Posted on 03/08/2010 4:50:19 AM PST by Kaslin
Karl Marx insisted that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce. It seems that at least some of California’s teachers are determined to prove him right.
Last week, teachers in the San Francisco area planned to take their students out of school in order to attend a protest about proposed cuts in education spending. According to a piece in the SF Public Press, children as young as five years old were slated to attend under the auspices of their schools, until the superintendent quashed the idea because of safety concerns.
Aside from the disturbing specter of children being used as political props by their teachers, the spectacle is ludicrous. Reportedly, the rally’s “big slogan” was supposed to be “save our students, save our teachers, save our schools, save our future.” Ironically, that’s what the spending cuts are designed to do – even as state government employees continue to stand in the way.
It’s an ugly fact of life in California. Public sector unions are slowly, painfully and inexorably choking the life out of the (once) Golden State. Fully 54% of state government workers – that’s almost 1.8 million people – are unionized. And the unions’ primary reason for existence is maintaining the privileges that state employees enjoy, at any cost to the rest of the state.
According to Certification Map (a site devoted to explaining the teacher certification process across the country), a California teacher’s salary is 145% that of an average worker in the state (who works 12 months per year!). What’s more, California teachers are the most highly paid in the entire nation, even as the state teeters on the brink of fiscal collapse. And yet, the prospect of any cuts to state government spending elicits nothing but a storm of protest.
It’s an ugly pattern that’s repeated again and again. In response, Democrats in the state legislature simply vote for tax increases. (Perhaps that’s because they received almost $17 million in contributions from California public sector unions, according to the Institute on Money in State Politics, 2004-2006, compared to a paltry $1.22 million to Republicans during the same period.)
But raising taxes isn’t the answer. California has already endured an exodus of talented, productive taxpayers – and along with New Jersey, the state imposes the heaviest tax burden per capita in the country. Hard-working Californians need a tax cut, instead.
Don’t count on any relief coming from a state bureaucracy that has become completely enmeshed in the culture of government spending. Just last month, a left-wing judge decreed that the governor could not impose simple 3-day furloughs on state employees who belonged to three powerful public sector unions. In other words, a sensible, much-needed method of cutting spending was taken entirely off the table by judicial fiat.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the system, as it exists, is unsustainable. The state’s fiscal crisis is reaching proportions that will require real and significant cuts to avoid an economic meltdown. Making the changes necessary to save the state will necessitate resisting the destructive influence of public sector unions. And that's fine. It's long past time that public sector unions start working to serve Californians, rather than demanding that Californians work ever harder to serve them.
90% of education costs are teachers’ salaries. If the teachers really gave a damn about their students, they’d accept paycuts to make up the difference.
Let collectivist Colliefornians wallow in their own crap. No bailouts for states. (Yeah, I’m from Michigan...mired in my own muck.)
Defund/dismantle/disconnect all collectives and incarcerate their members when appropriate.
Think again about 90% being teachers salaries, I live with one and the administrative load on them is tremendous. They have little if any supplies and piss poor leaders who shuffle children about as chits to get money, those like my wife who care are not rewarded for their efforts.
The movement is to pay for outcomes but you must have the right machinery (not admin) in place to do this, I have considerable background in providing training for companies. It is broken for sure. but on the other hand we need to create and promote an alternate system not focused on employment of poor performers but awarding excellence.
Charter schools and their ilk are the only hope for now and we must break the hold Unions have on the system.
i encountered a recent high school grad, now an employee
at a supermarket deli who did not understand
what a 1/3 lb. was.
he said he wasn’t good at math, and that customers had
helped with learning 1/4 and 1/2 lb requests.
I believe the decline in education in California began when the courts determined that schools should not be financed by local property taxes (which meant that the locals had control over the schools). Instead all funds first go to Sacramento and split up to the various school district.
As always the golden rule applies, who had the gold rules.
Power over the schools shifted from local control to state control.
Personally I think schools should be controlled by the local government. The parents of the school children would have more say over what was going on in the schools. As it is, with the state having control (and in this I mean the Unions) reforms are difficult if not impossible.
Currently over 50% of California’s budget is mandated towards education (all levels). This is wrong on so many levels, the least of which is nothing should be protected from budget cuts.
The public employee unions have set it up so that everything goes one way, up. What they did not figure on, a roller coaster ride begins with a slow ride up until it reaches the peak and then plummets down.
The public employee unions are almost to the peak. I hope they enjoy the trill ride as the world they created at the expense of their fellow Californians comes crashing down.
We could put the entire curriculum on the equivalent of YouTube with lectures by the best teachers in the world. Then set up testing stations in strip malls and graders in India. We'd make a PROFIT on selling the system worldwide.
Shut it down. All public education has become is a babysitting service.
Local control will not fix government schooling.
Local control may not fix everything, but it would fix somethings.
To begin to fix schools is to make public employee unions illegal.
Second thing, get the Federal Government out of the schools
Third thing, return control to the locals.
...the list could go on, but as it is, none of those options are even on the table, as so schools will continue in decline.
Gooberment schools are for teaching drones how to sit in a cubicle.
That is the way they are today. That does not mean that is the way it has always been, nor how it has to be in the future.
its the benefits and the pensions that really anger me....my wonderful sister who I love retired in her mid 50's with a great big pension and medical for her and her husband AND despite having 1/2 the year off for 30 yrs, she still got to claim gobs of "sick time" pay....
lawsuit funded by the WEA of course...
and it will result in more pay for less work....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.