[Stoat]

The plan approved Monday calls for increases in the $23.5 billion budget currently authorized by Congress and a decrease in the number of students in each classroom. The union also is calling for a national minimum wage of $40,000 a year for teachers.

The union will push the government to move away from testing as the sole benchmark for success or failure.

Let's see...a guaranteed NATIONAL minimum wage, less work/ fewer pupils, a far fuzzier (i.e. less meaningful) testing scheme....where have I heard that sort of thing before?

[Txsleuth]

Yeah...the same people that want to make Bush more accountable...want to make it where they are LESS accountable...sure.

[JohnLongIsland]

another reason to make sure the congress stays republican.
this article once again shows that the last thing the nea cares about is students.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Many conservatives complained when this bill was passed but in the fine print were the things they now want to eliminate, meaning accountability. Produce results or lose federal funds. The chickens are now coming home to roost.

That the Democrats and NEA are against it is proof that is is working.

[Fido969]

We're spending more on education then we ever have - it is climbing at a rate of almost 10% a year...

and we are graduating kids who can't read or write, and have terrible backgrounds in basic knowledge.

The teacher's unions are the cause of that.

[Jack Hammer]

From the same paper:

Employees at Consolidated Computer Call for Raises, Benefits

The employees at this second-tier computer manufacturer recently assembled to raise their voices in a call for enhanced benefits and greater job security. Consolidated Computer, which produces machines with "minor" memory configurations and "less robust" processors, has been in the news lately as a high tech producer of machines that are slower than those produced by industry giants Dell and IBM, and which cannot handle most of the data processing tasks of those companies.

Said Karla Marx, Head of the Consolidated Workers Union, "It's true that our machines crash regularly, need constant repair, cannot handle most routine data processing tasks, and are nonetheless priced higher than those of our competitors. It's also true that there is no tech help available either by telephone or online; however, we feel that a large infusion of taxpayer-funded financial assistance will turn our company around, so that our inferior product will become the national standard."

Marx went on to say that workers feel they "deserve" increased job security, shortened working hours, greatly enhanced health benefits and working conditions, shorter working hours, and longer holidays.

"If we get what we're looking for," she said, "we can begin to turn out a product that will continue to be inferior, but do it with greater speed and in greater comfort."

[Sam Ketcham]

Won't happen; the past is prologue.

Clinton put the Red Chinese in charge of the LA posts. Instead of removing them, out conservative boy tried to put the UAE into examining cargo containers. Then there was "now bankrupt Global Crossing ballooned ... Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe even did ... one better, flipping his $100,000 pre-IPO Global shares into an $18 million windfall." As I said, the past is prologue, TOO MUCH MONEY involved or to be made in NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. There is a pattern here.

[raybbr]

This stupid "Act" has been a bane to schools and curricula. Local authorities should decide how their students are educated not the federal govt.

[bt_dooftlook]

So If I understand correctly, a national minimum wage for teachers is good, but a national minimum standard of performance is discriminatory and doesn't take into account local circumstances?