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Paso schools face budget woes, teacher strike

February 5, 2012

By DANIEL BLACKBURN

An unexplained $1.59 million deficit in Paso Robles School District’s (PRSD) current budget has the district teetering on the brink of insolvency and under threat of a state takeover while local officials target teachers’ pay as a possible solution.

In response, teachers are now threatening to strike, and plan a rally Tuesday at the board’s 6 p.m. meeting at district headquarters, 800 Niblick Road, Paso Robles.

District officials have blamed the shortfall in its $54 million spending plan on a bookkeeping error made by a retired employee, and have posed fixes for the problem which include an immediate three percent salary hit, and similar, subsequent annual cuts.

Several sources told CalCoastNews that the “missing” money appeared to have been taken from a fund for employee insurance, provided by Self Insured Schools of California (SISC), and then used for other general purposes, but never repaid. SISC is a joint powers agreement administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, and participated in by districts from throughout the state.

County School Superintendent Julian Crocker, whose office exercises oversight of individual districts in the county, said he “appointed a fiscal advisor to work with the district” in December and has offered additional staff assistance to the district.

Crocker said “the law prescribes county superintendents lots of ways to act” in these kinds of crisis situations, and acknowledged he has “serious concerns” regarding PRSD’s recent “negative declaration” of its fiscal standing — meaning that officials are uncertain about their ability to pay ongoing bills for the rest of the budget year.

Ironically, Crocker now oversees problems in the district he once headed.

Teachers union president Jim Lynett told the PRSC board of trustees in an “open letter” in January  that a cut in wages for teachers was not acceptable to his membership.

“We are prepared to sit down and negotiate a solution for next year utilizing the many cost savings ideas presented to the board by the community,” he said. Lynett said that when his members offered their compromise recently, “We were dismissed like children.”

Robert Skinner, a history teacher and officer in the teachers’ association, said that a compromise with the district “would require cooperation, and (of that) I’m not too hopeful. After all, the school board is relying on the judgment of the same administrators who got them into this mess in the first place.” Skinner said teachers may be left with only two options: accept the cut in pay, or strike.

Lynett also suggested that the district’s current budget fix may cause school classes to end as early as April.

The county education office “tried to warn the district about this game-changing screw up,” said Lynett, but those warnings went unheeded.

Dr. Kathy McNamara, superintendent of the Paso Robles district, did not returns calls Friday from a reporter.  But in an email to the teachers’ union, McNamara wrote, “The SLOCOE (county’s) fiscal adviser would not approve (the union) proposal as it did not address the mandates set forth by the county superintendent to restore our fund balance, and eliminate deficit spending.”

If the Paso Robles district was to be placed under state receivership, the current superintendent would be fired, the board would become advisory only, and state loans would be made to cover deficits. Such receivership would last a minimum of three years.


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When your comment appears here at the top of the scroll it must be focused on the article , a couple of comments have been deleted because of topic When using the email, follow the link. When the site opens you will see “reply to Bob”, click the users name and that should take you to the comment. Then hit “reply to” under the comment of your choice. The “Reply” link in the mail is reply to article not “Reply To”, click on the name. if you have an issue with the website or comment moderation I cannot over emphasize the utility and courtesy of email .


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Good economics isn’t about government planning or statistical models. It’s about human beings and the choices they make in the real world.


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Good business is all about productivity and accountablilty. That wil never happen as long as government and unions are involved…


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Exactly. Government officials don’t give a hoot in hell about productivity and accountability. When they fail, they ask for “bailouts” from the taxpayers. When private sector companies fail, they go out of business. Which is better?


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Forgot to mention the “partnership” between big private corporations (especially banks) and government meant to “overcome,” or leverage business “failures”…..


sometimes called “crony capitalism,” or even better, “crony collectivism.”


An older, more provocative term is, “fascism.”


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Can you give an example of country whose govt. isn’t involved in things such as schools or medical care that works better than ours? I keep asking the righties this question and I don’t get an answer. You are so much smarter than me I expect that you can answer this. The only countries I can think of Somalia, Afghanistan and a few countries like that. What country would you use as a model of a well run no govt. involvement country?


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Straw-men, false choices and red-herrings; Leftists are so predictable and you’ve learned well Obama’s style of argument since you have offered us only anarchy and severe government intrusion as options.


Your answer is Estonia whose Finance Minister modeled their newly freed economy on Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations.” Look it up. Austria comes to mindas well; there are probably others who have rational governments who keep to a minimum the tendencies of politicians and bureaucrats to sell-out to business interests and government employees.


