So It Begins...

Ahh, the lovely fallout of NCLB begins.

So, the theory is, fire all the teachers, hire back no more than 50% of them. Bring in new teachers (at least 50% of your teachers will be new) and watch test scores....improve? Really? Maybe they will, lots can be done if you drill for the tests, but I honestly can't see it helping improve the 50% dropout rate.

Let me see if I understand this. EVERY teacher is bad enough to deserve to be fired, but up to 50% MIGHT be good enough to hire back? Why does this make no logical sense to me?

Another story says the principal wants to lengthen the school day AND thinks the teachers should offer extra tutoring to the students. Note, this is a "tiny impoverished city" so I could bet the school is underfunded already. I'm doubting the teachers were in for much of a raise for all the time invested.

Now, one COULD say "Oh, to save their jobs they should put in the time for free." Well, that is one way of looking at it.

Obviously it is by someone who knows nothing about the average teacher's workday. Teachers at underfunded schools are frequently required to put in MORE hours for less pay, just because they have less to work on.

I'm betting, and I could be wrong, but I'm betting if the school was funded at say, 90% of the richest public school in Rhode Island the results would be different.

Sure, the drop out rate might be higher than more affluent communities, but I bet they could get it up with more manpower.

In the military, they talk about "boots on the ground." How many people are actually there to do the mission.

Well, that needs to start happening in education. We need more boots on the ground. More aides, more librarians, more teachers, to help these kids.

I'm not saying all these teachers were great. There were probably some who were bad, some who were great, many who were in the middle.

Firing them all is not going to solve the schools problems. Nor is more stringent testing requirements.

I won't even start on how the Education Secretary put his two cents of praise in.

These people are clueless. And they are running the show.

Scary.

Musings

Wow, I should stop reading the news. I should stop delving into stories. I should stop following links, and should just sit back and let the TV "news" channel of my choice lull me into nothingness.

America is in trouble but nobody in our government seems interested in doing anything about it. What issue in particular am I talking about?

The "economic recovery." Call me a liberal, but I see a problem with the current recovery we are having. Its only helping those who are the same people who caused the bulk of the problems in the first place?

Oh, don't get me wrong, the average American consumer (myself included in the past) is an idiot who spends way more than they can afford to. Credit card debt, along with with bad mortgages, too much on car loans, and nothing in savings helped fuel this disaster.

However, that doesn't absolve Wall Street. And Wall Street, not the average American, is who recieved the most bailout money.

Profits are up, bonuses are rolling, and millions of Americans are out of work with no prospects in the short term. Honestly, how long can a "recovery" go on if 10% (and the numbers are higher when you include people who have given up hope of getting a job) of the work force in out of work?

Without getting too deep into the silliness that is financial world pay plans, how about we put some real incentive back into the jobs?
Those people are highly trained, and frequently, doing high stress jobs. I have no issues with them being well compensated. However, "bonuses" should be based on performance, ie making money in the long term, not just "performance" which is shifting money for short term "gains." (Its not a gain if the money goes away again down the line.)

What if, and this is crazy liberal talk I know, we start breaking up companies that are "too big to fail."

Think about it? Why should any company, especially a bank, be too big to fail? That doesn't lead to healthy competition and smart business practices. It leads to making dumb decisions because you know the government will have your back when you tank.
what if, instead of rewarding US companies for moving jobs overseas (it can help boost the bottom line!) we encourage investment in factories here? Sure, I know that isn't cost effective, the way the system is set up currently.

However, it could be. Give tax credits for companies keeping jobs here or creating new jobs. There are lots of carrots you can dangle before them. Hit them with penalties every time they decide to "outsource" jobs to a foreign country. Create tariffs on goods, without actually taxing the good.

Heck, start a national campaign "Buy American for America." We are never going to be a manufacturing-centric nation again, but we do need a certain percentage of those jobs. Do they need to be as high paying as the car company jobs with their great benefits and pension plans?
No. But they should pay a living wage.

And what if, WHAT IF, some sort of cap was set on exectutive pay? Cap it at total compensation, TOTAL including stock options, deferred payments, assorted perks, and cash, could be no more than 500x the average pay of workers in a company.
So, if the average pay was 50k, an executive could recieve no more than 25mil a year in benefits. Is that unfair? Really?

I don't see how this could possibly be a bad thing.

We need to make it easier to unionize. But unions need to be smarter. There needs to be oversight of unions to insure they are looking out for the best interests of their workers.
I'm going to stop my crazy pinko rantings here. They way we have been doing things is not working. At least not for the bulk of America.

Part of the blame falls on the American people.

Much of the blame falls on the super-rich and politicians who seem to have forgetton that the average American is not a millionare.

Leadership

Leadership, that's something this country needs and it is not being provided by our President.

I'll put this out there. I voted for Obama for a variety of reasons. One reason was I didn't want Sarah Palin second in line for the presidency.

Before he took office I was disappointed with him. Not, surprised, disappointed, as he surrounded himself with Clinton cronies who had already proved once they had no clue how to lead a country.

Someone needs to tell Obama that he doesn't come across as "bridge-building" or "bipartisan" but merely weak and indecisive.

In a day and age where far too many people only get their "news" from the source they find most appealing (gives it the spin they like) every decision is going to be ripped on by someone anyway. So be a leader. MAKE a decision.

Healthcare: We still don't know if Obama really wants the public option in a bill or not. It looks like the Democrats are going to get it back in there (thankfully, because without it, no bill would be better.) So tell us what YOU support President Obama!

Economy: Yes, the bailout "worked." It saved jobs, created a few new jobs and propped up many plutocrats who elected officials will be needing money from every few years. However, there are still 10% of American's without work. More if you count the people who gave up. The jobs bill that is dying in the Senate is a joke. Be a leader. Make hard decisions. Support unpopular, but necessary ideas. Do SOMETHING, besides try to save Democratic seats in the fall. Do you know why people think you're doing the wrong things? Its because you aren't really doing anything at all!!!

Terrorism: Trumpet the fact we've caught or killed a number of high ranking Taliban and Al Quaeda figures over the past few months. Say, "hey, this wasn't my fight, but we're doing the best we can and look what we've done." Talk about how much information we're getting from the Christmas Day bomber because we didn't torture him, but brought in his family to talk to him.

President Obama, I have cut you slack because you were inheriting a disaster. I didn't think you could do much to turn things around, but I hoped I was wrong. Instead, your lack of will, your lack of LEADERSHIP, has saddened me.

Stop getting into spats with FoxNews, or Sarah Palin, or whoever. Have some guts and say, "You know, you can believe the naysayers if you want, you don't have to agree with me, but I am the President of the USA and I believe this is what we should be doing."

Sure, you'll be skewered for it. But, you're getting skewered anyway.

I know this is a lot to ask, but a 2nd term doesn't matter if you got nothing done in the first one. Don't worry about being unpopular if you're actually doing good things.

Something to Ponder

I learned today that the Supreme Court ruled that a quality education was not something gaurenteed by the Constitution.

Merely adequate education.

Just consider that.

Its not a right, but the government has mandated higher standards year after year and punish teachers and schools who do not reach artificial benchmarks.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.