First, thanks to all of you that have sent links regarding the Rahmaland teachers strike.
Reports the Chicago Sun-Times:
Thousands of striking Chicago teachers flooded the Loop Monday afternoon, rallying for a new contract on Day One of the first Chicago teachers strike in 25 years. A river of red-shirted teachers clogged South Clark Street during their march to the Chicago Public Schools headquarters, waving banners and chanting....
“It’s amazing, it’s overwhelming,” said Jackie Nishi, a teacher at Marvin Camras Elementary. “It’s overwhelming how many people have shown up — parents, students, staff. Hopefully, this will move people forward into a decision — a decision that will help teachers as well as students.”
Said Diane Guzzo, a teacher at Darwin Elementary in Logan Square: “I’m just so impressed with the power of this march.”What is lost on these street crowds is that Rahmaland teachers are about terrible schooling, forced schooling, regulation that stifles competition and that Rahmaland resident funds are forced through taxation to pay off these bureaucratically created incompetents.
Shouldn't these raging lunatics for a minute take time to explain why the students in their classes end up being the same children who are shooting each other in the hood, who rampage through stores in flash mobs? These incompetents have these kids for hours after hours during the day, and the only thing we all can see for it is gangster shootings, flash mob thefts and an inability of most these kids to find jobs at or above the minimum wage.
These massive clueless teachers seem to have no idea how government stifles education and cuts the chord between education and pay. No one in their right mind would pay for what these teachers offer, if it wasn't taxed away from them and funneled through the crony bureaucracy. If the coercion wasn't there, there wouldn't be a taxpayer in Rahmaland that would turn over a penny to these government hustlers.
There's no indication that any of these red shirted screamers understand how pricing is a signal on the free market that directs the development of products and services to the most competent and that this is all stifled be government bureaucracy and regulation. That because a government bureaucracy is first and foremost about political payoffs and the maintenance and growth of power, quality anything, including education is not even on the list.
The red shirted screamers don't care about quality education, they are about mass power to get more through government. That's why in the Sun-Times quotes the teachers are all impressed with the number of screamers that have showed up.
Rather than giving them raises, this crowd should all be fired and education should be allowed to bloom on the free market. Then will see if any of these screamers actually has enough skill as a teacher, that some one, of their own free will, would be willing to pay them.
"No one in their right mind would pay for what these teachers offer, if it wasn't taxed away from them and funneled through the crony bureaucracy. If the coercion wasn't there, there wouldn't be a taxpayer in Rahmaland that would turn over a penny to these government hustlers."
ReplyDeletePerfect.
Brown shirts would be more appropriate for them, methinks.
ReplyDeleteA teacher shows up at our picket line dressed in all black (as he always does). He says did not have red, I said to him in fascist Italy it would be appropriate. He understood and laughed.
DeleteThis is the danger when people know the government can simply 'create' money. They then think that it costs themselves nothing and they should rather fight for more of it. Not only are they hurting their children crippling their educations, they're robbing themselves and their children in the process as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's sadly humorous. Very sad. I was talking to a friend about this and she was so angered saying these people deserved more money and maybe they would be 'better' teachers if they were compensated accordingly. Where's the logic?
First off where does the money come from? Oh yeah the tax base.
Who benefits? The teachers- NO ONE ELSE.
Does education improve? Most likely not. Other costs will have to be cut and teachers will feel as if what they were doing already was adequate. After all they just 'earned' a raise.
Love reading EPJ on the picket line today...got me through the day. The whole concept of a teacher offering a service and having customers like any other business operation and being held accountable with certificates of performance called "money" is so alien to a public school teacher that if suggested the response is always "but what about the poor kids...". I have to say that at our school we have some very smart people and know a lot of stuff, but they are wasted in this impossible environment where many of the students are the real lunatics.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile we are stewing in a cesspool of socialism and I am getting my piece of the shit.
And this is why I pay taxes and private school tuition for my kid. Private school is cheaper than daycare in most places, and the education is actually worth paying for.
ReplyDelete"Force our community at gunpoint to give us more money!"
ReplyDelete"Force our community at gunpoint to give us more money!"
"Force our community at gunpoint to give us more money!"
The teachers and the students aren't that much different after all.
"Shouldn't these raging lunatics for a minute take time to explain why the students in their classes end up being the same children who are shooting each other in the hood, who rampage through stores in flash mobs?"
ReplyDeleteThat's a bit harsh. Take one Chicago school worth of those teachers and plop them down in another town with a low crime rate. I think you would discover these teachers don't cause their students to become thugs and hood rats. The problem runs much deeper.
It's not the teachers. It's the system.
ReplyDeleteAre the teachers part of a solution?
Nope. They are part of the problem.
But they're not the core of the problem.
Mandatory publicly funded education is a disaster.