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Thank you, the derail of this thread is now complete


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Sorry zap, I know that I’m in part to blame. I have a hard time just sitting back and listening to all these lies,,,or should I say ‘misinformation’.


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In a government operation, in contrast, everything

changes. Inherent in all government operation is a grave and fatal split between service and payment, between the providing of a service and the payment for receiving it.


The government bureau does not get its income as does the private firm, from serving the consumer well or from consumer purchases of its products exceeding its costs of operation.


No, the government bureau acquires its income from mulcting the long-suffering taxpayer. Its operations therefore become inefficient, and costs zoom, since government bureaus need not worry about losses or bankruptcy; they can make up their losses by additional extractions from the public till.


Furthermore, the consumer, instead of being courted and wooed for his favor, becomes a mere annoyance to the government, someone who is “wasting” the government’s scarce resources.


In government operations, the consumer is treated like an unwelcome intruder, an interference in the quiet enjoyment by the bureaucrat of his steady income.


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Sorry William, wrong answer.


Well, I didn’t know anything about Estonia’s school system so I did look it up. Their schools are paid for and run by the govt. even more govt. intrusion than ours. Open the link and look under ‘funding of educational system’.


http://old.estinst.ee/historic/culture/education.htm#Funding


I already knew about Austria but just in case things had changed I looked it up anyway. Their govt not only funds their childrens basic education they also fund their universities. Of course nothing is free, it’s paid for with taxes.


http://countrystudies.us/austria/77.htm


It might be a good idea for you read up on these things before making such wild claims.


So once again the right doesn’t want the govt. involved in our childrens education but once again can’t list even a single country with an educational system that isn’t funded through the govt. that works better than ours. There must be one country William that you can find where the ‘free market’ is working so well regarding education. I’ll be waiting for your answer, hope you can do better this time.


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“The Right”? I’m a Libertarian myself.


I don’t buy into D’s good, R’s bad, the “Left wing”/”Right Wing paradigm, so don’t bother even going there.


Once again, you miss the point. This is not about “making lists,” it’s about how one particular school district exemplifies in certain ways why the public schools are a failure.


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Well, I believe that I’ve referred to you as a righty or a con (conservative) and that’s what you are, I didn’t call you a the ‘R’ word. Ever since Bush screwed up the country all the ‘R’s call themselves Libertarians, but really they (you) are just extreme far right. You can say what you want but your posts say it all very clearly.


What we are talking about is very political. The right want to do away with public schools by handing out vouchers because you think that anything that run by the private sector or big corps is better than the govt. whereas most on the left disagree. So it is about those ‘lists’.


Public schools are not a failure and many people agree with me on that. Public schools are great they just need revamping. Every so often like the sofa in your house things need to be updated. Our school system needs to be updated.


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The schools systems are not run by teachers’ unions or an ”Asociation of School Administrators.’


btw, it’s not a ‘lie’ when Leftist fallacy is exposed. It is close to a ‘lie’ when one (ie. most Leftists) aggressively engages in cognitive dissonance.


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Okay, so does this mean that you can’t find a country that lets big corps or the wealthy run their schools or health care that works better than ours? There is no good model for your government-less utopia?


Yes, you’ve confirmed it. You want us to run our schools like a third world country runs their schools. That’s fine, send your children to Afghanistan then you don’t have to worry about government schools.


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I didn’t know that. No problem.


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You miss the point and ask the wrong questions, as usual.


Read some of the books by John Taylor Gatto. Here’s a sample:


The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0945700040/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk


No time? Get on YouTube and watch his videos. He’ll explain everything.


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I watched 3 minutes of that guy and couldn’t take anymore but at least a gave him a try. He’s a nut.


Gatto feels that parents and grandparents should be educating their children. This isn’t Little House On the Prairie. People work and many people just arn’t qualified to teach their kids. The thought of certain posters here teaching their kids is scary.


Gatto doesn’t trust teachers, he’s just a paranoid nut case.


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Really? I just looked at a video of his, Classrooms of the Heart – John Gatto (1991). He has 29,936 views. 138 likes, 1 dislike. He won New York State Teacher of the Year.


Thumbs down for you. Do I sense a pattern here?


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Unlike certain left-leaning folks around here, I don’t usually believe in ‘piling-on,’ but I had never heard of this guy so thanks for the tip.


Most Americans have no idea that they have been seriously propagandized by the likes of John Dewey and Saul Alinsky with a corrupt education system held in place by the Dem. party andaided and abetted by a complicit or ignorant media.


