$10 Billion Public School Bailout Unnecessary
by Kyle OlsonUnions moved one step closer to receiving their own bailout Wednesday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the U.S. House back from recess to vote on a stimulus bill for unionized public employees.
The House will vote to create a $10 billion “Education Jobs Fund,” a euphemism for a public school bailout. Those aren’t my words – that’s American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten’s line.
And Pelosi made a telling admission when she announced via Twitter, “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs…”
It’s not about student achievement. It’s about protecting the adults.
Public schools have a spending problem, not a funding problem. Pelosi and her regime are perpetuating the problem at a time America literally can’t afford it.
According to The Hill, Pelosi’s action came about after urging from a public employees union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Taxpayers must now foot the bill for the demands of unions and the politicians that kowtow to them.
We look forward to members of Congress returning to the campaign trail to explain why this action was so necessary.
The unions and Pelosi should drop the mantra about putting children first. They should admit that this bill doesn’t include one penny for student needs, and is designed to spare teachers unions from having to make wage and benefit concessions.
At least then, for once, they won’t be accused of completely trashing the truth.
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63 Comments
Hey here's an idea; how about putting the COUNTRY FIRST!
Will the bail out ever stop? They will only stop once the govt is paying for every thing and we are sending 100% of our earning to the govt for them to spend as they see fit.
Socialized Utopia
This is about whitewashing the books for crooks!
Public employee union pension funds have been egregiously underfunded for decades and the mob bosses in charge of them want to erase the paper trail between them and congress to avoid prosecution.
In most of these pension plans the "employees" are only paying 3 to 6 percent into their plans and the states are paying out 5 to 8 times what the "plans" are worth!
In many states and municipalities the "employees" pay NOTHING into the "plans", the taxpayers foot the entire bill.
This is a get out of jail free card for everyone involved, mainly democrats in congress and their mafia pals that have been stealing taxpayer money for decades.
The public pension pig is dead and not even P.T Barnum would attempt to convince the people he could resurrect it.
P.T. Barnum had common sense and knew when he was going one parlor trick too far, congress doesn't.
Follow the money!
Screw it. Let's all get gov't jobs.
Stop talking like this Kyle, this is for the children…dammit! …wink-wink-nod-nod…
Pelosi is as bad as any terrorist that wants to harm America and it's citizens. Most likely worse!
The unions didn't get single payer so they could sluff off all their health care cost on the Gov. so they have to go to the well "FOR THE CHILDREN". So transparent even Pelosi has to know WE SEE YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE!
Come on Nov. This madness must be stopped.
Olinsky said over and over that the Recovery Act, 800 Billion, was IMMEDIATLY needed to protect police, fire fighters and teachers jobs, no time to waist we had to have this bill passed now….well there is still 450B left over one year later and now we need another 26B??
Pelosi is just protecting her comrades in Big Education. Like the licensing requirements in the post below, these bureaucrats are putting regulatory hooks and pumping money into 'schools' of all kinds, because that's how they fund their machine.
A-B-C-D-E-F-G
All of us should stand together in solidarity
Never mind that our students don't learn
As long as we get our pay check we have no concern
As long as the union assures or continued prosperity
Teacher's unions are no better than SEIU
Cute pig. I did not know Pelosi could look that good!
The kicker here is that we do not need taxation to fund public education and we can end the tyranny of fraud and the lack of transparency, accountability and responsibility any time we like. There are alternatives to the failure of public education that would truly liberate our people and give us the outcomes we seek. Of course I would admit the downside to the alternative requires we actually do it as opposed to talking about it…
Conservatives are going to have to wise up to the point of being able to say 'enough is enough' to the hoodlums holding our children hostage in order to have their hands in our pockets…..in a way that even the skull-full-of-mush voters can understand and support.
The Dems are stooping lower than I ever thought they would. This is just another vote buying scheme. Keep the union members happy and they will vote to keep their wallets filled with other peoples money.
Our government has a disease!
Hey… Big O. Wasn't the tarp bailout last year… the one that hasn't been completely distributed yet… was going to save and create jobs in emergency services and education?
