgement and neither should you.
I have a question for you, how does school choice help a family that has 8 children? Do I get to use my 5000 for property taxes for each child for a total of 40000? Didn't think so. What happens to those families how do we fund the educational expense for these large families?
I'm not discussing school choice and I'm not talking about market quality. I'm talking about teacher pay.
OK lets say all things being equal, the kindergarten teacher gets paid the same as an advanced placement teacher. Step back from you preconceptions and hostilities for a a couple of minutes and think seriously about these two questions:
1. Does this make sense?
2. If it makes sense, wouldn't you think the advanced placement teacher would more easily adapt to teacher kindergarten than the other way around?
If you answered 2 yes (and I did), it would indicate that the AP teacher is more flexible and adaptable. This would indicate a more valuable asset to the school and therefore would deserve a bigger paycheck -- or more likely, a smaller paycheck for the kindergarten teacher.
I'm backing up here, but after all, the skills required for your average daycare worker seem to be similar to that of a kindergarten teacher. The exception being that day care workers have to change diapers and probably get substantially lower pay.
You might not realise it or understand the workings of unions, but they have traditionally pushed for broadly defined work categories and minimal flexibility/movement between job positions. This appears to be exactly what is going on in the government school system.
Another point for you to ponder and answer concerns grading the job a teacher has done. Where they successful? Did they exceed expectation, meet expectations or fall beyond? I don't think you can honestly measure a kindergarten teacher's performance this way. The AP teacher can be measured through standardized test scores.
Wealth producers who work in private industry knows these measures quite well. That is why private industry is so efficient and the government is so inefficient. I doubt that you can come up with a legitimate example of waste in the private sector.
CW,
Isn't it funny that we seem to be conducting a civil debate here @ ATBL,
no name calling etc. You obviously have a different perspective than most of the posters on this blog, yet your comments are not deleted, nobody has been called names like communist, or captialist pig, so far. This never happens with our neighbors ontheborderline. If you step out of line over there you gone.
As for legitimate waste. How about the junket to Mexico for the Cozy crowd of employees at bankrupt NWA. That's right bankrupt! Can't pay their mechanics, or pilots but can put on a lavish dog and pony show for their favorite "wealth producers" who've run the company into the ground. Now that's waste pure and simple.
No hostility for this......
"2. If it makes sense, wouldn't you think the advanced placement teacher would more easily adapt to teacher kindergarten than the other way around?"
Quite honestly, I don't think the advanced placement teacher could adapt to the role of the kindergarden teacher. Even though I agree with you that the advanced placement teacher is probably more highly skilled and probably deserves better pay, I can't imagine
a geeky ( or intellectual if you will ) type of science or math teacher doing well at kindergarden teaching. These are totally different skill sets. You would probably be correct in saying however that the kindergarden teacher would not be qualified to teach advanced placement classes.
What I'd really appreciate is if you'd drop the "government school and wealth producing" talking points. We both know that these are linquistic tricks to demean public schools and public sector employees.
Concerning goverment whatever, I'm calling a spade a spade. You need to broaden your field of vision and not worry so much about calling something what YOU are used to hearing.
Concerning the teachers union. Do you see any negative aspects of the union? The perception is that, because of the union, incompetent teachers can't be fired. Certainly you wouldn't argue in favor of potecting the incompetent? Earlier some mentioned that it takes a certain skill to teach advanced placement course. What if a teacher does a mediocre job with an AP course? If you can't fire them, you should at least be able to reduce their pay till they get to the expected level of performance? This is something that goes on in private industry all the time. Unions had a reputation of protection the slackers and inefficient.
CW,
If you had originally said 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grade teacher I might have gone along with you but Kindergarten has the most widely diverse students in education.
Look at the AP class everyone is at a high level in a math, with kindergarten you have some students that come in ready to learn to read and write, some are not ready, some are still learning to socialize. You tell me how you would teach 4 students that are emergent readers, 3 students who know 20 letters, another 7 who know their letters yet have difficulty decoding those words and making sense of them, 2 students who are writing coherent sentences and 6 who do not even know how to spell their name. An ap class has students who are relatively on the same level. Kindergarten teachers have to have the skill set to not only teach students who are ready to read and write but as well teach those students who come to school not developmentally ready to learn. If you have been in a kindergarten classroom within the Hudson School District you would know this instead of just assuming that Kindergarten is a glorified daycare.
I have no problem with you calling us government schools because we're doing a damn good job of educating children.