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I don’t care about ‘likes’, even on Youtube. I use my mind, I’m not a sheep. I didn’t care about being the popular girl in high school and I don’t care about it now.


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@William, you sound brain washed by right wing radio shock jocks. So this should be good. What’s wrong with Saul Alinsky? Why do you hate him, how about giving me on reason/example for using his name like this? Is this going to be an answer similar to those governments with schools that work so well without the govt.? I would rather have Alinsky on my side as apposed to the Koch Bros.. But I’ll bet you don’t know much about any of these guys, you’re simply spouting what you hear from your leaders ie Rush Sean insaHannity etc.. Alinsky is the new buzz name for those on the right, they spout of his name but no nothing about him.


Stop being a sheep, think for yourself.


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You’ll have to read ‘Rules for Radicals.’ If you don’t understand the problem then there is nothing to discuss. Your imputations of my media consumption bespeak the unfounded judgmental weapons espoused by Alinsky.


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Can you give an example of a country whose government has tried true free markets?


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How about a country that has a good educational system without govt., schools that are run/owned by private corps. Just one country to model this plan of yours. We’re talking about education right now.


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Liberalism, the land of central-statist false choices: Private ‘free-market’ schools or Gov’t ‘public’ education.


Funding and tax arguments are red-herrings. Once the parents control the money alloted to their kids’ educations you will see an (I would put money on ‘astonishing’) improvement in school discipline and scholastic improvements.


By proposition K-12 gets 40%(!) of the state budget. Added to this is Lotto and local property taxes. Per pupil spending is something like $11K/year. Parenthetically, D.C. spending is $15K/year. Their scholastic results are well-known. Would anyone here send yourkids to a publicly-funded ‘voucher’ school with the same stats? Didn’t think so.


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Okay, so you know more that ALL of the industrialized countries in the world. I get it.


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Correction: we are talking about the education MARKET.


It is an economic MARKET which must conform to the laws of economics, the same as any other market, or suffer the consequences.


We have indeed suffered the consequences in the form of dumbed down citizens, mass stupidity, passivity, apathy, lowered economic productivity, and general ignorance. What a nice track record and legacy!


Why don’t we just let the state run EVERYTHING if the public schools are so great?


Because the economy would go right into a ditch all the faster, that’s why!


Better that the public parasites milk it, vampire-like, so that the agonizing process can be prolonged.


When the déluge comes, the rich will have their bunkers and warehouses fully stocked, while the rest of us will face zombi looters :–(


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“Why don’t we just let the state run EVERYTHING if the public schools are so great?”


Well, Obama took over GM and the Volt has already sold 8,000 units: 4,000 to G.E. and 4,000 to the Fed. Gov’t…


Next He took over health-care insurance and already there are MAJOR changes in prices and accessibility.


So what’s with all the griping?


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Searched the comments but couldn’t find any mention of why McNamara “left” her last job in Banning. The teachers gave her a vote of no confidence. Why in the hell would any other district hire anyone, especially in administration, who has been proven to fail at their job.


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It’s called “lateral promotions” and is how these slugs continue to leech off the tax payers; all levels of government do this, as it’s one of their cardinal rules (like: never shrink the union and it’s dues).


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The City manager in SLO did the same thing. Santa Monica and Beverly Hills both paid her to go away and then she came to SLO and is screwing them but she fat contract. What I don’t understand is that the agencies hiring these fools pay a lot of money to a recruiting firm and they should be vettting these people. So either the recruiting firm is not doing their work or the agency doesn’t care and hires them away. Sad for us taxpayers. My mantra: don’t re-elect anyone.


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City Managers are the biggest racket. There was this guy Kirkland or Kirkwood from the midwest who took over Pismo Beach back in about ’88: 6 figures, full bene’s, the usual. He no sooner gets here and complains about the prices of houses; wants Pismo to float him a no-interest loan! Last I heard he was in some dust-up in Guadalupe after getting hired there.


Who hires these guys and why don’t they look at the local talent first. Why do we even need a ‘manager’ isn’t that what the mayor and council are for? They can hire a local CPA or attorney if they need accounting done.


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Happens all the time, just as rOy says. Unbelievable, but true.


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DId you all watch the film Waiting For Superman. I think it’s called the lemon dance.


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Excellent point, Bert. She charmed the school board, plain and simple. Also she’s bi-lingual (a biggie in Paso) and she’s a “she.”


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Oh, I think the Paso School District needs a back up plan.