Hmmmm. Seems like the only jobs that are being created are the ones that you, Nancy and Harry are doing on the taxpayers.
Initiative and ingenuity die within bureacracies, the unions are no different, especially the public employee variety.
Public employee unions are an abomination to the true and beneficial process the concept of collective bargaining is meant to produce. When the rank and file OWN the management, there can be NO GOOD FAITH NEGOTIATIONS, and we the tax payers foot the bill for the corrupt product.
Unions and the dems are screaming about the 'injustice' of the Citizens United SCOTUS decision when in fact the real real travesty is public employee unions being able to buy politicians through their lobbying and campaign contributions,,,,using dues money that should be used making their pension and benefits plans whole.
I am sick of Obama bailing out every corrupt, embezzled union fund out there. Talk about 're-distibution of wealth',,,,its already happened.
As a Teacher, I can tell you that we do NOT need a bail-out. What we need is to stop the hemorrhaging of money with no accountability. Examples of wasteful spending that I have personally seen (I have to be careful in my examples, though, because retribution for speaking outside of the bldg is alive and well in education):
*Rooms full of technology equipment ordered but never installed into classrooms, going on 12 months now.
*Over 1/4 of our budget is spent on Special Ed. Really. That's the dirty little secret that no one wants to talk about, because who wants to pull money away from special ed kids? But they are draining our budget. And it's federal law.
*Considering ADHD and Behavior Issues as special ed issues. (This is HUGE, and a giant waste of money and time.)
*Hiring "teaching coaches" who do NOT work with kids, who only work sometimes with teachers, have no extra qualifications, and essentially serve as secretaries for the administration (depending on longevity, some of these "Coaches" make $60,000 and interact with kids maybe an hour a day. But you can trust them to decorate for the dance during the school day or go to lunch with the visiting central ofc admin!)
*Use of color printers for letters home to teachers and parents (yes, it's a small thing, but trust me, it adds up)
*Lobster & Crab dinners for School Board members before each meeting (this was put to a stop by a responsible board member, but went on for years)
*Brand new vehicles for the Central Office in THIS ECONOMY
*Failure to plan appropriately for classes that require training – so for example sending brand new teachers to AP or CAD training that includes hotel, flight, and meals. It needs to be done, but why send a brand new teacher? So very many of them leave that we just spend the money over and over. Poor planning.
*Having too many administrators/supervisors at the Central Office Level. They sure are good at going to lunch every day…sometimes on our dollar!
*Poor Administrator Accountability – contrary to popular belief, teachers CAN get fired. But Administrators rarely bother to do the paperwork to get rid of poor teachers.
*More and more paperwork required by the feds that eats up teacher (and principal) time. Paperwork doesn't teach kids.
*Hiring "Highly Qualified" teachers with Master's Degrees and then not allowing those teachers to do what they are trained to do. Why spend the money if the teachers aren't allowed to do what they are "Highly Qualified" to do?
*Spending thousands and thousands on the next "great" program, and then finding out that it doesn't work, so spending thousands on the next one, and the next and the next.
I could go on and on. Public Eduction is BROKEN. This bailout isn't going to fix it.
(I have to say: Lots of fantastic teachers are treading water trying to teach and teach well. We deserve our salaries. But in a tough economy, EVERYONE feels the pain. Why are govt employees exempt? Like so much else in our economy, we might not have to, though, if we cut out the waste and nonsense.)
Our children in public school are being educated in mind, and not in morals, and it is having the desired effect – if one is a liberal democrat.
Last years Economic Recovery Plan that was "needed IMMEDIATELY" to save teachers, firefights and police jobs still has 421B remaining of the 787B ….and now we need another 26B in emergency funds??
Obama; "It starts with this economic recovery plan". " it will help Governor Ritter and Governor Strickland not have to lay off firefighters and teachers and police. Because when they get laid off, not only do we lose services, but maybe they can't make payments on their home. Maybe they get foreclosed on and the economy goes down further."
That's way way way too intelligent for this administration. : )
Good post, thank you for the insight.
We need to reward teachers who speak out against the fraud and waste not punish them. How would we do that?
