Speaking of improving our existing status quo Public Schools instead of deserting them. My favorite education focused politician, Terri Bonoff, is recommending some very common sense changes regarding using performance in staffing changes. I am most certain that Education MN is not happy...
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Yes, by all means give Sen. Bonoff credit for supporting a Republican idea.
http://mngop.com/our-party/solution-center/every-child-deserves-a-chance-page/
I don't think Terri is getting a lot of credit for this. Quite the reverse, actually.
--Hiram
Every Child Deserves a Chance
Jerry,
This is not a "Republican Idea"... This is common sense that is employed in almost all private transactions.
I think Hiram is the only person who would keep the higher paid less effective employee on when times got hard.
Hiram,
The good news is that there are a lot more voters like me than like you in her district. We feel it is very important that the most effective Teachers are paid well and kept in the classroom for the benefit of the Students. (ie kids needs first)
Where as Education MN etal wants to ensure that older Teachers make more and stay employed whether they are effective Teachers or not. (ie teachers wants first)
The notion of teacher tenure didn't just appear out of the blue. Unions began pushing for it because districts were capriciously firing teachers.
Personally, I think state law should be silent on how districts choose to lay off teachers. This is the sort of local control issue that should be left to school boards to negotiate with the union.
That said, I think any school board that chooses a system (once the evaluation systems are fully functional) that is solely based on seniority should be subject to serious scrutiny by voters.
"This is not a "Republican Idea"... This is common sense..." -- John
Interesting how you suggest that Republican ideas and common sense must be mutually exclusive. In my experience they tend to be synonymous. But perhaps it is more correct to say this a Republican "initiative," actually DOING something to advance the common sense idea rather than fighting it tooth and nail as the DFL does.
Sean, I think the teachers union is the principal cause of our educational dysfunction. Teachers want to and should be respected, treated, evaluated and paid as professionals, but that cannot happen when individual merit is ignored and pay is determined by union seniority rules. The same with layoffs. If you want to be a professional, then you take an individual "at will" contract with the employer and get paid for results only as long as you get them, just like other professionals do.
I think the far right and far left both fight against good ideas. They both seem to want to manage per ideology rather than reality.
Nothing whatsoever wrong with an ideology based in a realistic view of the world, which is what all but the most extreme conservatives want. The problem comes when liberal ideology insists that their fantasy world can exist in reality. One might think that decades of failure would be convincing, but liberals have this marvelous ability to "reject your reality, and substitute my own."
The far Right is just as guilty as the far Left of doing this.
They want to believe that charity and free markets are the ideal state, when the eartly 1900's proved that this did not yield an acceptably balanced and secure society. Therefore we started slipping towards the Left in an effort to improve our society.
The question now is how do we stop the momentum of the pendulum before we go too far the other way?
That's an interesting reading of history, quite opposite mine. If I concede that the ideal lies somewhere between completely unbridled capitalist free markets and the socialist state, where do you think it lies? 5% of the way, 50%?
Look at it another way. Capitalist free markets are the best economic system, but poor social structures. Socialist systems are terrible economic systems but better socially-- the equal sharing of misery. Personally I think I would rather be rich than equal.
I have been pretty consistent. We are up to ~38% of GDP. I think we should go back down to ~33%.
I think all the people who were living in tent cities and standing in soup lines during the depression and before would disagree with your interpretation of history. However the tycoons of the time probably would agree with you...
You're mixing apples and napalm. My father was a staunch Republican that never had a bad word for FDR because of the CCC. And though he probably will get more from SS than he put in (everybody that gets in near the ground floor of a Ponzi scheme does), it is still a terrible investment on a pure rate of return basis. He had FAR more in his private savings at retirement than he will ever get from SS.
And the notion that it's "insurance" is laughable. Try dying at age 65-1/2 and see how much it pays out.
Are you one of those who only buy whole or universal life insurance? If so, I am sure the agents are happy when they see you coming.
I am usually happy when I do not need to collect benefits from my insurance company. Be that medical, property, term life, long term disability, long term care, etc.
You are correct that if someone drops dead quickly at 65-1/2, they don't collect too much. Though their spouse and children may.
However if that person has a severe stroke and lives in a nursing home requiring significant care for the next 20 years, they win the lottery in benefit payout. Though I would rather be the individual who dropped dead.
"Though their spouse and children may."
Actually, if I recall correctly, the SS death benefit is $750, but only AFTER you start collecting checks. With a retirement age currently at 66, if you drop dead one day before that, your family gets NOTHING. Not very good insurance.
In public schools, tenure has only one purpose: protect incompetent teachers. The competent don't need it.
I am somewhat amazing that Bonoff of all people, who usually has trouble even finishing sentences got this right. But you go, girl!
Try again.
Survivors Benefits
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