This is really a no-brainer. There are plenty of out of work teachers in this county… offer them the opportunity to take a permanent position that would be provided by those who strike.


Yes, there would be litigation & strife… but it would send a message to the teachers as to what their primary responsibilities are…. they are NOT retirement, health benefits and teacher work days. Letting students do homework in class… is not teaching.


Break em.


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I have a relative that retired from the school district 2 years ago. She makes $5300 a month (not including benefits) on her retirement. True, she worked at the school for more than 35 years and deserves her money. She did not enjoy being a teacher, she was in it for the stability and yes, money in her “old age”. She is doing quite well in her permanent vacation.


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I have to feel sorry for someone that works 35 years at a job that they don’t like. I can’t imagine going to college for all those years and picking a profession that didn’t make me happy to go to work everyday. There’s not enough money in the world for me to do that. That’s over a third of her life doing something that she didn’t enjoy. I’m sure that she could have picked a profession that she did enjoy that also had benefits. It’s really a shame because there are people that love teaching that can’t get jobs, it’s a bummer that there are a few people like your relative taking those spots. That’s why kids need to be taught that they should always pick a major in something that they love. I have a niece that’s been waiting for three years to get a full time teaching position, she loves it.


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But most do it………………fewer people ‘love’ their jobs than wish they were working in a profession that they really loved.


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You know, I am so tired of hearing how poorly paid teachers are. Figures like this prove how well off these folks are that only work 9 months a year.


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It depends on the district.


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Most don’t complain ever. But faced with a 6% cut, complaints will be heard. Most people, whatever their political persuasion, would be upset with a 6% cut when administration caused a major portion of the budget shortfall.


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This might be why she worked 35 years at a job she didn’t enjoy: Some do; the others teach!


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We should go to year around school, 3 semesters, the kids could take 2 and then teachers and the administrators would have full time jobs, we could lay off at least 25% of them and need fewer facilities.

They could compare the income to the real world of full time workers.

Also they should go to a 401K plan like the vast majority of non government workers.


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I agree about the year round school but I don’t agree with the rest. Year round is great. Why would we lay of so many teachers, we would still need those teachers. How does year round school use fewer facilities? I’ve lived in an area that had year round school and everyone loved it.


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With 3 semester the students still go to only 2 that means that there would be a much smaller number of students in each semester by about 33%, meaning by reducing teachers by 25% and students by 33% we would have fewer student in each class so the teachers could have a better working time.

The problem is the teachers/administrators we would lay off would not be the bad ones due to union rules.


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What’s your definition of a bad teacher and what percentage of teachers in our local schools are bad?


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Let the State come in and take it over. They’ll probably get rid of the Superintendent and some other Administrators and bring in someone to oversee the Accounting as that’s where this district failed to perform on.


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How about the free market takes it over?


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“Empowerment” is a favorite Orwellianism pervading the public schools bureaucracies. Real power follows the money. So, as you suggest, let’s really ’empower’ the parents; let them spend their shares of the per pupil spending and watch the test scores soar…


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Hey, what a great idea, lets have more uneducated children. The poor kids don’t need to be educated. Aw yes, the American way, let the rich get richer, nothing but the best for them and pull the poor kids and the kids with special needs down.. Oh yeah, those test scores will soar,,all the way to the bottom.


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Tell that to the parents of 1,500 D.C. inner-city kids who had vouchers to the private schools usually reserved for the politicians’, bureaucrats’ and teachers’ children. Obama and the Dems scuttled it of course; wasn’t ‘fair.’ I guess expanding the program never occurred to them. btw, there were 10,000 applicants and they had to use a lottery system. But what do inner-city parents know?


You Leftists understand only command and control, and ever more money no matterhow badly the programs fail. In fact, failure is justification for more money.


Power follows money. The public education system has abrogated its rights to both.


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Well said, William. You should chime in here more often.


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Well, I don’t have the time to tell the parents of 1,500 D.C. inner-city kids about the problems with school vouchers, but after you become educated on this issue perhaps you can.


Studies show that only African American kids improved academically. Not only AA kids attend inner city schools and there have been studies on academics and vouchers in other areas besides those in the inner cities, the results are basicly the same. One study, can’t remember the name, I believe it was the Peterson or Paterson Study but I could be wrong was highly flawed so if you’re going by that one then you had better read up.


White kids, Hispanic kids and all other races didn’t do better academically according to studies such as the Harvard study. This wasn’t just DC but other voucher programs accross the country.


