I Hate the Fucking Teachers
 

I absolutely agree. If teachers choose to use their money to pay private school tuition for their kids, then I think government should make private school tuition available for everyone. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

You Get Out What You Put In
 

This makes absolutely no sense--are you saying that any person who does not undertake a risk of earning zero salary doesn't deserve to get paid? Glad to hear that the salad days of the GA are done for.

You Get Out What You Put In
 

My kids will go to private school because its the easiest guarantee of getting into a solid college. Again, you get what you pay for. Personally, having gone to private and public school, the only difference I ever saw was quality of available drugs (favoring private, of course), but the college market dictates that I must purchase the brats some prestige, so what the fuck. What else am I going to spend on? I hope I won't be drinking and blowing cash on crap by that age...

I'd really prefer to set my kids up with an apprenticeship with a developer in the area and give them the money I'd spend on college, because I think prestige colleges are a scam these days, but selah... that ain't going to happen. I LOVED college and it'd be unfair to rob the kids of the best and only four year party they're ever going to see.

You Get Out What You Put In
 

Uhm, if you want a nice government job where you help people solve problems, I might be able to help you get in. I like you that much! It starts at about 45K, decent benefits. Sometimes people die. But you save on the newspapers you won't want to read anymore, so that's gotta be worth an extra $500 or so. You have to smoke to work there, so hopefully that's not a problem.

Mostly, you deal with people who are asking the government to do what they should be doing themselves. Mostly, its because our stupid fucking government volunteered to do things for people that they should be doing for themselves. Sorta like an "if you build it, they will come" type deal, cept its more like "if you promise to take care of people's problems for them, they'll call you when they have problems they don't want to take care of".

You Get Out What You Put In
 

Yes, that's what I'm saying. I'm also advocating that we invite bin Laden over here for a summit and get moving on the Mars landing.

There are measures of risk we take. Teaching is the epitome of low risk. No law school/med school/businss start up costs to absorb. No major time investment (don't even try if you're going to argue about getting certificates). Its a low stress gig with commensurate pay.

And stop twisting my words to absurd conclusions. If you want a debate, fine, but don't jack me off with dodgy disingenuous retorts. You know goddamn well I didn't advocate everybody having to put everything on the line to get paid.

I Hate the Fucking Teachers
 

I don't disagree that a teacher send his/her kid to private school is a rational choice in many cases. Nor, as I mentioned, do I think that it's a problem that can be solved by some sort of intervention. The only way to get more teachers to send their kids to public schools is to make the schools better.*

You nail the problem on the head: the issue is that the kid's education is dependant on so much more than the individual teacher's efforts. It depends on the administration, the community, the good people making curriculum decisions for the Great State of Texas, and perhaps most importantly, other teachers, whom a teacher can observe every day, and whom a teacher knows suck.

Nonetheless, a GM line worker isn't responsible for but a small piece of the car he buys either (if even that). I know from anecdotal data that this same impulse keeps some teachers' kids in public schools where they would otherwise go to private. Which is good, because on average teachers' kids are good for schools.


*The in no way involves charter schools or vouchers, both of which may improve the education of certain kids, but which will certainly harm the kids whose parents don't or can't advocate for them. I pose the hypothetical: does anyone on the board think that vouchers and charter schools will increase the number of teacher's kids going to public, non-charter schools? NFW.

Collateral Damage
 

Presumably you read the full statement accompanying the veto and didn't rely on the "laudable but unnecessary" blurb of newspaper writers, correct?

You Get Out What You Put In
 

Never mind. Reading comprehension blip.

You Get Out What You Put In
 

Yeah, God forbid we pay them. After all, all the teachers have done is put themselves on the front line out of a mere sense of dedication. We certainly shouldn't reward them for educating our children, or dealing with issues like teen pregnancy, drug use, gangs, etc.

I too, believe in capitalism. Unfortunately, it speaks ill of our society that it values what I do more than what the people who teach my children do. There is certainly more utility to me spending my days figuring out ways to save a multi-billion dollar company millions of dollars so it can pay huge dividends to its British owner than there is in teaching kids to read and write, to become contributing members of society, and all too often, how to stay alive.

Sebby, this post of yours is another SD classic.

Liberals want to ban your Bible.
 

And in related news, House GOPers have placed to a vote today a federal law forbidding courts from ruling on challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance.

We've had the earlier debates on the constitutionality of this kind of jurisdiction stripping, so I won't belabor them here.

But could someone please put a leash on these fools? The Supremes already slapped down challenges to constitutionality of "under God," and Our Leader has assured us that in a second term the judiciary will be filled with Right-Thinking Judges.

So be cool. No need to bend and break the constitution when help is at hand to save the country's oppressed Baptists.

Coming soon to a suburb near you?
 

Asshole of the month.

Coming soon to a suburb near you?
 

No matter what you say, I don't think she'll sleep with you either.

You Get Out What You Put In
 

Hey, don't get me wrong... I wish it were different. I'd love to teach and give up this shitstain career, but hey... I've got these cards. These are the rules of the game, so I have to play. If I want to eat at nice joints, I have to put up with the excuses for humans who permeate this field (and most similar fields) like lice on a bum's scalp. I can't get together with buddies and demand more, so why should teachers be allowed to do so?

But I will grant you this... I'm not half as offended at teachers getting more than I am at govt workers getting more. At least teachers aren't purposefully dragging on the economy and suckling at the subsistence teat.

You Get Out What You Put In
 

Oops. Sorry for stealing your schtick. But you seem to think that the sole determinant of pay is how risky income from the job is. While, sure, that's one component, but there's also a value-added aspect that greatly outweighs the risk involved. While teachers may add little value, I very much doubt you think that, seeing as you're willing to pay sizable amounts of money to put your kids through private schools (which, it has been shown, do not themselves add much to ultimate income).

You Get Out What You Put In
 

Who are these government workers of which you speak? The ones fighting in Iraq or defending the country elsewhere? The ones who will douse your housefire after you leave the joint blazing on the sofa? The ones you don't want teaching your kids in public schools?