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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Mitt Romney on Wednesday detailed his education proposals in a major policy address, laying out a plan to promote school choice and reform existing laws -- all while combating teachers' unions, whom Romney blamed for obstructing many of the needed changes in the nation's schools.
Talking to a Latino economic coalition, Mitt Romney says a good education and a healthy economy are two main issues he will on focus if elected president.
Romney assailed President Obama as beholden to powerful organized labor groups during a speech to the Latino Coalition here in the nation's capital.
In his speech, the former Massachusetts governor called improving public education "the civil rights issue of our era," saying that unions favor teachers' well being over students', leading to an education system that Romney said was "third-world" in nature.
"The teachers unions are the clearest example of a group that has lost its way. Whenever anyone dares to offer a new idea, the unions protest the loudest," Romney said, quoting a former leader of the American Federation of Teachers. "He said, and I quote, 'When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of children. The teachers unions don’t fight for our children. That’s our job.'"
Romney almost seem to draw on the experience of Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Chris Christie of New Jersey, each of whom have achieved a moderate amount of political traction by doing battle with teachers' unions in their respective states.
Antipathy between Romney and teachers' unions has deep roots, though, reaching back to Romney's tenure as governor in Massachusetts, when teachers' groups ran advertisements fighting Romney's implementation of a statewide test required for graduation. Romney mentioned the ad battle, which was not in his prepared remarks, and decried unions wielding "outsized influence in elections and campaigns."
"As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America, and I won’t let any special interest get in the way," Romney said. "We have to stop putting campaign cash ahead of our kids."
Obama has stressed the importance of working with unions, an important Democratic Party constituency, in his past efforts to pursue education reform. A top adviser of Romney's suggested, though, that Romney would work around the powerful teachers' groups in implementing his agenda.
"The opposition is going to be led by the teachers unions which of course have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo," senior Romney adviser Eric Fehnrstrom told reporters on a conference call. "We are not handcuffed at all by the political limitations faced by president Obama, who is completely beholden to the union leadership."
Romney's most ambitious effort would be to greatly expand school choice programs for disadvantaged students and their parents in a way similar to the capital's D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Romney's program would allow any low-income or special needs student (in the so-called Title One category) to attend any public or public charter school in their state, without regard to district.
"For the first time in history, federal education funds will be linked to the student, so that parents can send their child to any public or charter school of their choice," Romney said.
Romney told donors in April that he hoped to dramatically reshape -- but not eliminate -- the Department of Education, and also said Wednesday that he hopes to make the evaluation of schools and teachers a state responsibility, instead of a federal one, as it exists under President Bush's controversial No Child Left Behind law. Romney said that landmark law represented a "giant step forward," but was also "not without its weaknesses."
Romney advisers said before the speech that none of the presumptive GOP's proposals today would involve new federal spending.
There were some elements of the Romney plan, though, that were still wanting for details. His plans to improve teacher quality were ill-defined; Romney vowed to consolidate federal programs designed to boost teacher quality and block grant their funds -- about $4 billion dollars -- back to states that he asserted would adopt "innovative policies" for improving teacher quality.
And Romney only briefly touched upon his plans to increase the affordability of higher education, vowing to "stop fueling skyrocketing tuition prices," but providing no specifics in his speech as to how to accomplish such a task.
The Obama campaign savaged Romney's record on education before his speech had even been delivered, declaring Romney's views on education are just the latest example of a philosophy designed to help only those at the top.
“Mitt Romney’s career in both the private and public sectors has been guided by one principle: helping the wealthiest prosper by any means necessary, even if it means undermining workers and middle class families. These are the values that he would bring to the White House and that would prioritize budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans over good schools and affordable higher education," Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement.
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There ya' go Willard...assailing the middle-class workers for being union members!
Guess you don't want their vote!...also, you're trying to change the subject from your record at Bain to the Presidents record on Education.
What did you do at Bain.....Changing the subject won't work.
FR - Romney assailed President Obama as beholden to powerful organized labor groups during a speech to the Latino Coalition here in the nation's capital.
Yet our President has stated several times that teachers should be paid on performance over seniority and the unions were upset with his proclamation.
Obama has been a total union poodle, cant deny it.
His milktoast education reforms have done nothing but reward failure .
Mit's response to everything is President Obama or he's Echoing exactly what the President says word for word as if they were his statements. You know projecting himself as the President. We have yet to find out who this Mit really is
Mit refuses to talk about his record as Governor of MA because it's so bad yet that skill set is closer to those qualification of a President.
America, when you have to hide your skill-set, by Changing your Resume as Mit is doing if it were a Regulare American submitting a Resume to an employer hiding 50% of their work experience because it's a failure, we would not be hired, and if hired would be subsequently fired when it came to anyone's attention.
Mit is playing by rules that even American Workers can't play by.
Sounds like Entitlement to me. This guy simply made up a Resume to reflect what he wanted hiding half of his experience in GOvernment.
Where's the tax returns and the Swiss bank Account?
Part of the article isn't true. He has already said how we're gonna cover the skyrocketing costs. Borrow from your parents. I seen it in a video a few weeks back.
As the Rev Al would say, "we got you there Willard".
Performance based pay sounds good. Recently I heard that members of Congress are at the 10th grade speaking level....guess they were just pushed along in school to the next grade level. Let's find those teachers and fire them!
Maybe that principal can be used in Congress. Based on the Oath of Office for Congress, how can that be enforced, since currently they are part-time workers?....nevermind.
Willard talking about Education...I thought he was for leaving that up to individual states. Didn't he want to combine the Department with something else?
Where are the tax filings Willard?......What did you do at Bain?
So Bob, it is better to be a poodle to the Koch brothers and Norquist than to be a poodle for the unions?
Lately unions have had a lot of their previous benefits taken away. They are paying more of their insurance premiums and in some cases their retirement age is extended. Some people sound like unions have been getting all they want and more. That simply isn't true. The automobile industry unions took big hits in former contract benefits just so they could go back to work. Yes, in some cases the goodies unions have gotten have gone too far but to totally destroy unions is not the answer.
...and lets not forget the sympathetic NEA official here in NJ..
The teachers union is there to protect teachers, not students. That is their function and we should never forget this. When it comes to educational resources they are looking for the best deal for their members, again that is their function, and we should never forget that.