Unions do protect poor teachers which is a negative however, it also protects good teachers when students lie or teachers are accused of something they didn't do. Getting rid of the union is not the answer to getting rid of poor teachers. I believe the key to moving teachers from poor to good or from good to great rests in the hands of the administrator. We need instructional leaders in our schools to help guide teachers to greatness.
So nht, you are agreeing with me that there are problems with unions. Let's say you switch jobs and become a teacher in a private school not covered by a union. Now you are a taxpayer who doesn't have a vested interest in protecting the existence of a union in the government school system. What would be the top five problems you see with the teachers union. Remember, you are know working in private industry, a taxpayer and sharing your experience and understanding of how the teachers union work.
I am not sure the union is the problem, I said agree with you that unions protect ineffective teachers, couldn't it be the administrators don' t want to take on the unions to get rid of ineffective teachers?
For me personally the unions have negotiated a comfortable living wage, why would I want to give that up and go work in a private school for 1/2 of what I am making and fewer benefits. Don't expect teachers to side with this issue, you would have to be fairly incompetent to bite the hand that feeds you.
CW,
"Concerning goverment whatever, I'm calling a spade a spade."
I'm sorry CW, but I don't believe you are being honest with us or yourself when you say this. By calling public education ( at term that has been in almost universal use for 150 years), "Government Schools" you are just taking a page from the playbook posted on the "Allience for the Seperation of Schools and State" website. If you had come up with this term yourself I'd give you a little more credit but you're just following the talking points and marching orders.
You point out some negatives of unions that can be agreeed to, protecting incompetents. However, from my perspective there would be a much greater harm if there were no unions. Wages and benifits have been steadily droping for not just public employees, but private workers as well since this administration has taken office. It's not an accident.
They're policies promote the type of business activities that reward bad behavior toward workers.
I do have sympathy for you as a private businessman if you have to shoulder the entire cost of healthcare by yourself. But why do you begrudge others that get some help with that benefit? Because you are a taxpayer? I'm sure this is no surprise to you but you are not the only taxpayer, and you don't speak for all taxpayers. I pay taxes too.
If I were an independent businessman, I'd push to have buying pools for healthcare for small businesses established to lower the cost. That's not happening is it?
As for incompetent teachers. Yes there some, and it seems difficult to deal with them, but they are not the majority.
I don't know if you've even taken some training program, and were asked to evaluate the trainer after.
Inevitably I find these surveys confusing, and do not allow me to express my true opinion of a trainer's performance. This is the problem with bad teachers as well. You can never be sure if they are really bad or there are other reasons they are evaluated poorly.
I don't think that student performance is an accurate barometer of this either. The majority of the responsibility of student performance should be on the student. That said, what is a reasonable way of weeding out incompetent teachers or as you say put them on notice. Getting rid of the union can't be the only solution.
nht:
1. What percentage of teachers do think are ineffective? Are they easy to spot? Why would the administration be afraid to deal with ineffective teachers? Are they afraid they'll be fingered as incompetents? Do we have a case of the bad leading the bad?
2. Would you keep teaching if your pay was basically frozen and more of salary went to pay for the increasing cost of health benefits? That's what's happening in the private sector.
3. Did you go into teaching because you knew you'd get a "comfortable" living wage or because you wanted to teach?
ARand
I say government and you say public. We are talking about the same thing. You say they've been calling government schools public for over 150 years. How do you know? Isn't it interesting that you would want to argue with me over two little words that describe the same thing. Are you going to split hairs with me if I say automobile or soda and you are used to saying car and pop? Seems very petty.
I think that petty much describes much of the argument from your side of the debate. You don't use facts and figures and you play on people's emotions.
CW, Please take the following comments in the spirit of debate and not one of hostility.
You are seem quick to dismiss those that disagree with you without any facts to support your argument.
This is more than a disagreement over a word. You and other detractors of Hudson's School board use the term "government schools" for a reason, to dehumanize, and degrade the public schools, to have people see them as a cold bureaucratic institution rather than a community asset.
How do I know the history of public education in Wisconsin? By reading.
I beg to differ with you that 150 years of history and the establishment of public education in the Wisconsin State Constitution is being petty. It most certainly is not.
Here's a historical overview from Rutger's University.
It can be found at the following URL. I apologize if it doesn't paste properly here.