I've been recently wondering… How does any of this help my children? They may be footing the bill, and what do they get in return?
Does running up this debt to pay for teachers who already make much more than in the private sector – does this help my children?
We need to re-prioritize government. Why don't unions teach kids about America being worth preserving?
Why does Obama not allow choice in schools?
Why do some Americans get a government sponsored leg up with Affirmative Action, while others don't, and who makes that decision? Are we really giving a leg up to the people who were actually hurt in the past, and if so, when do we know when the debt is paid off?
My children aren't benefiting, but if there were a good reason for the program, I'm all for justice.
In fact, I'd go further. This country owes $13 trillion right?
I'd rather pay it myself than have my kids pay it.
That's $100k per household, roughly. Why don't all Americans DOUBLE their work effort, and why doesn't the government cut spending in HALF for one or two years, until the debt is paid off. We as parents owe it to our kids, let's pay it off or pay it down NOW.
I want to do justice by our children, so let us do it! Let's just pay the debt down to an acceptable level and leave our kids with a decision of whether to pay it off or borrow more. That's our decision, and if we choose to borrow more our kids don't get the freedom to choose for themselves later.
" Will the bail out ever stop? "
Nope! As long as we have money they will continue to tax us to death until they have every last single penny.
10% is good enough for God, but not for the Govt. Go figure!
Yep… seeing how the money is going to bail out socialist/union controlled sanctuary cities that are now on the verge of bankruptcy because of the pyramid pension funds schemes…. the breadcrumb trail isn't hard to follow.
That's what this is all about. The only ones that benefit are the first generation in the pyramid scheme. Maybe Jeremiah Wright is unwittingly right…. the chickens have come home to roost. And now they have to rape the taxpayers and economy to keep the scheme going a little longer.
This is all about paying for votes from the past and buying votes in the future.
Damn it,…….
I should have stayed employed in the public sector (Chicago Housing Authority)
Nobody told me that there are never recessions when employed by the government.
Good post and thank you for your service as a teacher. I come from a family of teachers and know the stuff you're talking about, such as: Anything tagged "special needs" gets more money flowing so no child is left unlabeled.
If bet if we gave each teacher $9000/child/year and 20 kids for starters, I bet you could teach them plenty if you got to keep anything you didn't spend. Especially if you got 2 new students per year until you maxed out.
That is because the govt is doing what God is unwilling to do. The govt is willing to take care of all aspect of a person life, while God will give you a direction but not tell you how to get there. The govt wants you dependent on them to survive while God wants to figure out how to survive for yourself. Govt does not want you to be able to think for yourself while God not only wants you to think for yourself but he teaches you how to think for yourself.
agreed, why do we need to put up ANY more money when the money that has already been allocated has not been spent and particularly when the money already in the unspent stimulus was originally intended for this purpose anyway. Pure and simple this is dems using the excuse to spend even more slush money on THEIR partisan supporters, as has been ALL the other stimulus money.
We already have those right now pwoz… and the "Education Jobs Fund" is our paycheck for this week. We all work for the Government now. Too bad… the payroll deductions and taxes are larger than the wages earned.
Amen….. well said Mijowi.
Btw…. "Screw it" pwoz? Whoever said we would get to take turns doing that?
Ok, I work in public service. That said, why is it that everytime there is a budget crunch, all you ever hear the politicians say is well, looks like we're gonna have to cut firemen, police, teachers, etc.? My Department accounts for about 10% of the workforce, Dept. of Social Services accounts for over half! Why don't they ever say, well, looks like we're gonna have to stop paying a few social workers to hand out your money to the non-productive class? Nope, it's always the public service jobs that are actually valuble to society as a whole that are the first to go.
But hey, as far as teachers go, as long as they keep pushing commie propaganda in the classrooms (they sure did in the public schools I attended) rather than actually teaching useful skills and American civics (those programs were always getting cut so we could have more time to learn about how to put on condoms and such) I've no problem cutting there either.
If we gave each teacher $10,000/child/year and 20 kids for starters, I bet they could teach them plenty if the teacher got to keep everything they didn't spend on supplies.