Chilled, they like to pick on unions and yet they trump upward mobility, Mitt made millions shutting down factories and sacking the workers now he believes that Teachers will get pittance while laboring to educate our kids and yet become millionias ,making McDonald and burger King equivalent pay. There goes the middle class. Why are our CEO not making the same salary as the Chinese CEO's since they GOPers complain about union wage?
Well now that's the way to get votes Mitts - knock the unions! Let me see, no teacher, police, firefighters, UAW, no communications workers, no - oh well you get the idea - none of those votes coming your way Mitts! You just are not the sharpest needle in the case are ya?
@Unac Boston....I wonder where are those millionnaire teachers (in Willard World), union or not?
Unions fought for workers: the 40 hour work week, medical insurance, overtime pay, retirement, safe work environment, etc.
I can't understand the hatred against unions by some of the posters (maybe they're millionnaires).
Wow, Romney has said he wants to help the middle class. This is how he wants to do it, by destroying the unions that serve as the middle class' best advocate. Then it will be wages for the former middle class comparable with those paid in the banana republics, with no benefits or pensions. What a jackass! What he wants to do is to destroy public education and put education in the hands of for profit corporations, where they will have to install a revolving door in every school for the teachers who will teach the kids for three weeks before moving on to greener pastures. Where I live, public education is doing well except for our poor excuse of a governor, Tom Corbett, who feels the best way to educate kids is to destroy their funding and to cut the arts as a subject in schools.
To all of you complaining about the evil unions, quit your cushy job and go be a firefighter or a police officer or a teacher. Go be responsible for other people's lives.
You think teachers make too much? Go be one. Go get your Master's and then make an average salary compared to what you could make in a private sector with the same degree.
You want to lower the teacher's salary? Start sending your kids to schools taught by high school graduates.
No maybe he doesnt want their vote, but it looks like he wants the vote of the true middle-class who pays for all the union abominations.
BS. Unions do not care about the middle class. Unions care about their members and nobody else. That is their function. You think the UAW cared that GM was spiraling towards bankruptcy? They cared about their members wages and benefits and nothing else. They were short-sighted and GM management was weak. You think the NEA cares how much middle class taxes are going to rise when they negotiate a wage deal? No, and it's not their job. That's why the negotiator on the other side of the table should not be a union elected proxy.
Alan, you are completely wrong, the unions dont 'care' about their members and their benefits. The unions are democrats, they care to buy off people to become members for dues, that is why they provide ridiculous unsustainable benefits. Democrats buy votes with taxpayer money, unions buy dues with it.
Right Baylie, if a job in some way benefits your fellow man, you should be poorly paid according to mitt, who claims the middle class needs a break. (That means to give them a $250 tax break.) As far as giving those who serve the public a decent living wage, that is not in the cards for him. It's better to destroy people's livings to get your fortune. In his book, you deserve an elevator for your car in your house if you do it by destroying people's lives.
What about those who build people's lives or save them? Romney would call them soft hearted suckers.
Alan, NJ
You like your 40 hrs a week? You like your pee braks, your vacation time, your overtime? I suggest, first thing tomorrow morning, march to your boss' office and give up all those evil-union-fought benefits. You would not want to enjoy this "rotten" fruit of Unions, would you?
Hitler hated unions too. A little off subject, but I wonder when the corp. media is going to start reporting the story of Capital one fraud charges of $5 donations to Scott Walkers camp. fund threw the freinds of Scott Walker.
trudat - you're completely wrong, as usual. Union jobs pay significantly higher wages, have better benefits, and ensure safer work environments. They also make higher quality products, since their workers care more about keeping their jobs. If you had a job, you would know these things.
any of you complaining about Unions AND benefiting from these? That would make you a hypocrite:
1. Minimum Wage
2. Child Labor Laws
3. Paid Vacations
4. Employer Health Care, Dental, and Vision Insurance
5. Pensions
6. Safety Conditions
7. Collective Bargaining
8. Weekends
9. Sick Leave
10. Overtime
11. 8 Hour Work Day (5 days a week) or 10hr day (4 times a week, etc)
12. 40 Hour Work Week
13. Unemployment Benefits
14. Wrongful Termination Laws
15. Pay Raises
16. Holiday Pay
17. Pregnancy and Parental Leave
18. The Right To Strike
19. Equal Pay For Women
20. Laws Ending Sweatshops
Yea, that's right, Alan, NJ. Back in the 50's and 60's (when the economy rocked) over 40% of the US workforce belonged to a union of some kind. Since the 80's and Ronnie Raygun, union membership has declined and now is around 12%. Needless to say, the middle class is disappearing.
HAHAHA
You guys keep hiding behind what unions did in the early 20th century, ill keep knowing how awful they are now. Dems and libs didnt use to only be pretentious dicks either, alot has changed.
I guess you mean pretentious means educated. That can't be you! By the way, that is "a lot." My third grader knew that. "trudat," give me a break!
That a good one bayllie.......trudat##### doesn't know where his worker rights come from, but I bet he/she enjoys them.
trudat### is ignorance personafied!
No one is saying the Labor unions didn't improve work conditions. However, Labor Unions have outlived their usefulness. There is no longer a need for them. All they are doing is draining our resources. It is time to outlaw the labor unions. Why did GM and Chrysler get taken over by the Obama Administration? You got it the labor unions. Why are American cars made in Mexico and Canada, while Japanese and European cars are built in USA? Yup you got it labor unions. Why do the train tickets, plane tickets, and public transportation cost so much? You go it, Labor Unions. Why is health-care so expensive in the US? 3 reasons Defensive Medicine due to Malpractice Lawsuits, which can be fixed with limiting the damages; Government Regulations that cause you to care more about paper work than actual care, and wait for it, yup Labor Unions.
Labor unions are a relic from the bad old days. If you remove them from the equation, you will get back to Teachers, who go into teaching to help the students instead of teaching to pass tests; Health-care workers who are there because they want to take care of the elderly and sick; People who actually care about their jobs and not to get the benefits and not be able to work. Right now most Labor union members are only their to collect a paycheck and benefits and not their to work hard or do their best. they have no incentive to show initiative or work hard as they will only get the raises that the lazy workers get.