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/
~dalbello/FLVA/background/education.html
Public Education
The first free public school in the State of Wisconsin was opened in Southport (now Kenosha) on June 16, 1845. Michael Frank, a member of the Wisconsin territorial legislature, introduced bills authorizing the establishment of a public school system in Wisconsin in 1843, 1844, and 1845, but could not acquire the support necessary to secure passage. After realizing defeat in 1845, he introduced a bill authorizing the community of Southport to establish a free public school supported by property taxes. It was passed, although it would not become operative until approved by the citizens of Southport in a referendum vote. There was opposition to the law, but the referendum passed in April 1845. The resulting system of free public education became the model for the state public school system.
Article X of the Wisconsin Constitution, adopted in 1848, provided for free public district schools for all children between the ages of four and twenty, required local taxes for school support, provided for a school fund and distribution of the fund on the basis of school population, and provided for a state superintendent. Michael Frank was enlisted to codify the school laws, and Wisconsin's free public school system was introduced in 1849.
1. Not sure where you are going with #1, I can't make a sound estimate of how many teachers are ineffective, what I do know is that there are some and with that being said just because I think they are ineffective doesn't mean everyone will think they are ineffective. Children, just like adults, have differing learning styles. Teachers have differing teaching styles that must match those learning styles.
I think afraid might be the wrong word, maybe just not the desire due to time constraints and other duties, please don't think I am making an excuse, I am just stating my opinion as to why I don't think they take the union on, it's also easy to state an opinion about administrators and why they don't get rid of ineffective teachers from this side of the fence!
2. Until this contract round my pay was frozen and they only increased my benefits!
3. I went into teaching because I enjoy working with kids, plain and simple. Think of your own kids CW, is there a better enjoyment in the world than the gratification of guiding them towards a new horizon, or looking at their face when that "light bulb" goes off in their head when they figured something out.
CW, you said.
"I think that petty much describes much of the argument from your side of the debate. You don't use facts and figures and you play on people's emotions."
I believe I've provided you with sufficient facts to support my argument and now you have become silent.
You accuse me of being petty. Is the filing hundreds of requests for information from the district to discover a few dollars from the "pop fund" or a $10 refund from a hotel out of an over $20 million dollar budget not being petty? It sure is in my book. And to what end? To embarass the district officials again, the same reason you insist on calling public schools "government" schools. Talk about playing on people's emotions!
I'll be eagerly watching for your reply.
Someone must have asked too many questions!
CW,
I see you've been busy hob knobing with your Hollywood friends over at OTBL. If you ever get the time, come on back here, we'll have some more facts ready for you to walk away from.
We miss Barney (Don Knotts ) too and agree, may he rest in peace. See we have some things in common.
He was a comic genius.
nht:
1. OK, what do you see as the major problems facing the school where you teach? Is it the facility? Technology? Teachers pay? Shortage of teachers? Lack of support from administration? Weak or overbearing school board? Lack of parental concern over a student's education? Lack of teacher's ability to discipline unruly students?
2. Would you continue to be a teacher, if your pay and/or benefits got reduced?
3. Do you personally know anyone who is a teacher at a private school? If so, do they make more, less or about the same as you? If so, are their qualifications the same?
Andy:
How can you equate requests for information from the school district as petty? I don't see it that way. I am a taxpaying member of the school district and it is within my rights as a citizen to request this information.
Maybe I'm not as much of a sheep as certain people and groups are. If I am into the details (remember the devil's in the detail) more than you, is that wrong. Because 99.99% of the members of the school district don't request an information, do it make it wrong for me to ask? Maybe if 99.99 percent of the district paid attention to the business of their school district, they would be asking for the information and thus take the burden of requesting info off a handful of concerned citizens.
Just because we don't see the education through the same rose-colored prism as you, doesn't make us in the wrong does it?
CW says: "How can you equate requests for information from the school district as petty? I don't see it that way. I am a taxpaying member of the school district and it is within my rights as a citizen to request this information."
I have a question for CW. The public sector is not the only one subject to auditing. I understand that you are a small business owner. How would you like it if the IRS and the WI State Dept. of Revenue came in to audit your books every few weeks? Also, many small business owners sign service agreements, partnership agreements, financing agreements, that allow the other party to audit. What if (in between IRS audits) you were audited by your partners, vendors, banks, etc. on a weekly basis? What if in between these daily audits, your auditors wrote letters in the local paper referring to you and your business as corrupt and mismanaged? Let me tell you what I think. I believe you would, at some point, tell them to get out of your face, take a hike, and let you get on with your work. Hey, but let's say they won't take a hike. In fact, they just point to the law and the contracts and say: "Sorry, but we have the right to audit you, and we have an obligation to the taxpayers and our shareholders to do so. P.S. Here' our latest round of requests for information." Do you think your "citizen auditing" of the school district is any less harrassing? Since you haven't uncovered some insidious fraud by now, don't you think its time to let the board and administration get on with their work? Sure, ask a question now and then, when you really have an important question. But demanding information nonstop is just a worthless waste of time.