Bonus: If their 20 students all pass the standard exam for their grade for the year — they get 22 students for the next year, and so on, until they max out. The best teachers would soon be renting out extra space somewhere.
They'd be teaching the efficiencies of the free markets at the same time.
.
It's called "reparations" inde76. Just part of the big screwing. Maybe taxpayers are finally going to get the "education" that has been coming for a long time now. Problem is we are getting the final exam before we take the course…. I just wonder what our grade point average will be.
These liberal types hand out money to all the losers to fake an economic recovery. Well, guess what. The money has run out! The economy is going into a 'double-dip' recession and the president and family are on vacation! WTF?
Great idea! Too easy and it takes out the union…never happen!
I've always wondered why they cut the police and firemen. Oh, yeah, the public gets scared and agrees to higher taxes. Seems to work every time! Damn these liberals!!!
This is to bailout the pension funds. Glenn Beck did a show on this bill, pension funds and sanctuary cities last night that was filled with the bottom line economics of sanctuary cities–the numbers came from the city books.
Bankrupted By the Pension Pyramid http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article...
When I first saw the picture I thought this would be about Kagan!
The 0bama Stimulus Package: Over 5 million unionized government jobs saved!
Wait, you mean you actually work in a non-union job in the private sector? To heck with you, then.
"….using dues money that should be used making their pension and benefits plans whole." Yes SK,
and as I see it this $10 Billion is an oStash to be used in the 2011 reelection campaign by the
oRegime. These poor saps in the UNION rank and file see this as their pay-off for supporting o
and some probably even believe it will go into retirement funding, but considering past history,
it seems merely to be lent to the UNION for safekeeping until the oRegime calls for it, to use for
campaign expenses.
Essentially the American taxpayer is funding the Democrat Party's reelection campaigns through
these various UNIONS.
And the UNION retirement structure resembles the old 80's style PYRAMID schemes, where the
UNION must continue to expand to support current retirees. I believe 19 current members are
required to support 1 retiree. With manufacturing leaving the US, this pyramid style structure is
unsustainable.
I wonder if that is why the Rafke Bros are now organizing in South America, hoping to be able to
support their pyramid in the USA with uneducated UNION members in other nations.
.
Thank you for posting this! It's refreshing to know that not all teachers stand with the unions on the picket line, until they get more money for the school…especially when the schools don't use what they already have! Gee…sounds just like the government, sitting on all that stimulus money!
It is a good likeness, isn't it? She truly is a real porker.
The dims are so low that the only things holding them above ground are the buttons on their shirts.
The senate has passed this bill and now it's back in the house for the rubber stamp. Wanna try to stop it? Call your reps, both dim and repub, and let them know that their political lives are hanging by a thread; and, if they vote for this trash, they better start looking for a new job. Especially go after the dims up for reelection. It's worth a try.
Read this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/1006...
It reports on a study showing that computing technology in education often actually makes academic performance worse. This is not surprising, but insights like this are simply ignored by the education/industrial complex.
We know that this bill is not about "the children". If it were, the teachers unions would be begging to fire the bottom 1/3 of their membership.
Amercia better wake up by November or its going get ugly…
I kid you not there was an article in our local paper last night about how the school district needs to spend $1000 per child so they can save $4000 to $16,000 in the future?!?! The reporter didn't ask why or how or are you insane? WE HAVE NO MONEY- PERIOD. The entire country is full of idiots who think we can "spend our way out of this" because they heard it on the news, that's what the feds are doing, but, ahhh they can print their funny money- we can't.
Madame Speaker continues to rob Peter to pay Paul, and Peter is getting really ticked off. I'd say she's between a rock and a hard place while perched above a hot place. Come on San Francisco, you got it in ya!
For starters, just making sure that their jobs are protected. The good teachers just want to teach the kids.
I know teachers that could do great things if you gave them half that much per child. Heck, I taught 4 years in a "rich" district's middle school, 25+ per each of 5 class periods, and my salary was about 4 kids' worth per your schedule. Can we get you voted onto the school board?
Unions must fail or our Republic will fail, you decide. Either way, its gonna hurt. I vote to save Our Republic. Damn the Unions.