It is time for Change. We need to get rid of the Labor Unions and make malpractice reform a reality.
Benjamin - Man, you are clueless and I'm not even going to touch that pile of sh-t you've posted. Cut and pasted right from the FOX handbook on liberals. I'll just say that if you think unions have outlived their usefulness, better think again.
TO: Bob in Virginia-5210392 who wrote:
Bush never even funded "No Child Left Behind."
Employee Unions help average Americans' "quality of life" issues like getting a raise and quality health care benefits.
Obama/Biden 2012
Romney needs to try educating himself first -- learn about foreign policy, public policy, constitutional law...
But oh no, here we go. The evil "union bosses" are to blame for trying to protect labor laws and good paying jobs here in the US -- Not the vulture capitalists, hedge fund managers, multinational corporations with allegiance to no country.
And instead of b!tching about unions and feeling they have something you don't, ask why not you too?! This is GOP/TP "Divide and Conquer" yet again (class warfare among the middle class, gender warfare between working mothers and stay-home mommies, etc.). Ask why not you too! Don't be played.
TruePatriot, right on! Although rich folks like Romney don't call their groups "unions", they call them "corporations".
A distinction without a difference, because corporate members get together and manipulate things the same way unions try to do and much in the same way except that "employee unions" try to maintain fairness for Working Americans, and "corporations" get together to try to eliminate benefits to workers in order to maximize their already "record profits"!
Obama/Biden 2012
I will not vote for Obama, but you are right about corporations, I have seen a few in my work experience and talk about union thugs, corporate thugs are just as nasty, only in suits.
Just how many states are actually union states? I live in the South and none of the southern states I have lived in have been union,but they still have the same problems plaguing other states.
We do not have teacher unions here in GA, but you constantly hear people say,"if we did not have teacher unions in GA we would have higher test scores,etc." - AND WE DO NOT HAVE A UNION!
It's easier for parents to blame the teachers or the school system or a nonexistent union for their child's problems rather than taking responsibility for their child.
I expected my kid to behave and listen respectfully to the teacher and he did, I expected him to do his homework, study and make the grade and he did. It was a pain in the neck to be the parent, but that is my responsibility.
When parents start actually parenting,they'll find most of the education problems will go away.
Katheryn, you dont know the difference between unions and collective bargaining, you should learn that.
Benjamin-2070774
Of course we "don't" so people like Gingrich can go back to hiring kids to clean toilets.
Do you really believe that corporations would not try to go back to not paying you OVERTIME if there was no one there to say 'no' to them? You are naive!
truda - won't return the snark - just the facts - collective bargaining rights in GA - The attorney general opinion says the state and counties do not have to engage in collective bargaining. Georgia Code section 20-2-989 says collective bargaining is a no-no for teachers.
"Nothing in this part shall be construed to permit or foster collective bargaining as part of the state rules or local unit of administration policies," the statute says.
Union numbers have declined since Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law. All the manufacturing jobs left the US. This country lost millions of jobs thanks to NAFTA, and many of them union. So the unions turned to the public sector where politicians with no vested interest in what they were agreeing too, gave away the farm for political favors. The Democrats are in bed with the unions plain and simple.
Rick-3416939
The Union votes along with the Democrats - they share the common interest. Compare that to coroprations that vote along with the Republicans because they share the common interest. If you take away unions, you no longer have checks and balances.
For the GOP/TP, it's always the worker's fault. All those 13% union workers are to blame for all the woes in our country! Especially teachers, everyone knows they're getting paid too much! And the damn liberals destroying family values, we must force people to get married and stay married--except gays, maybe mixed race too, but you can have as many wives as you want!
We get it already!
Willard believes President Obama is the devil reincarnated!
Are we going to be subjected to 5 MORE months of his repeated attacks on the President?
When will we start to hear some ideas out of Willard?
Check out the Mark Halerprin interview with Willard.
Even though Mark has publically stated he didn't push him on a variety of his responses, ol Willard was sweating bullets!
I can't WAIT for the debates - Willard's gonna need a roll of paper towels to keep him dry! lmao!
Reforming Education and Healthcare the Romney way:
Lobotomies for all - Ensuring the masses are too stupid to care how the 'massahs' are handling things!
Stale, Pale and Male, anyone?
The GOP counts on uneducated folks to vote for republicans and against their own economic self interest. Therefor, poor education is in the favor of republicans.
That is the way to close the gender gap, Mitt----go after teachers, many of whom are women.
Oh, yes Steeler Fan, and remember, Mitt says there is no war on women. What a joke!
Education in America has two big problems: politics and inequality. Eliminate those things from the picture and everything else is comparatively simple to deal with. Leave those two things in place, and none of the other reforms ultimately matter.
Stop using education as a political football, and start taking real steps to resolve the institutional inequality of educational opportunities, and the results will be amazing.
Education has one big problem - it is a failure.
Thanks in large part to unions.
"Obama has stressed the importance of working with unions, an important Democratic Party constituency, in his past efforts to pursue education reform."
"Working with unions" means kowtowing to union bosses, to get more campaign cash. Unions before kids, that is the Democrat Party for you.
Well Bob in VA..Here in good ol Republican dominated Arizona. They control both houses and the governorship, the AG's office and the most of the county government's dontcha know.
From the East valley Tribune:
"Arizona dropped in the overall state rankings in this year's Quality Counts report released Thursday from Education Week.
The report gave a C-minus to Arizona, just below the national average of a C. Arizona ranked 44th out of 51 (Washington D.C. was included in the rankings), down from last year's ranking of 42nd".
Yup that's the ticket Bob....It's all the unions fault and yet we have open registration and mandatory testing ala Romney. Go figure.
Never confuse a conservative with the facts!
One last thing Bob...Get off the Rush Limbaugh "Democrat party" crap! It is the Democratic Party to moral and intellectual cowards like you!
Bob,
I thought Romney could bring everyone together, and Obama was divisive? Publicly stating you will work around the unions and claiming they are a roadblock to your reforms is the vey definition of divisive, and will create an even greater disparity between the "haves" and "have nots".
If it is all about the children, why cut funding for Head Start and other programs that have proven to be successful? It is not about the kids, it is about the "rich kids".
