World Politics

[Anonymous]

Yep. The CPS Union is nothing if not effective;

 

[redtreviso]

Walter Olson the guy that put that together is a right wing nazi hack at Cato and the Manhattan Institute...Scotty must want a little gold star on the forehead for being such a good fwaterboy..

 

[Anonymous]

Walter Olson the guy that put that together is a right wing nazi hack at Cato and the Manhattan Institute...Scotty must want a little gold star on the forehead for being such a good fwaterboy..

Well, dumbass, it's either true or it's not. Which is it? Any substance to your BS?

I didn't think so.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Well, dumbass, it's either true or it's not. Which is it? Any substance to your BS?

I didn't think so.

So what should we do? Maybe three complaints from customers (students) and the teacher is terminated? That is the way your private enterprise school would work isn't it? "You flunk me and I'll get your job taken away." Perfect!

 

[redtreviso]

Well, dumbass, it's either true or it's not. Which is it? Any substance to your BS?

I didn't think so.

Probably not.. or they scoured the whole fn country looking to fit something to their talking points..All those Cato, Manhattan, Heritage "fellows" are FOS..

Of course you don't even notice who is pulling your chain. I on the other hand see it instantly..Dumb-zzz

 

[Anonymous]

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm....

Consider New York City. The New York Daily News reports that “over the past three years [2007-2010], just 88 out of some 80,000 city schoolteachers have lost their jobs for poor performance.”

Or look at Chicago. In a school district that has by any measure failed its students — only 28.5 percent of 11th graders met or exceeded expectations on that state’s standardized tests — Newsweek reported that only 0.1 percent of teachers were dismissed for performance-related reasons between 2005 and 2008. When barely one in four students nearing graduation can read and do math, how is it possible that only one in one thousand teachers is worthy of dismissal?

http://www.teachersunionexposed.com/protecting.cfm

One of the most scandalous manifestations of teacher tenure was the so-called “Rubber Rooms” of New York City. According to The New York Daily News, at any given time an average of 700 teachers were being paid not to teach (they instead reported to “rubber rooms”) while the district jumped through the hoops (imposed by the union contract and the law) needed to pursue discipline or termination. A city teacher in New York that ends up being fired will have spent an average of 19 months in the disciplinary process. The Daily News reported that the New York City school district spent more than $65 million annually paying teachers accused of wrongdoing, in addition to the cost of hiring substitutes.

Of course, the agenda bucks tenure -- perhaps Rhee's biggest criticism of adults protecting "vested interests" at the expense of student learning.

"Every day, school systems quietly place into classrooms a number of teachers whom they already have identified as ineffective. Districts claim they have no choice, and they are relieved that they can do so without embarrassing any adults," she wrote.

Rhee suggests separating the development of teacher evaluation tools from contract negotiations with teachers' unions, saying their leadership has a "conflict of interest" because of "fiduciary responsibility to their organization to enhance unity and protect low performers."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/education/2011/01/rhee-criticizes-teacher-tenure-unions-nonprofit-agenda

Not really sure what the teachers unions are interested in but it's not providing quality education to America's kids.

 

[Anonymous]

So what should we do? Maybe three complaints from customers (students) and the teacher is terminated? That is the way your private enterprise school would work isn't it? "You flunk me and I'll get your job taken away." Perfect!

HJ, we can't do anything. That's the point. 2 to 5 years to terminate a bad teacher.

How long could your shop survive if you couldn't shed bad help?

I think competition is the answer. You don't. I think things must change. You don't.

It's as if there is nothing we can do to fix the apparatus because it's the apparatus and we need to support it.

 

[Anonymous]

Probably not.. or they scoured the whole fn country looking to fit something to their talking points..All those Cato, Manhattan, Heritage "fellows" are FOS..

Of course you don't even notice who is pulling your chain. I on the other hand see it instantly..Dumb-zzz

You don't see anything but leftist blather.

I ask you if the chart is true and you say "probably not." Which underscores your cluelessness.

 

[Hugh Januss]

HJ, we can't do anything. That's the point. 2 to 5 years to terminate a bad teacher.

How long could your shop survive if you couldn't shed bad help?

I think competition is the answer. You don't. I think things must change. You don't.

It's as if there is nothing we can do to fix the apparatus because it's the apparatus and we need to support it.

You don't see anything but leftist blather.

I ask you if the chart is true and you say "probably not." Which underscores your cluelessness.

And you can do nothing but parrot Ayn Rand/John Galt storybook utopian nonsense.
Competition in primary school education will not work simply because it is against everything that this country should stand for. Remember that "equal opportunity for all" bullsh*t that you used to blather on about, hand over heart, at 8:00 AM when you were in grade school (the one that was funded with taxpayer dollars, the one that made you the success that you are today)?

