A CONSERVATIVE TAKES ISSUE WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH

The Cypress Times ^ | 2/24/10 | Anthony Horvath

[Patriot1259]

Rush Limbaugh is on record protesting the fact that public school teachers are only paying in a fraction of the millions they take out in retirement, cheering on new New Jersey governor Christie. As the spouse of a public school teacher, I think some clarification is in order.

[gwilhelm56]

another diatribe from a UNION THUG to get the Propaganda spouted properly??

[sig226]

Unintended comedy alert:
"Let us say that the teacher started teaching at 22 and did so until he was 62, making on average $50,000 a year. This is 40 years of income totaling $2,000,000. What did the teacher contribute to his salary?

Uh, nothing.

Mr. Horvath appears to be unaware of the results of New Jersey's public education.

[writer33]

Yep, definitely another diatribe from another Union thug is well said, gwihelm56.

[updatedscreenname]

IMHO, at some point those that are getting more than they put
in plus interest, will wind up on the other side of an equal protection court battle. Aside from inflation at 15% or more, I don’t see any other way out.

[petercooper]

One idea that would be really fun is to link each student with his teachers and then once the student enters the workforce, the teacher receives a small percentage of whatever that student earns- for life.

So most teachers in the inner city wouldn't earn extra b/c 1/2 of the moron students don't even graduate. What a yahoo.

[PGR88]

This is why a crash and bankruptcy is the only logical course for State Budgets in NY, NJ, CA, etc... and entitlement spending.

EVERYONE believes they are “entitled” - not a single person will be convinced they should receive less. The argument we hear again and again is “I worked hard for my Gov’t pension, health care, etc..., and it is MINE.”

There can be no compromise on this issue, so the end game will be to take the present system to collapse.

[Tublecane]

The problem with deciding whether or not teachers put in less than they get back is that there’s no way to quantify what they put in, because there’s no way to decide what they put in, because there’s no market, no customers, and profit or loss, because it’s not a business.

[teddyballgame]

Yeah, this guys a “conservative”. Give me a break. Pay my wife a $100Gs/ year or let her make a slice of what my kid makes when she graduates H.S. and goes on to become successful. I got news for you pal - my kids successful inspite of her teachers. I think you’ve been listening to your wife too much or attedning to many after shcool teacher parties.

[Grunthor]

A UNION CLINGON TAKES ISSUE WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH

[kabumpo]

My mother was a teeacher in the NY city schools and I don’t think anyone knows how much extra time they work — after school hours and weekends — preparing lesson plans and grading papers. My mother was also the advisor for the school literary magazine.

SHe hated the union and all the admininstrators — they only made her job more difficult —
she, and all teachers,faced constant danger from violent students — the unions and the schools don’t step up to protect teachers from thug kids — and for years after she retired she got letters from former students sating that she made them understand literature in a way tht changed their lives.
She’s 95 now and eking out an existence on a tiny pension
that barely covers the cost of her daily life.

[fightinJAG]

There’s a pattern here. It’s always “cut everyone else’s benefits but mine because I earned it.”

Thus, proving exactly why it is so difficult to wean anyone -— and I mean ANYONE -— from the public teat. Not a slam. Just a fact.

[teddyballgame]

Maybe she should have switched jobs. Just a thought.

[skeeter]

Even as an obvious sleight-of-hand this explanation fails.

[gwilhelm56]

Central Valley HS in Rhode Island... FIRED all TEACHERS
School one of worst in RI.. School Board came up with improvements... Union said “NO WAY” .. School Board just said... “YOU”RE FIRED”

Works for me.

[wbarmy]

Have you invited her to live with you and try to make her life easier?

[fungoking]

As a nonunion teacher who is a FREEPer while on break (like now) let me say that we are not all in the same boat as NJ. In Missouri I have over 10% of my salary deducted (matched by the district as part of my salary) for retirement. There is talk of the teacher withhold going up to as much as 14% to keep the system on the sound finical footing it now enjoys. MO teacher retirement is private, not government run, meaning it is much better than state worker retirement or social security. Much effort has been spent over the years to keep the government out of our retirement system. I enjoy poking my liberal colleges with the fact that while they want the government to run health care they know better than to let the same government take over our retirement.

Fellow freepers before engaging in blanket attacks on teachers and public schools please remember this. If I lived in New Jersey, or St Louis for that matter, there would be a good chance that I'd be homeschooling. Here in God's blessed Ozarks the schools are full of politically Conservative Christian teachers who like me feel called to serve in public schools. Like everyone else I'd like to make more money, but what I really got into education to make was a difference.

[frogjerk]

However, I think this is entirely the wrong way of looking at the issue. Start with a consideration of the salary. Let us say that the teacher started teaching at 22 and did so until he was 62, making on average $50,000 a year. This is 40 years of income totaling $2,000,000. What did the teacher contribute to his salary? Uh, nothing. That's kind of the point of a salary. Is it fair that a teacher can get so much in return without contributing anything to it? Is it sustainable? By the logic embodied in the quote, this is the sort of reasoning we should be employing. In fact, we may ask this about every employee in any industry. The business pays the employee and the employee does not contribute to his wages- how can this be sustainable?

I'm having trouble following this guy's logic. It makes no sense.

Part of your compensation is your benefits package. Private workers have to pay some or all of these benefits themselves which lowers their total compensation while teachers do not which raises their total compensation.

[Tublecane]

“One idea that would be really fun is to link each student with his teachers and then once the student enters the workforce, the teacher receives a small percentage of whatever that student earns- for life”

That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Aside from reading, writing, and arithmetic (which basically everyone learns), most people succeed despite, not because of, school. Oh, there are jobs like engineering and lawyering, of course, where it’s necessary. But not most of them.

For the vast majority, there’s no direct connection between what a teacher does for them and how much money they make. Where they’re born, who their parents are, and even things like where they fall in the birth order, matter as much as where you go to school, for the simple reason that those sort of things are what decides, in part, where you go to school.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that kids have A LOT of teachers. Does that mean by the time they’re in the workforce, like, 10 people will have a claim on part of their salary? That’s stupid. Know what’s an easier solution? Make the education voluntary and make the kid (or parent, rather) pay for it. Then it’ll work like everything else we buy (in other words, it’ll work). But teachers won’t like it. Not because the product will be inferior or superior, but because real work (you know, with results) is tough.

[writer33]

Yep. That works for me too. If you were in a private sector job that wasn’t union, you’d get fired too if you told your boss, “No.”