Romney is obviously a fan of the "two-tiered" system for both education and healthcare.
Well, sure, Bob. If you're a religious fundamentalist who thinks the theory of evolution is absurd compared to the myth that everything was created in its present state over the course of six days by an invisible man in the sky, then education is indeed an abysmal failure and clearly just a tool of liberal snobs to remake youth in their image, and it needs to end so that the only option for anyone is to go to a fundamentalist school like Bob's own Liberty University where they teach faith rather than facts.
Careful there, Bob; your santorum is showing.
only in your case, Big Bob lotsanumbers,...
it failed only in your case,...well and quite possibly a few of your good buddies here.
I have lived 78 years to see unions ruin masseyferguson and international harvester and force manufacturing to move out of the US to oversees where there are people willing to work.all i have ever seen of unions is a bunch of cry babies that want every thing thier way at all the rest of us expence.No union ever gave me a JOB or made a job for anyone.That is the reason for all the vacant buildings that used to manufacture things and give JOBs.Texas is a right to work state, and there are jobs here.By the way,I am one of those poor people.but I have enough sence to know when there are no more RICH people that produce jobs and pay BIG tax bills what will us little guys do then.
Right to work just means they can pay you in peanuts those aren't high enough paying jobs. Corporate profits have sky rocketed while wages have gone down over all due to a lack of unions unions are a necessity when corporations CANNOT BE TRUSTED AT ALL. There is not a single god damm corporation that does the right thing without being forced to by someone. Unions are a necessity. If Mexico and other countries would organize labor for fair wages we wouldn't have this problem. Hmm there's an idea international unions.
Romney has contempt for anyone who works for a living. If these teachers were winners, he thinks, they'd be living off investment income, not grading papers and doing playground duty.
Liberals have contempt for anyone who succeeds in the private sector, and doesnt rely on the almighty Nanny State.
You got it Probing Bob.....It's in this almighty "Nanny State" that Willard made his millions!...but then ships the money from the nanny state to Switzerland and the Cayman Islands!
Bad, bad nanny state.
If Liberals Hated America we’d VOTE Republican.
Obama-Biden 2012!
Romney also apparently likes to repeat quotes that have never been proven to have actually been said by the person they're attributed to. In this case, two minutes with Google and you will learn that:
"The quote,"When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of schoolchildren." is often attributed to (Albert) Shanker.
The Albert Shanker Institute attempted to find the source of this quote, and concluded that "we cannot demonstrate conclusively that Albert Shanker never made this particular statement... but, we believe the quote is fiction." The first appearance of the quote that they could find was in the Meridian (Mississippi) Star, August 13, 1985, which did not give a source."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Shanker
Oh, and here are some other quotes by the same Albert Shanker that are apparently CAN be documented:
"Public schools played a big role in holding our nation together. They brought together children of different races, languages, religions, and cultures and gave them a common language and a sense of common purpose. We have not outgrown our need for this; far from it." (Where We Stand, March 3, 1997)[4]
"..a lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent"[5][6]
“There is no more reason to pay for private education than there is to pay for a private swimming pool for those who do not use public facilities.”[7]
“It is as much the duty of the union to preserve public education as it is to negotiate a good contract.”[8]
"It's dangerous to let a lot of ideas out of the bag, some of which may be bad. But there's something that's more dangerous, and that's not having any new ideas at all at a time when the world is closing in on you." (Speech to the AFT QuEST Conference, 1985)"
Now really - do any of those sound even remotely like the same person Romney "quoted" in his speech today? Maybe Romney should do a little research of his own next time. Or at the very least, pay as much attention to that last one. It seems particularly apt for his campaign.
Bob, Romney hired his children's Nanny from Europe.
Romney even had an illegal immigrant working on his landscaping.
Where I come from, that's someone who doesn't love his country.
Romney has contempt for anyone that works? What a joke of a statement. Obama is the one bashing capitalism, which is after all the fundamental for which all private sector jobs are based in this country. I know lets try socialism and all live off the government. That would seem to be the logical step for all the liberals that now hate capitalism.
Socialism does work though. Sweden, Norway and Denmark are all rated as having a higher average quality of life than in the US.
MR. Romney "Where are your Tax Returns?" Your're rich so delaying the inevitable when you have significant hired help just doesn't justify the delay. Mit is pitting State & Government Workers against Private workers. Republicans are pushing this strategy. Latest Slogan, "Private workers are more honorable than State and Local workers. Bad mouthing Union workers is just none-sense. Bad mouthing teachers, police officers, Firemen, government and state workers is just ludicris!
Americans are asleep while Mit and the Republicans are causing are attempting to cause a firestorm among the Middle-class. Whether you work for the State, Local or Government is just as honorable as working for private employers. Americans are simply trying to take care of their families, they could care less about why another American went to work for the private or government industry.
Just imagine you are out of work looking for a job or you are looking to move up, Republicans and Mit are saying that American workers are turning down State & Government Jobs because they are not honorable. No Mit these workers don't have an opportunity to turn down any job because you and the Obstructionist Party have ensured that there are no jobs, placing Party ahead of the welfare of the people.
The unions were the first group in this country to ensure that Americans have a decent wage and working conditions. Having never been a Union myself even I know my history.
Perhaps that's the problem with Mit and his party constantly trying to Re-write History.
Can you imagine if you put these guys in charge there will be no Mimimum wage, wages will be what the employers decide, no health care because they are suing to get rid of it now and have no replacement just let the private insurance industry make the rules, Benefits, what benefits, Pensions what pensions, Mitt's motto, "Let the Private Industry do What It does" after all that was his reply to his record with Bain
Groups fighting for rights in this country first were Indians, Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, now they've gone much further making a division within a divsion of each ethnic group, Unions, Gays, Womens health Care, what's next?
"Bad mouthing teachers, police officers, Firemen, government and state workers is just ludicris!"
"you and the Obstructionist Party have ensured that there are no jobs, placing Party ahead of the welfare of the people. "
Another proud graduate of the public school system. You make Romney's case for him, thanks.
SandiLove, Right on! You know that the righties say they hate big government and then they want people to work for the government or not. They don't seem to make up their minds. To get a government job has become more difficult lately because of major cuts at all levels of government. Workers in the public sector are working twice as hard for pay that is less than their private industry counterparts. There are good and bad things about unions like everything else. We should encourage the good and HELP them dump the bad.