 

[Cobblestones]

Scott, the problem is not getting rid of bad teachers. The problem is to attract good teachers in the first place so you don't need to fire them later on.

Finland has one of the best education systems in the world. Teachers need a masters degree to qualify for a permanent job. 98% are unionized. So it doesn't seem that a tenure system and teacher unions are detrimental to a good education system.

The problem with the public school system is that there isn't really one system. There's rich school districts with functioning schools in suburbs with a high tax base where levies for funding schools have a good chance to pass. Then there's poor rural or urban districts which aren't funded well, the tax base is low, and levies usually are defeated at the ballot box. Rich school districts can pay for good teachers (and so don't need to get rid of them). Poor districts can't. That's when the phys ed teacher also does physics because it sounds similar. No wonder those kids don't learn anything.

If you really think that the ability to fire teachers more easily (and to bust teacher unions presumably) is the most effective way to improve the public school system, you should provide supporting data for that claim. The graph which explains the CPS grievance process doesn't do that. It doesn't even tell us how long it takes in average to get rid of bad teachers there.

 

[rhubroma]

What does it mean to be a good (or bad) teacher anyway?

Has anyone ever even thought to ask what does it mean to be a good student?

 

[rhubroma]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...010793664904.html?mod=WSJAsia__LEFTTopStories

..."I ask some in the Arab and Islamic worlds: Why have you remained mum over the tyranny against our people in Bahrain," Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah party and a close Iran ally, said on Saturday. "Is it only because they are Shiites?"

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Iran's leadership has sought to cast the Middle East's democratic wave as one that targets pro-American governments. But the turmoil has also rekindled a protest movement in Iran—the antithesis of a pro-U.S. government—that flared in 2009 following allegations that national elections were rigged. The White House has sought to cast Tehran as hypocritical—urging on protests in Arab nations, but suppressing them at home.regioi
Over the weekend, Mr. Obama offered his strongest rhetorical support yet for Iran's youthful opposition movement.
"So far, the Iranian government has responded by demonstrating that it cares more about preserving its own power than respecting the rights of the Iranian people," Mr. Obama said in a video message that was beamed into Iran and translated into Persian to commemorate Nowruz, the Persian New Year. "These choices do not demonstrate strength, they show fear."...

It's so typical, and absolutely madning, how the WSJ attempts to downplay a certain reality, namely that the US has always targeted pro-American governments in the region (with Saudia Arabia and Bahrain being only the most glaring examples of anti-democratic regimes we support), while emphasizing the fact that Iran's regime has been under fire from the recent protests of its citizenry. The one fact, however, has got nothing to do with the other.

Of course the conservative daily has conveniently omitted the other fact that when America has had a regime that was decidedly not to it's liking, it has gone into action, using a most spurious accusation of possessing weapons of mass destruction, to effect a regime change and "nation building" in Iraq. Though evidently to its readers, these are things which can be painted different colors.

As far as Libya goes with every new war the rate of difficulty to judge it, and even understand it, augments. I read the interventionist and neutral arguments, and both seem convincing. Yet even more convincing are those with doubts about what to do. And therefore? And therefore, we wait to see -I believe in many- if some Just Cause, I mean something limpid enough to not make turbid the usual speculations about the oil market, will help us judge war and peace in light of convictions that are a bit less relative. The so called Western powers, however, as administrators of Values, are not very convincing. Weighing on the West's conscience are at least a couple of bad adventures (Iraq and Afghanistan) that have charged islamic hatred rather than diffused it. As far as Gaddafi goes, it's not like you can receive him in Rome not long ago as if he were the new Cleopatra and then, a few months later, try to land a bomb on his house.

 

[Anonymous]

And you can do nothing but parrot Ayn Rand/John Galt storybook utopian nonsense.
Competition in primary school education will not work simply because it is against everything that this country should stand for. Remember that "equal opportunity for all" bullsh*t that you used to blather on about, hand over heart, at 8:00 AM when you were in grade school (the one that was funded with taxpayer dollars, the one that made you the success that you are today)?

This is stunning/surprising/disappointing.

Let's make sure we provide no choice to (poor) parents whose (disadvantaged) children are trapped in poor performing schools all the while protecting a system that continues to steal the future of many (particularly poor) kids.

Equal opportunity for all indeed.

 

[L'arriviste]

I think I've got PFS (Political Fatigue Syndrome - like so much of reported news, it's something I just made up).

Symptoms include jaundice, agoraphobia and sudden outbreaks of cynicism.

First I quit reading the BBC website just before Christmas. I started writing fiction and now I get by on just a couple of NYT and Le Soir articles (and their corresponding user comments) per day.

