An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 1 April 2011
Where Are The Marshmallows?
Seven Killed During Koran Burning Protest at U.N. Headquarters in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials: 7 killed at UN office when Koran burning protest turns violent.
And this is news? Who burned the evil book? These barbarians ‘turn violent’ at the drop of a hat. What’s so different now? Muslims destroy Bibles on a regular basis, but I don’t see too many Christians rioting in the streets, murdering people. Shows a HUGE difference, doesn’t it. One bunch destroys, maims, murders, the other….way too tolerant of the destroyers.
Bring Back Manufacturing (Without The Unions!)
Stop Sending Jobs Overseas
The Foundry
Today, the Labor Department released its monthly jobs report showing that the U.S. economy added 216,000 jobs in March and unemployment fell to 8.8 percent. Despite these encouraging numbers, Americans still consistently tell pollsters that jobs and the economy are the most important problems facing the country. And yesterday, Gallup released a poll showing that the number one way Americans would like to see more United States jobs created is to stop sending new jobs overseas. That is a fabulous idea, and the simplest way to accomplish it would be to lower out nation’s corporate tax rate.
The United States was once a leader in tax rate reduction. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan passed a broad tax cut package to encourage economic growth. How well did it work? Just compare the drops in unemployment from both the Reagan and the Obama economic recoveries. Since the Obama recovery began 21 months ago, the national unemployment rate has fallen only 0.6 points, from 9.4 percent in July 2009 to 8.8 percent today. Contrast those anemic results with the robust job growth that occurred during the Reagan recovery in the ’80s. By the 21-month mark of the Reagan recovery, unemployment had dropped from 10.8 percent to 7.5 percent—a 3.3 point drop.
“I Have Tenure!”
Teacher tenure bill makes way to Haslam
The state Senate gave final legislative approval Thursday to Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to make it tougher for Tennessee teachers to gain tenure.
The centerpiece of the new governor’s education agenda, the bill extends the probationary period for new teachers from the current three years to five before tenure can be awarded.
It also requires probationary teachers to place in the top two tiers of a new five-tier evaluation system in their fourth and fifth years of teaching to win tenure.
Anybody remember the movie, Teachers, with Nick Nolte? Every time I hear the word ‘tenure’, I think of Nolte’s last line of the movie….”You can’t fire me! I’ve got tenure!”
Now, if anyone is going to be fired from any job, there should be a reason, no matter how long the person has been at the job. Misconduct, theft, stuff like that. Oh yeah….and sex with students would definitely be a reason to can a teacher. That being said, I don’t believe having ‘tenure’ gives any teacher the right to keep their job if they seriously suck! Remember New York’s ‘rubber rooms‘? Suspended teachers spent their days sitting around, getting full pay, at the taxpayers expense. They didn’t work, they were suspended for a variety of reasons, including sexually abusing a child. Thankfully, they’ve finally done away with these Temporary Reassignment Center, I’m sure, in no small part, the exposure by John Stossel.
When you look at the definition of tenure – the act, right, manner, or term of holding something (as a landed property, a position, or an office); especially : a status granted after a trial period to a teacher that gives protection from summary dismissal – you begin to understand why our kids are failing so miserably in school. If a bad teacher, whose students just get passed from one grade to the next, without actually EARNING advancement, can’t be fired because of tenure, our schools are a failure, and we need to look REAL hard at the system.
Don’t get me wrong! There ARE some good teachers out there. The problem is, the good ones seldom stick with it. They are hampered by union rules, frustrated by the unfair practices of compensation for those who have tenure, but suck, as opposed to those whose students actually LEARN, but don’t have tenure. Compensation should be based on performance, NOT seniority.
Instead of delaying tenure for a couple of years, it would be in the best interest of the kids if this system was done away with, COMPLETELY! After all, they work for US!