Many, if not most, Silicon Valley companies are not union companies but they are struggling. Meg Whitman the CEO of Hewlet Packard and former Republican nominee for Governor of California manages her company so poorly that now she is announcing a huge layoff. Thousands of people world wide will get their pink slips becaue Whitman, running a company that is not a union shop, screwed up. She screwed up other companies too.
To pay the public employees like fire fighters, police officers, the people at the DMV where you license your car etc. we need to have revenue. When people have jobs they pay taxes and taxes are revenue. Instead of obstructing everything the current Administration has done to promote job growth the right wants to do everything it can to obstruct even more. When fewer people are working and needing more government services because of it the revenue generation for those services must come from somewhere. That would mean raising taxes but the right doesn't want to do that. So what is their plan? More of the same....cut, cut, cut both revenue and taxes so what we have left is a 3rd world country where there is a small exceedingly wealthy class and a huge exceedingly poor class with very few in between. Feudalism should have died centuries ago but there are some on the right that seem to want it back for some reason. Rather than moving foreward into the 21st Century and beyond they want to go back to the 15th Century. Not unlike the Muslim extemists who would love to be back int he days at the peak of the Ottoman Empire when Islam was spreading like wild fire on three continents.
SandiLove,
Great Post!
Thanks
Romney is a terrible, bad, greedy, lying, cheating and all around completely bad person.
To have Romney elected President would be a bigger disaster to the United States than the Great Depression.
Romney is the best chance we have tp save the country from the mess obamas made - obama being the biggest disaster thats ever happened to this country. Being sucessful doesnt make you greedy or selfish , turning a profit in business benefits EVERYTHING around it. obama wants to take us down the road to ruin - just look at Greece
We ARE looking at Greece. After Bush's reign ...backed up with 30 years of republicon trickle down economics...starting with BUSH..Europe has about gone under...and still IS. They have managed to save the countries so far, but how long can they hold out?
If Romney wins, you MUST come up with a meal plan IMMEDIATELY...some way to feed yourselves. Buy pots for growing vegetables...canning supplies...ANYTHING to keep you from starving. It may come ANYway, the damage to the economy was SO GREAT under Bush. President Obama has tried to hold it all together. We MUST stand behind him so that he can continue to make the many small steps that is needed to turn this thing around. We MUST vote out EVERY republican we can and put people in who use their OWN heads, not what some corporate giant head ORDERS them ALL--every one of them-- to do. If Romney is elected...PREPARE for the worst. If it does not happen, then you can STILL grow vegetables. Another thing you can do is purchase a freezer and have a beef slaughtered for meat and packaged. He SCARES me and he SHOULD scare YOU.
Depends on how you got your money and success if your only success was in taking apart companies and selling them off and shipping jobs over seas then damm right I'm going to attack your so called success because that makes you worse than a vulture. Mitt Rommney has proven that he has no ethical principle and I'm not even going to get into his attack on gays lesbians and other people and his defense of tradition. Anyone who even says they are going to defend tradition is an idiot who needs to be clubed over the head, as is anyone who attacks unions.
Whats truly pathetic is you never really see a Teacher fired unless their sleeping with a student. They shuffle the bad ones around within the district. If they can't do their job then they need to be fired but that doesn't happen; and we wonder why our education system is messed up.
How do you determine good teachers versus bad? Standardized Test scores?
I think everyone agrees we should reward good teachers and eliminate the bad ones, the difficulty comes in determining a fair way to know which is which.
EXACTLY you can't always blame the teachers at some point you have to put the onus on the student and on the PARENTS. That is what is most important is having a parent or parents that push you. A teacher can only do so much.
I'm just talking about the ones that don't do their jobs, show up for work late, etc. Lets start there...
This just in: Rich vulture capitalist is anti-union.
In other news, the sun rose in the east this morning...
"prioritize budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans over good schools and affordable higher education"
That is the Obama campaign response to EVERYTHING! Class warfare,and lies..
"tax cuts for the rich , instead of ..."
Give it a rest. Dems support unions over poor inner city kids, who are stuck in failed schools, and the Dems wont give charter schools a chance.
The liberals want to spend more and more taxpayer money down the rathole of a failed education system tp pay off ther union bosses, instead of reforming education to help kids. .
Mitt Romney know it all. He doen't know much of anything but has an opinion on everything. When the Republicans scraped the bottom of the barrel they came up with Romney. He's obviously still a bully and if elected President will do a terrible job. Bashing the Teachers Union won't get our kids educated and privatizing school will ultimately lead to a nation of nincompoops who are uneducated. We are spending a fortune on building schoo0ls in Afghanistan but have no money for our own schools. Go figure. All of my children attended public schools and received an excellent education and went on to post graduate education. My only concern is its getting too expensive and state schools w=should be tuition free (+ no fees).
Assailing teachers those who taught you, your kids, your parents, their parents, those in congress, Medical Schools, you name it is just irresponsible. There will always be a bad apple in any industry, teaching is no different. Without teachers you or your kids or relatives would have the jobs you have today. When bad apples occur in any industry you handle the situation period, not project their behavior on to the entire profession.
Stop talking about teachers, is that what you do on your job, when you have a bad apple lable the entire staff "Bad Apples?"
No, if you have a bad apple, that apple is ushered to the door, before it spoils the whole bunch.
thetotas-
Really? Where do you work? In my experience in the corporate world unless you do something egregious you dont lose your job, and some of the most useless people I know are the ones who get promoted.
CityBizlist of Boston reports that Satcom CEO Steve Rhodes got a 29% pay hike while his company lost 38 BILLION dollars in one year. So we punish teachers, most of whom are great, but reward some failure of a CEO with a huge pay hike? How does this make any sense. That CEO should be on notice that things need to turn around and fast or he will, not only not get the huge raise, but may well be canned.
I work for a Development Firm in Newport Beach, and I see it all the time. Would you consider violating the dress code, excessive phone use, abusing the attendance policy egregious?
Spoken like a true public union employee who thinks people cant and dont get fired for nothing.
Adler - was that CEO paid with taxpayer money?
WIsconsin, Teachers, Firefighters, Policemen, Postal Workers, State Employees, now you can be assured of what you future will be under a President Mit!