I stopped listening to what Obama said. I stopped listening to Steve Jobs and his stupid touchscreen toubibs. I stopped listening to Cameron and Sarko and that special Belgian brand of pretty harmless embezzlers and backroom slitherers like Daerden and Leterme. The North African revolt barely registered with me and now I find myself totally unmoved by this whole Libya thing. Which way should we spin tomorrow? Vote now by premium-rate SMS.

So am I alone in this and should I feel bad about it?

 

[L29205]

What does it mean to be a good (or bad) teacher anyway?

Has anyone ever even thought to ask what does it mean to be a good student?

+1
There are many issues educators face these days. How about parental support of the teachers for example? Many parents treat primary education as a free from of daycare.

 

[redtreviso]

Real teacher or a scotty being funny?

8th graders

""I asked the students to stop speaking Spanish in class because it was impolite to speak a language in front of people who may not speak that language. Their response was that Americans better learn Spanish and their customs because they are taking their land back from us.
""

http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/2011/03/21/20110321arizona-teacher-letter-to-russell-pearce.html#ixzz1HQeGzW2f

 

[Cobblestones]

This is stunning/surprising/disappointing.

Let's make sure we provide no choice to (poor) parents whose (disadvantaged) children are trapped in poor performing schools all the while protecting a system that continues to steal the future of many (particularly poor) kids.

Equal opportunity for all indeed.

I take it, you favor a system where property tax is paid to the state (or even federal) government which then distributes it back to the local governments based on need to ensure equal opportunity? Where school levies are statewide issues? I didn't think you had it in you, but you might come around after all.

 

[Cobblestones]

Real teacher or a scotty being funny?

8th graders

""I asked the students to stop speaking Spanish in class because it was impolite to speak a language in front of people who may not speak that language. Their response was that Americans better learn Spanish and their customs because they are taking their land back from us.
""

http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/2011/03/21/20110321arizona-teacher-letter-to-russell-pearce.html#ixzz1HQeGzW2f

Someone above asked what makes a teacher a bad teacher. Well, here you have a great example.

 

[fatandfast]

Dear Middle East and North Africa. We care about you so we invited you and your families to a potluck of western bombs. Enjoy

 

[Hugh Januss]

This is stunning/surprising/disappointing.

Let's make sure we provide no choice to (poor) parents whose (disadvantaged) children are trapped in poor performing schools all the while protecting a system that continues to steal the future of many (particularly poor) kids.

Equal opportunity for all indeed.

So (poor) parents should just send their children to private schools, huh? Where do they come up with the money for this?
We have tried a system where the (disadvantaged) students are sent to better schools, it's called busing. I think your side was against it.

 

[Anonymous]

So (poor) parents should just send their children to private schools, huh? Where do they come up with the money for this?
We have tried a system where the (disadvantaged) students are sent to better schools, it's called busing. I think your side was against it.

Vouchers/Charter/Magnet Schools...

Have schools competing for the vouchers and for the students by providing something better than a piss-poor education. What's wrong with that?

Why not give parents the choice to send their kids to schools that produce?

 

[redtreviso]

Vouchers/Charter/Magnet Schools...

Have schools competing for the vouchers and for the students by providing something better than a piss-poor education. What's wrong with that?

Why not give parents the choice to send their kids to schools that produce?

Private schools around here cost STARTING at twice the voucher value..Meanwhile parents of kids in those schools want tax credits for their full expense..The charter schools to take these voucher students do not exist. Once you destroy public schools then any charter schools can just go out of business and where will we (not you I guess) be?
Hey scott.. Wouldn't it be cool if colleges only accepted white/christian/republican/lexus delivered kids from private schools???

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Real teacher or a scotty being funny?

8th graders

""I asked the students to stop speaking Spanish in class because it was impolite to speak a language in front of people who may not speak that language. Their response was that Americans better learn Spanish and their customs because they are taking their land back from us.
""

http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/2011/03/21/20110321arizona-teacher-letter-to-russell-pearce.html#ixzz1HQeGzW2f

great.

Sounds like some racist crap from both sides.

 

[patricknd]

Hey scott.. Wouldn't it be cool if colleges only accepted white/christian/republican/lexus delivered kids from private schools???

you say that like it's a bad thing

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Private schools around here cost STARTING at twice the voucher value..Meanwhile parents of kids in those schools want tax credits for their full expense..The charter schools to take these voucher students do not exist. Once you destroy public schools then any charter schools can just go out of business and where will we (not you I guess) be?
Hey scott.. Wouldn't it be cool if colleges only accepted white/christian/republican/lexus delivered kids from private schools???

sad you have to take it to that level.