What the real studies have found is that when public school class sizes go down there is a dramatic increase in test scores and overall academic improvement, even more than those increased scores in D.C.. Guess what, the private schools have smaller class sizes, including the ones in D.C.. So if we reduce the class sizes in public schools we will see dramatic improvements in test scores and overall academic achievement.


Vouchers cause segregation. The middle and upper classes will go to better schools as the can kick in few extra bucks whereas the lower income families won’t be able to chip in so they will go to schools that are just covered by the voucher amount. So the lower income families won’t have the same chances for achievement as the higher income families. Kids with special needs won’t be able to have the opportunities that they have at public schools. Most private schools don’t offer any programs for kids with disabilities or special needs, as a matter of fact you’d be hard pressed to find any. So should we just write them off?


Private schools have no oversight. I have had experiences with private schools and the teachers were not as good as the teachers in public schools. I found out that private school teachers generally make close or just above minimum wage and they aren’t required to have the education and training that public school teachers are required to have. Anyone could be a private school teacher, even Gimlet (just kidding).


There is no oversight in the classrooms regarding the books, the construction, the curriculum etc. So yes, you might get lucky and end up at Mission Prep, if you add a few bucks to the voucher or if your are picked as not all schools do the lottery thing. But your child might end up at the Laurent (in SLO) which has had all kinds of issues. In the long run your child’s success in a private school depends on how much money you’re willing to throw in and what race you are. The best choice is to fix what we have, get rid of the bureaucracy, get rid of local school districts, tax the wealthy fat cats and lower the class sizes.


I’m burnt out with mean people. If you reply with a nasty post then I’m done with you. If you can have a mature discussion then I’m open to that.


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Oh, I see, you’re against inner-city black kids getting better eductations…


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No, sadly you don’t see. It sounds as if you were educated in over crowded classrooms.


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Precisely. Who cares about inner-city black kids getting better educations? They’ll just have to suffer with what they have. Social engineering is like that.


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Let me help you out Gimlet, you two seem to have a hard time understanding my big old long post. Too many words for you guys, so I’ll make it easy for the both of you. Private schools and vouchers aren’t the answer, they don’t help African American kid, white kids, Hispanic kids, Asian kids or any kids. The answer to higher test scores and better academic achievement is smaller classroom sizes. I hope that I made that clear. Inner City African Americans will do better in smaller classes.


‘Social engineering’, LOL. What next, how long before I’m accused of being something with an ‘ism’ at the end or Hitler?


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Your kind of help I can do withou, Typoqueen.


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As I said, The anti-capitalistic mentality on display in all its splendor.


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The “oversight” that you are referring to, ultimately, is the free market where human beings can make their OWN decisions, not some faceless bureaucracy far away which knows nothing of our desires or how real economic markets work.


I’ll make my own decisions about what education my children or I desire to get for ourselves, thank you very much.


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” ultimately, is the free market where human beings can make their OWN decisions, not some faceless bureaucracy”


Oh that’s right, I believe it was Romney that said ‘corps are people’. Blue Cross, Exxon etc. are also faceless bureaucracies. At least I have some power not much but a little over the govt., we can vote them out, we can’t vote out the med insurance co. and we have no choice we must use them.


“I’ll make my own decisions about what education my children or I desire to get for ourselves, thank you very much.”


Well, you’re welcome Gim. No one is stopping you from making your choices regarding education. There are private schools all over the place, go for it.


You guys had your chance to show us how ‘real economic markets work’ with Bush. Look what we have now. Face it, repubs have no idea regarding good economics when it comes to running a country. Their sole goal is to empower the wealthy and make the rest of us their slaves.


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Your posts seem pretty nasty, or at least needlessly argumentative. You have pissed off a lot of people here in this forum. Your many thumbs down prove it. It is “proof” that you crave, isn’t it?


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Oh that’s rich coming from you. Other than Mary the only people that I’ve pissed off are the tea bag types. The only reason I pissed everyone off including Mary in that monster thread is because I said it’s always good to wait until all the facts come out before making judgements and I was critical of the way the story was writen. I see nothing wrong with that, it is morally the right thing to do. The thumbs up mean more to you than to me, I could care less.


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Such a litany of sweeping and unfounded assertions! No proof, no links, no scholarly studies, no bibliographies…..no sense.


Hmmmmmmmm…….sounds like a lot of wishful thinking to me, or, what is worse, a lot of regurgitated brainwashing hailing straight from the public schools.


Whoopeeee.


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The anti-capitalistic mentality on display in all its splendor.


