Is the economy really getting better? This is the question being debated daily on the daily financial news. Why don’t we discuss it a bit. It is kind of important! (more…)

Tags: economics, markets, supply and demand

Education, banking, common sense, economy | 2 Comments »

I’ve posted about the school system in LA before, but this caught my attention

In the jargon of the school district, Kim is being “housed” while his fitness to teach is under review. A special education teacher, he was removed from Grant High School in Van Nuys and assigned to a district office in 2002 after the school board voted to fire him for allegedly harassing teenage students and colleagues. In the meantime, the district has spent more than $2 million on him in salary and legal costs.

Last week, Kim was ordered to continue this daily routine at home. District officials said the offices for “housed” employees were becoming too crowded.

About 160 teachers and other staff sit idly in buildings scattered around the sprawling district, waiting for allegations of misconduct to be resolved.

Why do they sit idly by you ask?

Although there is no specific reference in the contract to housed employees, an attorney for L.A. Unified pointed to Article 9, Section 4.0, which defines the “professional duties” of a teacher, such as instructional planning and evaluating the work of pupils.

With no mention of photocopying, stuffing envelopes or answering telephones in the contract, the district and union have interpreted this provision as prohibiting clerical duties.
“Why would we denigrate [teachers] by forcing them to do something they’re not supposed to do?” said A. J. Duffy, who is now president of UTLA, adding that housed teachers are entitled to a presumption of innocence.

Umm, how about because they are supposed to be teaching and it was their conduct that took them out of the classroom? In the case of the teacher highlighted in the article he had 4 sexual harrassment complaints (at least two from students) over the course of two years. All said this school system is paying160 teachers $10 million a year not to teach.

Tags: Education, taxes, union

Education, taxes | 1 Comment »

I’ve often thought that if a school district could fire teachers for not doing their jobs then maybe they could hire those that could and maybe pay them what the market would bear, which would be good all around.  I came across this article in the LA Times (its a long one, but worth the read).  It had tons of good information, but a couple of passages I wanted to point out

Meanwhile, said Kendra Wallace, principal of Daniel Webster Middle School on Los Angeles’ Westside, an ineffective teacher can instruct 125 to 260 students a year — up to 1,300 in the five years she says it often takes to remove a tenured employee.

and

“The hardest conversation to have is when a student comes in and looks at you and says, ‘Can you please come teach our class?’ ” she said.

When coaching and other improvement efforts don’t work, she said, “You’re in the position of having to look at 125 kids and just say, ‘I’m sorry,’ because the process of removal is really difficult. . . . You’re looking at these kids and knowing they are going to high school and they’re not ready. It is absolutely devastating.”

The article has a lot of things that defies common sense, like evidence collected at the beginning of the processes is often not admissible as it goes on because of the lengths of these proceedings, to the fact that these things are so costly and long that some teachers get promotions while they are happening and others get to simply offer apologies for things like ‘touching’ their swimming students.

There is an ironclad system in place to protect these teachers.  Teachers who, according to one example in the article, could not put together a lesson plan for reading and math.  I know there are good teachers, I’ve had some, but there is no reason that teaching should not be like any other job.  I cannot imagine going to work every day, performing poorly, and my boss taking 5 years to fire me.  Its outrageous, and in this case it is a generation of Americans who are losing out so that a few teachers can collect their retirements.

Tags: union education

Education | 1 Comment »

From RedState.Com

Now, with time running out on the DC voucher program, and proof in hand of its success, the Obama administration and Senate Democrats actively prevented the public from learning the truth about this program designed to pull poor minority children from failing DC schools until they had successfully terminated the program.

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) attempted to save the voucher program by offering an amendment to the omnibus spending bill that would have removed the provision ending the “D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program” after the 2009-2010 school year. Democrats opposed to That amendment was defeated by a 58-39 vote.

Given a chance to put its money where its mouth is on a program that had been proven to be successful, Senate Democrats and the Obama administration instead chose to hide the evidence of that success in order to push their radical ideology that forces continued failure on poor, minority children and families in order to placate powerful unions and to perpetuate the cycle of government dependency within one of the Democrats’ most sickeningly reliable voting blocs.

You can see the referenced report in full here and also get a summary here.

I don’t know how else to read the substance of this story other than that the democrats care much more about their constituents (in this case the Teacher’s Unions, not people with kids) than actual, you know, parents.

Education | 3 Comments »