Thanks Sandie - Educate the people. Mitt is Bad News no matter how you slice and dice him. Grover Nordquist has already said, they just want someone to SIGN. Isn't that what we had with VP Bush?Because Chaney and Company were really in charge.
Well of course, since mom and dad are working multiple jobs, for low wages and no benefits, and so are the kids, as soon as they are old enough, there is no one at home to help the kids and to ensure they do their schoolwork, so it must be the teachers union at fault. Obviously when people get sick and are not able to cured it is the nurses union fault. The decline in public education is directly proportional to the decline of middle class incomes and the fact that most households now have both parents working to make ends meet, and the kids pay often the price. We had teachers unions when our educational system was the envy of the world, so what has changed. Why blame the teacher because the kid plays video games all night long and no one makes him or helps them do their homework. Nobody wants to go there but the truth is that the big problem with these kids and their education is not their teachers, it is their parents. Mighty strange that the party of personal responsibility wants to blame the teachers union for the failure of the parents to fulfill their personal responsibility towards their children. Show me a parent who is involved and sees to it that their child does their school work, and I will show you a kid that has no problem getting a good education from the public school system and unionized teachers. The fact that the teacher belongs to a union or not has virtually no effect on the ability of the students to learn and their performance in school.
Hi Forrest,
I knew this would get you going. Hope all is well with you and your family.
Thank You Thetotas, my mother in law has terminal cancer, so we are all just trying to do the best we can for her, and keep her comfortable for the time she has left. My immediate family is fine.
I am so sorry to hear that, I will keep her in my prays.
I beginning to hate that expression "What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger" Sometimes I raise my fist to the sky, and yell how much stronger do I need to be, enough already!
Take care.
Amen Forrest!
I find the ones who yell the loudest about teachers,etc. are the same parents who want rules to apply to those kids, but they want someone else to do the hard work of raising their child. And that attitude seems to cross all lines.
Sorry MITT you are still NOT SAYING ANYTHING OF SUBSTANCE. Still making it up as you go and RE-INVENTING President Obama.
If anyone can talk about education and the power of having one, it is President Obama. NOT someone like you who had the money to go to Private Schools all of your Life and did not have to worry about whether you made the GRADE OR NOT, because daddy could always DONATE A BUILDING.
So instead studying you had time to be a BULLY and then Bullied your way to success, DEMONSTRATING A LACK OF SENSITIVITY to the Average Person. As a Presidential Candidate you have demonstrated a lack of SENSITIVITY TO THE AVERAGE PERSON.
As far as education for the Masses and Public Schools, you MITT, COULD CARE LESS. How many times Do you have to prove it to those sitting on the FENCE of voting for you or President Obama with your Support of the Ryan Budget which DOUBLES COLLEGE LOAN INTEREST, and Cutting Teachers jobs and DEMONIZING THEM and you support this WHOLEHEARTEDLY, and then you tell Kids to Borrow the money from their Parents after you, Mitt, and other Vultures Sweep in and Ship Jobs overseas and DEVOUR Companies.
The Choice should be CLEAR. It is NOT YOU MITT.
Mitt could be the most spoiled, well-off individual on the planet, yet he is completely right, unions are a burden on students getting a good education. You union hacks dont care about the students only your freebies.
Why are unions so afraid of performance pay?
And why arent you working 48 hours a day trudat6445 instead of posting on here? Oh...it PROBABLY because YOU, like everyone else, had BENEFITED from the unions PROTECTING decent rights for middle classs workers...like time off to...sleep...or eat...or blog.
Good call cj, they were useful in the early 1900s, that must make them relevant now.
They certainly are relevant. The middle class is disappearing because their voices (unions) are being silenced by the likes of you. You don't belong yet you reap the benefits. So now watch even more of your benefits disappear as the unions are destroyed.
You are becoming irrelevent and there's less and less to stop it from happening.
Apologies to those reading the foreign policy story - I posted this comment there by mistake. I hope people wake up and see this for what it is - a gutting of public education, and a creation of a caste system of education. The teachers unions simply aren't the problem - most states have such tight restrictions on the unions that they have little of no effect on public education policies. And still the redest of Red states have the same poor education (worse in many cases) as the bluest of the union Blue states. The problem is that local funding and control creates disparities and state control favors suburban/ex-urban schools over inner city and rural. It's not even remotely a federal problem. What Romney wants is to do nationally what the Blue states don't want to do on a large scale - create charter, voucher schools. It's nothing new to the old South. They created a separate school system in response to desegregation. After years of the states abandoning the inner city schools, along comes the GOP nationally as the "white knight" offering the charter school as the way out. This all could have been done under existing structures, but as seen in Wisconsin, the real target is the teachers, administrators and local school boards. In the end, suburban schools with solid property tax bases will have the amenities. Inner city schools will be bare bones. The real victims will be the border line districts which will see out flows of parents and students who can move to better suburbs.
Schools will be run privately - just like prisons, and we've seen what a great job that has been. The rich will get a break with vouchers,but it won't be enough to do jack for anyone else.
Obama is responsible??? I thought that education was the duty of the state.
BS
TO: Doug-384925 who wrote:
George W. Bush took over with his "No Child Left Behind" B.S. so that Bush could take all that money OUT of education, and spend it on drilling for oil in Iraq.
Obama/Biden 2012
CAPTAIN1 - go waste electrons somewhere else.
The Department of Education does nothing to further education throughout the United States. The Department should be abolished and the money given to the states. One size fits all, as required by the federal government, does not work and it should be left up to the states and local school districts. I only major problem I have with the teachers unions are they put the welfare of the teachers above those of the students. I further think parents have to get more involved and quit using the schools as a baby sitting service. If students don't listen to the teachers or do their assignments or are disruptive they should be removed from the class. Local principals, not the school district, should be able to hire and fire teachers in his school.
BS the federal government needs MORE control over eduaction NATIONAL standards for education rather than state by state basis ONE national test used by all schools given at most once every two years should suffice. I am NOT a fan of states rights at all.
