Democrats delay Indiana House amid Union protests

Tribune-Star ^ | Feb. 22, 2011 | AP

[Military family member]

INDIANAPOLIS — The absence of Democratic legislators from the Indiana House extended into the afternoon with several hundred union members at the Statehouse protesting Republican-backed labor bills.

Speakers at a midday rally today told the union members that Republicans had declared a “war on labor” with proposals restricting teacher collective bargaining and so-called right-to-work legislation.

[1010RD]

10 year old kids were stopped from working 12 hour days, 6 days a week [in a factory]...

Which was an improvement from working 16-20 hour days 7 days a week on a farm.

[Monorprise]

As a general rule i would not conflate a love of government with our own base nor those who would be inclined to side with our base.

Simply put Government shut down is of limited concern. The insulting issue here is our government is forced to “negotiate” with labor unions on how much of OUR money they must spend.

[Military family member]

The problem here is that teachers throw out the idea of merit based on measuring the performance of students as if this were the only criteria. How is it that every college in America manages to offer merit pay? There are hundreds of possibilities here beyond tests scores, graduation rates or other similar methods.

Teachers like to pretend they are above such things as techniques that businesses have used to improve every other industry. Well, they work in education as well. Here are some ideas.

The teacher volunteers to stay after school every night to tutor students for free deserves merit pay. The teacher who makes a home call to check on a student gets merit pay. The teacher who earns a masters or a doctorate in his or her field (not an education degree) deserves merit pay. The teacher who writes a textbook, or a scholarly article, or who makes a professional presentation at a conference deserves merit pay.

These are just some possibilities. I'm sure you'll find the teacher that does any of these actions probably also has pretty good students in the classroom, and I'll bet those students excel.

Take four students--One gets straight A's is on honor roll every semester, great kid; Two gets straight C's, struggles a bit, but is hanging in there; Three gets D's and F's but hasn't really given up yet; Four is a Straight F student, a juvenile delinquent, and a bully. At the end of the semester, will each student receive the same grade? No, of course not.

If those four students were teachers, then not only would they get the same reward, the unions would file lawsuits in heartbeat to defend No. 4's right to really suck as a teacher. Certainly none will receive a dismissal letter.

There is the problem. Putting in place a system that rewards those outstanding educators and punished those who basically occupy space inside the building.

How much better would our schools be if we could rid the schools of those No. 4, the ones who not only fail, but refuse to try, and hinder those who are trying. Let's leave behind a few here and there, instead of trying to bring the entire system down to the lowest level.