Here is a link to the money that each state spent per pupil in 2003. That number is an average, many Title I schools spend much more than that, while suburban schools spend less. http://putourkidsfirst.com/kidsfirst/nat_money.as...
It ranges from just below $5,000 in UT to just below $12,000 in NJ. I promise you that if the regulations are thrown away, teachers can do it more cheaply and with more parent choice. Sometimes tradition just holds us back – or makes us all the same. Turn teaching into a capitalist venture instead of a socialist one. If parents can choose the teacher, and teachers are in charge of their own budgets, things will tighten up. And the students will win, because if parents get to choose the teachers, the teachers will have to be good, or they won't get any pupils! There are tons of ways to do this…it just needs original thinking.
Ahhh…unions in general are a tough issue for teachers. Like any other group, teachers are not all the same! But most of us do belong to the association, because we are afraid of a kid suing us, and unions are very good at providing protection when that happens (even for teachers who deserve to get sued, but there are LOTS of cases where the kid sues maliciously or frivolously). And because many districts allow the union to take fees regardless of whether or not a teacher belongs. So of course teachers join – if you have to pay anyway, you may as well get invited to the annual party…
Is it right? No. But it's not a battle that I can win, so I go along to get along.
AS this is evolving into a theme….. Pretty soon unless you can show your UNION card, you will not be able to conduct ANY kind of trade or business. This all brought to you by the same cast of characters that won’t carry an ID that shows they are a legal citizen.
Unless we start marching in the streets in protest… unless we are willing to stage a huge across the nation boycott, of all things…. Government bailout, this regime will continue to rape, pillage and plunder every single private enterprise and private business they can get their greedy mitts on.
So sorry, Dave. First glimpses of that have been post-poned until November, but then we have to wait for two more years after that unless we wise up and put a Congress in place who will do the right thing- impeach the evil dictator of the U.S. I know some will say that is too harsh, but I have to agree with Bob Livingston on his salient points in this must-read: http://www.personalliberty.com/government/the-end...
Those are angering words from Odictator. Last I checked, we Ohi y'all-ins were paying for firefighters, teachers and police out of our ever-growing property and other taxes. If the gubmint ganstas are keeping double ledgers, then we really need to crack down on that and find out why he thinks we ought to be taxed twice to pay for all of these "public services"—-twice?!?
Meanwhile, the education systems are way overdue on a serious reboot.
She's full at the moment. Don't wake her or she'll start on another pork trough rampage.
Metro Transit Authority NY– 600MILLION in union overtime pay
news local-beat
MTA Spent $600M in "Overtime Abuse:" Comptroller
Many MTA workers make more from overtime than from base salaries
That means many MTA employees more than doubled their salaries through accumulated overtime pay.
That is the terrible thing about unions…you usually have NO CHOICE…it reminds me of the '30's mob rule everywhere…
Once again the ruling class plays the do as I say, not as I do game. It is hard to believe that Obama's popularity is even in the 40's. It will continue to plummet with no vision for US. The tea party wants freedom from an over bearing government, and an arrogant leadership in Washington.
I'm a public school teacher for 10yrs after working in private schools for 10 yrs previously. I went to public schools because I couldn't support my son and myself on the private school salary . The first private school I worked at was having a hard time paying the teachers and we sometimes had to wait to get paid. I also didn't know from yr to yr if I had a job. Benefits were negligible.I had to have a job to pay rent, bills etc…
We have talked about qwar5's idea, as teachers – yeah my opinion is that unions have been a necessary evil to get some semblance of job security, pay, benefits etc… Trust me what we get as teachers in an urban school is a tradeoff for listening every day to students yelling at us to f*** off, "I'm gonna bash your head in the wall b****h etc… I saw so much blood this year after one fight, the entire hall smelled of it pooled on the floor- a war zone. You tell me what that is worth in pay- Parents have told me" don't call me unless he really does something bad." That's the kind of thing we deal with every day. and I'm just making ends meet paying my house that is worth less than half of what I paid for it, a car, bills, classes to keep my certification. I could go on and on. I don't know what the answer is myself.
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