The Department of Education does nothing to further education throughout the United States. The Department should be abolished and the money given to the states. One size fits all, as required by the federal government, does not work and it should be left up to the states and local school districts. The only major problem I have with the teachers unions is they put the welfare of the teachers above those of the students. I further think parents have to get more involved and quit using the schools as a baby sitting service. If students don't listen to the teachers or do their assignments or are disruptive they should be removed from the class. Local principals, not the school district, should be able to hire and fire teachers in his school.
Billionaires hate unions for winning a work week of just 40 hours, achieving a living wage, causing billionaires to share the luxury of health care with workers, actually living long enough to retire and collect pensions, putting their damn elbows on a negotiating table, as if they were important, and causing great expenses on safe working conditions and free Band-aids.
Unions encouraged the same issues for all wage earners, and thereby reduced funds for building castles in Scotland. Good thing the government subsidies restored the lost wealth, along with private corporate jets. Unions must be crushed or the wealthy may have to start calling workers personnel again instead of human resources, sort of like machinery and raw materials. We just need to find a way to stop workers from wasting our time eating lunch and taking vacations. In the good old days that was unheard of, unless somebody wanted to be killed.
Speaking specifically as a former Union-worker (at a grocery store here in Minnesota), I can tell you for a fact that all the union did was take away a good chunk of my paycheck. I was paid weekly..before taxes, I grossed about 200 dollars a week..now, take away taxes, and then 70 dollars PER check for union dues..at the most, I'd get to keep about 100 dollars. The mandatory state, federal, social Security taxes actually were LESS of the total deduction, and the union dues were the MAJORITY.
So, don't tell ME or try to convince ME that the unions in this country aren't a bunch of money-hungry vipers, salivating over taking away money that YOU earned. When I was at this grocery store, I never ONCE saw the Shop Steward. I complained to the store management that the union was taking FAR too much out of each of my paychecks. Their response? "That's just the breaks". Mind you, I was merely a stockperson at this particular grocery store, but, damn, unions, how much frigging money DO you require before you get off your LAZY asses and put MY money where your mouth is? Screw unions. You sure as hell aren't what you once were, where you actually FOUGHT for better workplaces. Now, all you do is sit on your fat asses and take hard-working people's money...and for what? Your own damn wallets, that's what!
Heck yes. You could be making $7 an hour if it were not for the union, and could probably qualify for food stamps and be more healthy by walking everywhere. You might have to pay all your taxes but federal income tax. That's a break too.
Who needs health insurance anyway? You can't be in a car accident if you can't afford a car. Besides, you don't intend to get cancer or any other disease, and can remove your own appendix with a knife and fork. If you need a raise, steal bread instead.
Your story is all fiction unfortunately. The only person making $200 a week is an 85 year old hooker with a bad cough.
I don't believe that any union takes more than 40% of Wolflover's or any worker's paycheck.
I belonged to a union once, and it was more like $12, or some amount way less than 1% of your pay.
Obama/Biden 2012
WELL SAID..American Girl. You had the SAME thoughts I did. Corporations are UNIONS for RICH old men (usually)....whose purpose is to squelch the middle class and impoverish us all and then BLAME us when we are POOR cause we are so "lazy". I am smart enough to realize that I would NEVER get paid as well as I do WITHOUT unions who have fought the fight for the middle class. Republicons want to destroy EVERY union in the United States...to put us in our proper place and income level....which we all know is BENEATH all but the few at the top.
There ARE problems in education. The people in education administration get paid too much...like every OTHER corporation. The teachers should be the ones getting the pay...AND the backup so they can DISCIPLINE children once AGAIN in our school system. No discipline...is the problem. I dont think teachers or student should have to put up with others who show NO respect to teachers OR other students who are there to learn. Why CANT we discipline AGAIN in the schools?
Also, SMALLER schools were great in my childhood. The teachers were not as stressed...neither were the students. The sports competition was great throughout the county. Yes, small schools costs more...but the teachers didnt have to leave as MANY children BEHIND in order to do the job. In the end, small schools would be WORTH the money. School supplies should also be covered by schools also. I hear so many teachers spend their OWN money on supplies.
Discipline is the KEY. Spell out the rules...tell the parents...and tough if parents get mad.
If you get rid of unions, some corporation will get OVERPAID for doing what is done cheaper NOW. And who on earth wants to be a teacher if they dont get paid anything? You can dance around the lack of discipline all day. Until you face that, nothing will change.
Power to the unions!
CJ - I pretty much agree with what you posted, except for the remark about unions. The battle over unions by Wisconsin and a few other states are only about PUBLIC UNIONS (firefighters, police, teachers & other public workers) and not private sector unions (UAW, Trade unions, etc.,).
I do not believe public unions should be allowed to donate money to the campaigns of city council members, county supervisors, state representatives, or school districts). I was a member of the Firefighters union and I know how much money is poured in to get government legislators to vote as the unions want which is usually very good benefits and pay. Every union collects dues from their members and some of those dues are used for political purposes, even if the member does not agree. Public unions have just about, and will if not bought under control, ruined the financial well being of many cities, school districts, counties and state governments.
sfcret: But corporations also uses shareholder money for political purposes even if the shareholder doesn't agree and no one is trying to stop that; indeed, that's expanding exponentially!
It violates federal law to use union dues to donate to a political campaign. Unions offer their members a fund they can contribute to towards this purpose.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100918111647AAnQtHG
In 1988, the Supreme Court, in Communications Workers of America v. Beck ruled against organized labor and held that non-union employees could not be required to pay full union dues if some of those funds were to be used for activities unrelated to collective bargaining.
http://congressionalresearch.com/97-618/document.php?study=The+Use+of+Labor+Union+Dues+for+Political+Purposes+A+Legal+Analysis
I am talking about Public Unions not private unions. the private unions and others can donate all they want, but I disagree with public unions buying the people that will vote their way.
Wolflover ,YOU LIE ! I was a union president and involved in a international union and I've never seen or heard of any union deducting dues weekly . And you said 70 a week . Thats 240 a month . Hey liar , ford workers don't pay that much a month . My brother in law works road construction , and he doesn't pay that much . You teabaggers can't even lie good . You're one can short of a six pack.
Gotta call BS on that, 70$ out of 200 na not buying that.
These "birthers" must think that John McCain and Sarah Palin are the dumbest people on earth because they missed this detail during the campaign. They also think that the governor of Hawaii is a liar as he said about three years ago that the birth certificate is valid.