CW Welcome back to this thread as well.
As you say, you are within your rights to make requests for information. But I believe you have done so to excess.
It's been pointed out that while every other district in WI,requests were in the teens, Hudson's in in the hundreds.
In reality we don't live in a true democracy but in a Republic, which I'm sure one of the Consitutional Dr.s @ OTBL have pointed out. As such we elect individuals to represent us and to do the "peoples"
work. While you are within your rights, it is simply counterproductive to be questioning every detail of what the district does.
It appears to many that these requests are simply a fishing expedition to find anything that will embarass the district officials.
I do think many of the results of these requests are indeed petty.
the "pop fund" or a $10 refund from a hotel. Yes, this is petty. Especially when you consider the number of manhours the district uses to unearth these things. And even your own time. Wouldn't that be more productively spent growing your business?
I find it bothersome that you also choose to broadcast employee "compensations packages" ontheborderline. Yes,this is public information. But I for one am bothered by how you flaunt it.
You realize that if you posted teacher take home pay it would not be nearly as inflamatory as
their compensation package.
There are thousands of other taxpaying members of this district who don't feel the need to uncover every detail of the districts activities. I will repeat, I pay taxes also.
Other than embarassing district officials,I find myself puzzled as to what the motivation is? What good doe you expect to come from these requests?
Do you have a total distrust of any auditing process the district goes through?
RandyAndy:
You rationale baffles me. Just because few other people what is going on in their schools districts means that it's wrong for a couple of groups of concerned citizens to watch over their school districts? I thought that was the job of the citizens in the US?
Are you familiar with photography? When you take a picture and print it, it's a bunch of dots that add up to a picture. We are collecting dots.
We mention teacher salaries because it's public information. Ditto for the compensation packages. Are you afraid the taxpayers will think teachers get paid too much?
As far as embarrassing public officials, I'm wondering what they have to be embarrassed about? I supposed Nixon was embarrassed when the Watergate stuff came out. I suppose Clinton was embarrassed when if was found out he lied about having sex with that woman in the Oval Office.
As far as me being audited, I do my taxes every year. The government randomly audits tax forms. This means you could be called in for an audit when you are completely honest and have done your taxes correctly. This violates the innocent until proved guilty concept. I have to prove I'm innocent. Who audits the school districts taxes? Did you know that taxes are a form of illegal theft? That's why there was a tea party in Boston back in the 1700s.
I don't really understand where you are coming from. If you were thinking this out clearly, you would be on our side of the issue. Are you related to a school board member or administrator or teacher? Maybe you are a teacher. In that case, you have a lot to lose be seeing our side of the debate.
RandyAndy:
You rationale baffles me. Just because few other people what is going on in their schools districts means that it's wrong for a couple of groups of concerned citizens to watch over their school districts? I thought that was the job of the citizens in the US?
Curtsy Wurtzsy:
As your rationale baffles me as well. As I said, you are within your rights to make
requests. In my opinion many are silly, petty and vindictive. Whether they are wrong or not I'll leave wrong to the guy upstairs to judge.
Are you familiar with photography? When you take a picture and print it, it's a bunch of dots that add up to a picture. We are collecting dots.
Yes, more familiar than you would guess. So far you have collected a couple hundred
pixels in a 20 million pixel image. At the rate you're going hell will freeze over before you have any kind of an image.
We mention teacher salaries because it's public information. Ditto for the compensation packages. Are you afraid the taxpayers will think teachers get paid too much?
Didn't I mention it was public info. Yes I did. That's your aim isn't it to make people
believe that graduating college with a degree in education should be rewarded with
less than $30,000/ year. They are sooooooo overpaid.
As far as embarrassing public officials, I'm wondering what they have to be embarrassed about? I supposed Nixon was embarrassed when the Watergate stuff came out. I suppose Clinton was embarrassed when if was found out he lied about having sex with that woman in the Oval Office.
Do you ever examine issues from both perspectives.
I've listened to the conservative viewpoint. There was a time when political correctness
and ultra liberal thinking was so prevelant that the left needed to be reminded of reality. But that time has long since passed. Now it's the Right that's gone bonkers.
I don't think it will be long before Chaney will be wearing an orange jumpsuit, if his
ticker doesn't go first. The guy is a crook. If you'd been paying attention you'd know
that his Halliburton company was awarded a 1 billion dollar no bid contract to rebuild Irag before we dropped a single bomb. Now there's something for concerned citizens to
investigate. Let's see how far you get before you get a call from the FBI?