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What the central-statists refuse to get is this: a private or charter school that fails its promises to the customers (that would be the parents and kids) will close or be taken over. It will NOT be allowed to continue indefinitely with ever greater funding.


Our public-schools on the other hand are guaranteed eternal life through compulsory taxation (40% of gross receipts in Cali!) and the forced attendance by indentured students whose parents have no choice.


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Our medical insurance companies are failing us with their promises. When we buy insurance they promise that they will provide certain coverage but they go back on that promise by adding new rules after the fact. They are causing many to lose everything and file for bankruptcy. The private sector is ruining us in that respect. We have no choice we must buy insurance from thieves that can’t be trusted and that hold our lives in their greedy hands.


I don’t want to be owned by more big corps and I certainly don’t want them owning my children’s education. With all of it’s faults I still trust my govt. over greedy capitalist corps. If you want to buy your Mac from the greedy pig Apple folks then fine, if you want to run down to the Walmart and buy their made in China products then fine, we have a choice with that but I don’t want them educating my children. The cons won’t take that choice from us, it will never happen because thinking people won’t fall for it.


By Ronnie privatizing some of our prisons we now have slave labor in those prisons and it’s all to put $$$ in the prison owners protects, I don’t want them ruining our schools. Newt already wants to have our poor kids cleaning up after the rich kids at our schools. More slave labor in the form of poor kids, no way.


You have a choice, if you want to send your kids to private school then do it, you have a right to do that but I’m not going to deny other kids the right to a good eduction or make them clean bathrooms so you can put your kids in what would become greedy private corp schools, I don’t trust them. We need to help our public schools get back to being the great schools that they used to be. Our public schools worked for a long time, it’s time to revamp them and fix the problems.


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We don’t have free insurance markets. The Ins. Commissioner decides who can sell what in the states and the Ins Co.s like this because it keeps down the competition.


Have you noticed how low your auto-insurance rates are? That’s because they can engage in interstate competition.


We don’t have free markets in this country. Your beloved big-government regulators effectively keep big corporations protected by raising barriers that are difficult for start-ups, esp. in manufacturing.


You people just don’t get that ‘greed’ is a human condition and your government bureaucrats are as prone to this as Gordon Gecko, except they’re doing it with involuntary money and the lie of ‘public service.’


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You can be an apologist for medical insurance companies all you want, they are making record profits and in turn we can’t afford to get sick and people are dying because of them. The insurance commish isn’t preventing us from getting needed medical care, that’s what the insur. corps choose to do. Presently they are privately owned and it’s not working to anyone’s benefits except for the corp executives. Auto insurance and medical insurance can’t be compared. I have a choice to not drive, I don’t have a choice when it comes to getting sick. I know that your getting to the point that they can’t cross state lines but that still shouldn’t be cause to rip us off and prevent needed medical care.


Greed is human nature and unfortunately our politicians are also greedy, that’s something that we can agree on. That greed is why I don’t want greedy corps messing with my families health care coverage or my kids education. Some things are just too important to let greedy corps have control of. We can change the greedy corps from being in our politicians pockets and hopefully that will happen soon but we can’t change people from being greedy. We have more control over out govt. then we do the corporations.


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Precisely; such markets as we have now ARE NOT FREE AT ALL!


We live in a crony-capitalist state where the game is fixed from start to finish and freedom is just an illusion.


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@William, that was almost 7 minutes out of my life that I’ll never get back. I waited, I listened but not once on that video did I hear anything close to “Toms and Mammies and Oreos.” I’ll just pretend as you did that those offensive phrases were on that video. Who is that guy, I’ve never heard of him and I’ll bet no one else here has heard of him. Over all libs are pretty good but I’m sure there’s a few bad seeds. Libs can’t be responsible for everyone on the earth that’s not a con.


Can’t you find someone that REALLY said those things and how about someone that we’ve heard of, like the racist on your side of this, Newt, Rush, David Duke, Paul, Trump etc. now those are racists that we’ve all heard of, not some obscure con from Alabama or where ever that guy was from.


You know what, I’ll let you off the hook. This topic has gone way off track. This topic is supposed to be about teachers and education. Stick around and when the topic of racism comes up, perhaps then you can find some people that REALLY said those horrible things.


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None so blind as won’t see; none so deaf as won’t hear…


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William-


Perhaps you cant see the forrest for the trees.


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Who’s “we”? Why can’t other people act in economic markets as they wish without having to run up against your “collectivist” thinking at every turn?