The Gov you speak of is a Demorat so pretty good chance he/she is a liar.
Your moniker, and your comment about dems in general, pretty much label you as an idiot. No - make that an a$$hole. No - make that an idiot AND an a$$hole.
The original Governor that clarified the issue was a Republican. The subequent governor is a Democrat. Honolulu newspaper archives list Barack Obama's birth in their routine listings for that date. Next door neighbors remember the Obama's bringing their baby home from the hospital. Others also recall the little family, which broke up about two years later.
No facts will ever stop Birthers from pursuing their agenda to prove that a black president is not a legitimate American.
Rich folks like Romney don't call their groups "unions", they call them "corporations".
A distinction without a difference, because corporate members get together and manipulate things the same way unions try to do and much in the same way except that "employee unions" try to maintain fairness for Working Americans, and "corporations" get together to try to eliminate benefits to American Workers in order to maximize their already "record profits"!
Obama/Biden 2012
Unions protect the mediocre and the mundane. They prevent the excellent from being rewarded. All are the same just like communist Russia.
Mediocre and mundane pretty much describes the middle class, and you would deny them the dignity of a decent living and hope for the future and their children. Those who excell don't need unions, can strike out on their own, and rely on their superior abilities to be treated fairly.
Russia is a changed country my friend. Did you mean to say 'just like the old communist Russia'? They now have billionaires, and so does China. Doesn't sound very communistic to me. What SHOULD be a major concern is the huge difference between the billionaires and the common worker making 35 cents an hour making iPhones. And that's where the repubs want to take us.
Stop trying to make the middle class appear to be a bad thing. It's not. That's the core and the very essense of our country you're demeaning, and they're probably more patriotic than you as well. Have you served your country?
When Clinton was president the corporations were all about attracting the best possible employees. They would relocate their businesses to better living environments, increase benefits to their employees, and provide better wage and career growth opportunities. The world was a bright place. Then we entered the Bush years with his new tax rules to benefit his rich buddies. The companies stopped trying to produce anything because it was all about enticing investors who were into making money from money. We call these capital gains for the ill informed and are taxed at a substantially lower rate provided you can hold on to the asset for 1 year. This of course meant corporations no longer wanted highly skilled, innovative, expensive, employees that wanted good benefits and upward career paths. Instead we got corporations falsely inflating their stock prices by orchestrating a massive layoff (HP 27K comes to mind) ,downgrading or removing employee benefits, and last but not least cooking the books whenever they had to. Now look at Mittens last year. He netted around $29 million paying a tax rate of 13.9% and donating 16% to charity. Although I was unable to confirm, I believe by charity he means the Mormon church. Mittens is more willing to help benefit his church than his fellow Americans. Yea, lets vote for this guy, not....
For those who want teachers' pay based on performance, can you cite even a single scientific study showing that merit pay for teachers improves student performance? No, you can't, because there are no data to suggest that your pay plan actually helps students.
If you want good science and math teachers in high school, you cannot pay them the same as a 2nd grade teacher. Why? Because they have skills that are marketable in the real world economy.
hot daddy, I hate to tell you this but ALL teachers have skills that are marketable in the real world economy. They choose to be teachers because they realize as most intelligent people that our children are our future. Remember when you're old and grey it's our children that are going to be making the choices that govern your life.
The republicons know that if they destroy ALL unions, they have TOTAL control over EVERY person in the United States. What they WANT to give you...is WHAT you will GET. At they same time, they are working to take over every tv or radio outlet that does not conform to the thinking of the REAL bosses at the top. We are losing our freedoms and we are too dumb to recognize it.
Once they get control of the press (which you dont hear the REAL truth much these days), you will hear their BS day and night from EVERY news outlet like fox propaganda station is putting out. The idea is TOTAL CONTROL by a few. They are using peoples outrage about paying taxes to help them accomplish it. They are give the churches MONEY to campaign for them. When they get control, the churches will either be shut down or be mere outlets for propaganda.
The Nazis did it before. They blamed the Jews for economic problems and took control of Germany. In the end they put them to death.
They are blaming the poor THIS time. Notice how MANY times republicons bring up the poor and those not working. NOTICE. They are ALREADY being eliminated because of no healthcare and like the Germans, WE...who are lucky enough to have healthcare insurance....simply do not care.
Good Lord!!! The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!!
How can this IDIOT proclaim that he is GODS gift to education after he said , and I quote " one of the things I will do as president is not entirely do away with the dept. of education" and I would do away with the pell grants and any other gov.subsidized college assistance Guess what that means AMERICA ? If you're not from a wealthy family KISS COLLEGE GOODBYE . What a joke . and what a joke it is that people don't pay attention to what this company bleeder says.
Over 1/2 of todays college grads do not get jobs in their fields. Most of these would have been better off to have learned a marketable skill out of high school at much less costs.
My wife is a tenured teacher. She does not care for tenure. A good teacher does not need it. She is NOT a member of NEA as they support liberals with the dues monies. The purpose of the NEA is to protect burned out teachers who are a dredge on the school system. As a former SB member, I know the problems with trying to get rid of a walking dead teacher-those hanging on for their 30. To be honest, teaching is a very hard job. There are 10 year teacher, 20 year, and lifelong. Over 1/2 the ones who teach burnout by 20 years and many before 10. They must be removed from the system, but this public employees union prevents their removal and hurts education. Public employee unions were and are a terrible idea. They should be done away with for America to move forward. The 2nd biggest problem is the Dept of Ed and its unfunded mandates from Washington DC. It should be eliminated and we return to local control of our children's education.
Another Dept is the Dept of Energy. 30,000 bureaucrats producing not one barrel of oil ever! We pay these people's salaries everyday-How crazy are we?
Yeah Hot DADDY lets de fund the Dept of Energy . Great idea . lets just do that . I think you might have MIS-READ your program . You do understand the DOE Controls our NUCLEAR WEAPONS ? Or did ya think we left that to the air force or something ? Ask your wife , the teacher for help with those BIG words .
IN OTHER words i think you not very smart . I also could care less if your husband has tenure .
Once again anecdotal evidence to demonize teachers on the whole. I guess some people think a total corporate take over will solve our problems.