These teachers would be useful in private systems.
But these potential systems have been co-opted by the public system, which has the luxury of demanding its tuition at gunpoint.
But you all know that.
As Eric Peters asks: "Throw it in the woods?"
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI am very disappointed by certain areas of this post. You seem like a smart enough man to avoid the mistake of lumping all individuals of a city together into one group, especially when it comes to children!!
My main issue with this post is this segment: "the ONLY THING we all can see for it is gangster shootings, flash mob thefts and an inability of most these kids to find jobs at or above the minimum wage."
MAYBE YOU HAVEN'T LOOKED HARD ENOUGH!
All of your points apply to certain individual youths in Chicago, it is COMPLETELY UNFAIR to the of other children who have worked hard to have a positive impact on their communities even with the reduced opportunities available to them growing up in Chicago.
Just because the "news" only reports the negative aspects of life in Chicago, does not mean there aren't amazing children in Chicago doing productive and beneficial activities in their communities.
One of the main ideas I have taken away from your school of thought (which I a firm believer in) has been to never lump individuals together under labels. This is exactly what you have done here and I was very disappointed by it.
While I agree with your theoretical points, you have been too harsh in your language towards children in Chicago. THEY DESERVE BETTER!
Sincerely,
Nate Wilson
natetwilson@gmail.com
I am puzzled but relieved. Long time readers may remember both Wenzel and Block backing the Wisconsin teacher unions last year. I won't go into the details since they are pretty embarrassing, but let me say their position was the silliest thing I have read until Block's evictionism. In any case, good to see Wenzel has returned to the light side.
ReplyDeleteYou should have one of these massive teachers edit your paper. Your grammar is terrible.
ReplyDeleteI was taught my grammar in public schools from these type teachers. Fortunately, I studied a lot on my own to eliminate the most glaring errors. You should see how my former classmates write.
DeleteGrammar is certainly important, in the same way that wearing nice shoes and a nice necktie is important. But try to sell your perfect grammar in the marketplace, and see how much people are willing to pay you.
DeleteNothwithstanding his occasionally imperfect grammar, Mr. Wenzel is able to command top dollar for the market insight and analysis provided through his daily alerts. I'll choose him over the grammatically "perfect" economist any day, hands down.
This is actually a perfect illustration of what is wrong with public schools. Rather give our children skills that people will actually pay for in the real world, public school education focuses almost exclusively on traditional "general knowledge." General knowledge is no doubt important, but you cannot feed your family with "general knowledge."
If school were truly subject to market forces, most parents (and children) would choose high schools that offer at least as much marketable skill training, as they do general knowledge instruction.
@ Nate Wilson. Believe it or not the media *does not* hardly cover any of the violence and problems in Chicago. It goes nearly entirely unreported in most of the country. One must actively seek out that information to find it.
ReplyDeleteYou do raise one good point. The children of Chicago do "deserve" better. They deserve to have access to high quality teachers and instruction, which will only ever be provided by ending public entitlement schooling and having all parents pay a tuition for their children. Once the parents have some actual "skin in the game" they will not accept that a school is nothing but a babysitting service. The parents will demand their children be taught, or they will send their children elsewhere. There will be more accountability at home, and more accountability for teachers. Also once the babysitting function of schools is dispensed of all of the thug troublemakers will be out. Education is NOT a "right", it is a "good and service" that you purchase like any other, and if you decide to start fights or cause trouble you will get kicked to the curb.
Now let's analyze the effects of this system:
Taxpayers: WINNERS! Their tax liability is drastically reduced.
Students: WINNERS! More accountability of teachers and parents only helps out students.
Parents: WINNERS! They will be in a revenue neutral position, pay fewer local taxes but have to pay a tuition each semester. It will take more time to be more active in their child's education, but their children will be better educated for it. If that is the reason you send children to school in the first place then you come out a winner.
TEACHERS: LOSERS! Only in the sense that the market will set their wage rates and they will have accountability. Most of the public teaching slobs in a district like Chicago would not be able to find work within 5-7 years, but that is a good thing. Teachers in the United States have become some of the last educated and highly compensated workers in the country. They go through joke college curriculums. They teach joke high school curriculums. They know very little about the subjects that they are supposed to be teaching. And they are paid a gargantuan wage rate for the relatively minor education and skillset they possess.
Off topic, but I will say that if we ever go completely command economy, the one benefit will be the absolute destruction of the public teacher wage rate. They currently make more than phds in most fields. What a joke. No completely centrally planned economy would pay a lousy public teacher more than an assistant professor. No free market would either. Teachers like the artificial niche they have carved out for themselves.
Pretend I am a surf instructor. Let's say 20% of my students never learn to surf and 1 each year die trying to learn. If I went on strike for more money would I get support?
ReplyDelete