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Be careful, William, you just challenged the cherished belief of millions in social engineering. The state is our god, only Big Brother knows what’s best for us, we’re too stupid to manage our own lives, we can’t think for ourselves……………


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Unfortunately some of you are.


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Aggressive Leftist ignorance would be a thigh-slapper if it didn’t come from people who support or are positioned to tax, regulate and otherwise destroy people who otherwise want only to get their kids educated, keep most of the money they earn and make decisions without incurring major financial risks from greed, power-hungry politicians and bureaucrats.


My girl and her uber-leftist girlfriend got the $100K ‘golden handshake’ from Diablo Canyon (and they qualified for unemployement ins.!) They were both vociferous in their support for higher taxes on ‘the rich,’ more money for schools, nationalized healthcare, you name it.


The taxes and withholds on their payouts were 46%. I’m sure you could hear the howls of outrage two doors down. Then the girlfriend turns on me, “Everyone knows you businessmen just hide all your money and get away with loopholes and just use people…” I had never seen anything like the checks these girls had.


Leftists are the very picture of the selfish, greedy conniving pigs which they so readily accuse others. They are racist as well, otherwise you wouldn’t see blacks who express conservative views derided as Toms and Mammies and Oreos.


btw,you DO know that conservatives give substantially more to charity than liberals? Check it out.


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Unfortunately, too many people like you are walking around without the faintest idea of what economics is about.


You would not know free market economics if it came up and swallowed you whole.


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@William, I guess your girl or what ever she is doesn’t quite have a grasp on what’s going on unless you are a billionaire. I suspect that you’re not the one that needs to be taxed more, you are simply a pawn trying to help those that make a lot more than you do so they can continue to pay NO taxes. I would suspect that you are either middle income or upper income, no Bill Gates though. Unless you’re a billionaire or even just a multi millionaire perhaps you should stop saying that the dems are trying to tax YOU more because that simply isn’t true. It’s your fat cat corps ie Exxon that pay no taxes that would rather see this country go down the drain rather than pay what they used to pay before Bush demolished our economy. I know I know, you didn’t support Bush, that’s the new mantra from the right but you support all of his policies including his tax loopholes and reduction of taxes for the ultra wealthy.


“They are racist as well, otherwise you wouldn’t see blacks who express conservative views derided as Toms and Mammies and Oreos.”


Who, citation please. Where did you pull this one from, sounds like you’ve been listening to right wing radio hacks. Lets see, our top dems are probably Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Boxer etc. did any of them say that? Why do I feel that I won’t get an answer? Prove that you’re not a liar and tell us who said that.


“btw,you DO know that conservatives give substantially more to charity than liberals? Check it out.”


Write offs. When you make a lot you give a lot. For some it’s because they care, for others it’s for tax purposes. I’m sure the Koch Bros give a lot to their non profits that have political agendas.


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1yAq9TDZyU Correct link.


Check out Part 2, or just listen to any black Leftists for 30 seconds or so..


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william- And this is proof of what? That some “Radio Personalities” are idiots?


Congradulations. You Win.


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In more than one posting

Rawhide says:


LIBERAL’S,

DEMOCRAT’S,

SOCIALIST’S,

Usually make it quite clear that they are amongst the smartest people around.


typoQueen, william and the gim eye, step up and claim your label.


These off-track postings indicate that youv’e earned it.


Thanks for your defense of what’s right typo.


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Who appointed YOU to play God with your fellow men?


Even if you WERE as stupid as you say, does that give anybody else the right to take away your God-given rights to make your own economic decisions?


Again, you are hardly the “neutral party” that you claim to be! Your posts reek with tried and true warfare state propaganda.


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“Who appointed YOU to play God with your fellow men?”


Relax, calm down, step away from your PC, you sound like you’re getting upset. I want to send my kids to public schools, I feel they are better, you are entitled to your opinion,,,,,,,no matter how wrong they might be. If you want to send your kids to private schools then go for it.


“Even if you WERE as stupid as you say, does that give anybody else the right to take away your God-given rights to make your own economic decisions?”


No one’s trying to take away your so called ‘God-given rights’. I’m not stopping you from sending your kids to private school. I could care less. What’s your problem?


“Again, you are hardly the “neutral party” that you claim to be! Your posts reek with tried and true warfare state propaganda”


I hope that you’re aren’t’ an example of being a product of public schools. I’ve never claimed to ‘neutral’ on this topic. I’m not judging a person that’s been accused of a crime. I have different opinions on this topic and no matter how hard you try, you can’t take that away from me. Now take your right wing talking points, have a nice lunch and maybe highdude or what ever his name is can give you something to help you relax.