As far as me being audited, I do my taxes every year. The government randomly audits tax forms. This means you could be called in for an audit when you are completely honest and have done your taxes correctly. This violates the innocent until proved guilty concept.
I have to prove I'm innocent
On this I can agree with you.
. Who audits the school districts taxes?
I don't know. I thought you'd tell me. Since your've requested all the info.
Actually, you are correct that I'm not as well informed about this as I should be.
Did you know that taxes are a form of illegal theft? That's why there was a tea party in Boston back in the 1700s.
Now here's where you go diving off the deep end with Dr. Bill.The tea party was because
the colonies had no representation. Did you vote in the last election, I'm sure you did
as did I. It may not be adaquate but we have some form of representation.
As far as taxes being theft!!!! This is pure CATO institute Dr. Bill BS. We live in
a society with shared responsiblities regardless of what foolish libertarian ideology
you choose to adopt. Yes, Dr. Bill let's have some profiteer build toll roads through
Stone Pine, and everyone get your snow shovel out to plow your portion of the road you live on. Give me a break CW. You know this is BS. Yes, lets have a society where every
family, especially those with many kids pay $8500/child/year to attend Hill Murry.
You floor me with your logic! Let's execute every criminal so taxpayers don't have to
support them in prison. If you really believe this you are an anarchist.
I don't really understand where you are coming from. If you were thinking this out clearly, you would be on our side of the issue. Are you related to a school board member or administrator or teacher? Maybe you are a teacher. In that case, you have a lot to lose be seeing our side of the debate.
I assure you the feeling is mutual. I do give you credit for coming here, in enemy territory and for speaking your mind and standing up for what you believe, but to me it's pure nonsense.
Do I want to pay more taxes. No. But there's this concept foreign to you called social
responsiblity. This country's breeding a whole generation of morons. I don't blame the schools, I blame the parents and the media. If the moron parents refused to pay or couldn't pay for their kids education it would be even worse. At least now if the kid
wants to get educated he has a chance.
Nice talking with you. Let's doing it again later.
A nonanswer to my question. I didn't expect more, but I'll try again. I asked how you, as a business owner, would like to deal with daily examinations by those who have the power to do that. The government has that power (Boston Tea Party notwithstanding), as does almost anyone a business owner contracts with. The question is whether you could effectively manage your business if your auditors were on you back day in and day out. I suspect not. Especially if those same auditors were constantly disparaging your business in the local paper. It is clear to people in this town that the daily information requests you and the gang make to the district are nothing but harassment. "I can't figure out cost per student" CW says. God man, no one is that stupid. That's just clearly harassment and a fishing expedition. Try having a little restraint and ask for information you really need - not just anything and everything under the sun so you can find some little nugget to embarress some people. And as for your usual "I'll bet you are just part of the system," you have to know that dodge is getting really stale. I work for a private company and most of the people on this blog do also. Your attempt to pin any support of public entities on those who personally work for them just screams of paranoia, and conspiriology run amok.
Private Sector:
I deal with daily auditing in my business. I do it as I track income, sales, expenses and tax requirements. I do it with the knowledge that I'm responsible for proper records and am accountable for the information I submit to the government.
I'm sure you've seen the video of two concerned citizen being police-escorted out of the school board meeting. Didn't you heard Arnie Fett say he didn't audit Ron Bernt's expenses because he was his boss. In the private sector we spell that ERON and WorldCom. Well if the business manager isn't going to do the auditing, I guess it's up to concerned citizens to step in and do that function.
Maybe you liberals think you don't pay enough in taxes. I think I pay way too much in taxes and I going to make sure that my tax dollars are being spent with a watchful, prudent eye. Any auditing I do of the public sector is done free of charge.
1. NCLB is the #1 issue I see facing the classroom today, we are focused on tests instead guiding students towards higher standards. I do not feel teachers are underpaid, with that being said, the salaries are nothing to write home about! We earn a comfortable wage.
2. If my pay/benefits are reduced by how much? 50%, I would not continue to teach. Does this make me a bad person? Does this slap the label of "I only teach for the salary"?
3. No I do not. I would expect their qualifications to be the same as mine, but I know by law they do not have to be.
I have some questions for you:
1. How much should a teacher be paid? This is an opinion, your opinion.
2. If school choice happened, should all schools have to take any child into their school?
3. Why didn't you run for school board again?
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