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The average Paso teacher makes roughly $60,000 in salary and roughly $18,000 in bennies including retirement. For a 185 day work year that equals roughly $2,100 per week. This represents a roughly 41% increase over the last 10 years. As a practical matter once tenured you can never be fired and the retirement plan is generous.


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Sewer, how many hours per 5 day work week does your example use? Hopefully not 40. Because any teacher will tell you that their profession is not a punch in-and-out 9 to 5 job.


An average teacher is on campus before school starts and after the bell rings, say 7:30am until 4:30pm. That’s 9 hours a day right there=45 hours a week on campus.


Yes, there’s a lunch break but often that is NOT a leisurely lunch. It consists of helping students w/homework, doing prep work, advising a campus club or attending conferences w/parents because that’s the only time they’re available. Oh, then there are the mandatory faculty meetings before/after school (which can be a complete waste of time.)


It’s not over, Sewer. Then there’s the many, many hours spent out of the classroom–grading papers, maintaining gradebooks (paper & online), having parent/student conferences w/at-risk students, writing letters of recommendations for students who are applying for scholarships or internships, chaperoning school dances & extracurricular functions, helping at snack bars for school events, staying after school for 30 minutes to help Billy master his ABC’s because he zero academic support at hme… The list goes on… You don’t think teachers get paid extra for all of THAT, do you?


Oh, and the 8 weeks of summer vacation–hopefully you realize that MANY teachers aren’t lounging around by the pooliside. They’re working one or two part-time jobs so they can pay their mortgage. I know teachers who work as summer tutors, give music lessons, do yard work, and even work as restaurant servers just to make ends meet. I do not know ONE teacher who’s in it for the money!


But, when all is said and done…most teachers do their job well. They love what they do. They care for kids. Teachers have 30-35 bodies in their classrooms with different needs, personalities, academic skills and family issues and try their best to help those kids LEARN.


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Very true, rarely have I seen a teacher take a real lunch break and never just a short regular break. As you said, they are usually eating an apple while monitoring the kids or as you said working with the kids in the classrooms. Also during the summer they must come up with their class plan for the following school year. I don’t think that people realize what a difficult and stressful job this is. As far as high school forget it, I would go crazy (no wise cracks). Those classes are so over crowded with hormone induced teens that think that they know more than the teacher, I couldn’t do it.


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I know,first hand, more than a coupla dozen teachers. And I can tell you for a fact that none of them are underpaid. I can tell you from first hand experience that they do not routinely work the long, extended hours that they want you to believe they do.


Pasoparent, I ask if you know the assertions that you make from first hand experience? Because I do know that the picture you paint of working lunches, after hours work, and teachers that have to work part time jobs to make ends meet is NOT the norm. If at all, portions of what you describe are exceptions at best.


I can not count on both hands and both feet the number of teachers that I have directly heard describe that one of their main reasons for going into teaching is because of the hours and vacation time.


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I can tell you from first hand experience that what pasoparent says it true. I’ve spent years working very closely with many many teachers. I also have a few friends and a family member that are teachers as well. In some districts making ends meet is challenging. I have never ever met a teacher that was in the field of teaching for the reasons that you state, never. They do it as a calling and because they love it.


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First, I never claimed teachers were “underpaid”. In some states that is true but I think most districts in CA offer fair salary/compensation pkgs for credentialed teachers. (With that said, I also think most administrators are grossly over-paid for the amount of “work” they do; I’m in favor of implementing some kind of voucher system for public school students; and I don’t think that “bad” teachers should be immune to being fired just because they’re tenured.)


Second, yes my assertions are from 17 yrs of first-hand experience. It’s baffling to me that you know “more than a couple dozen teachers” yet none of those 24+ folks could relate to the very true scenarios which I wrote about. I guess within any field, there are employees who put in minimal effort or just enough to get by. Honestly, that would describe about 15% of teachers I know or have worked with but 85% of them really do work long, extended hours during the school year.


Third, if someone goes into teaching because of the hours and vacation time, who cares. As long as that teacher is hard-working and effective during the school year, Aug-June, it’s irrelevant to me if what their motivations are for taking the job.


.


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But to clarifiy one last thing, sloweb–as typo alluded to–working in the field of public school education IS so full of stress, difficulty and challenges. Most teachers I know DO feel a “calling” to their profession & that’s why they hang in there; it’s not for the pay & time off.


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