Betsy DeVos Gets Stopped From Entering DC Public School by Protesters

[OldLady]

OldLady I disagree, it goes back to the teachers union stopping teachers from getting fired. The union up here is massive, one of the largest in the nation, and they string us up regularly for raises, pensions, insurance, etc. We don't get a say because they'll do a "strike" and ten cities go down. They use it as a weapon, viciously. There's a reason the average teacher salary up here is creeping up on $70k/y + bens and it's not based on 'result' matrix's.

I don't particularly dislike teachers, at least not the good ones, but I do very much dislike the union.

I've got to say, is 70K an unreasonable salary for a 5 year college grad with ten or fifteen years of experience? (I'm guessing that is based on an average with new teachers receiving less and teachers with thirty years receiving more.) I'm not necessarily defending YOUR union; I don't know anything about it. I've never been in a strike or taught in a state where teachers were striking. However, if you look at professions requiring five year degrees and then the average salary 10 or 15 years out, I don't think you'll find that out of line. It's not exactly living "high off the hog," particularly out where you live. Things have been tough everywhere and up here, too, tax payers are being asked to take more and more from their pockets. It's frustrating as hell; I feel that as well. I just don't know that all that animus needs to be taken out on teachers, just because it is part of our local school budget and we know what they earn.

 

[EverCurious]

Average pay in the state is $50k. Teachers make $70k. Police make $47k. Doctors make $100k. CEO's make $100k.

I understand defending your profession, but you are mistaken when it comes to my local. We give half a trillion dollars to the school district every year - They just told us they have a $15M budget gap right now, despite us giving them an extra $7M in the annual budget. They also over spent last years budget by $8M.

 

[Penelope]

Protesters Block The Door And Refuse To Let Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Enter DC School

I'm not really sure what Madam Minister of the Poorly Eductaed wanted to do there, maybe threaten to close them down if they don't comply with the privatization orders?

It is safe bet that the OP and all the protesters are the product of the public school system, that taught them to be pro choice when it comes to abortion but be rigidly no choice when it comes to education.

Difficult to say what is more tragic: .Killing the future in the womb or keeping the living stupid.

The choice is between the abattoir clinic or the private school.

Of course, those who choose the first, don't have to worry about education at all.

That taught them to be pro choice, being pro choice does not mean being pro abortion. Apparently they were taught the first Amendment.

Your schools weren't, you are pro birth, not pro life, get it. The GOP is greedy and if they are not willing to care for the children brought into the USA due to their laws, (which I might add thanks to PP abortions have become less and less over the years) anti social programs, anti public schools, anti health insurance , anti government, means you are pro birth, not pro life.

and that is a lie told by pro killers to soothe their guilt.......conservative pro-life people give more to charity, even after having vast sums extracted through taxation, than pro choice killers.....and the thing is....if a woman doesn't want a baby, they can give the baby to people who do want the baby......they can even drop the baby off at a fire station, no questions asked......

BS, you kill every social program there is. You are not pro life, you are anti abortion. Once your here , you are on your own. Most abortions occur naturally, women loosing babies, why , because they didn't have healthcare and prenatal care.

 

[OldLady]

Most people who suck at their jobs can be fired. Teachers, thanks to unions, really can't. So tax payer's are forced to continue to pay in, yet not get much return on the 'investment.' Not saying all teachers are bad, but a decent number of them are. As a parent you don't get to shop for teachers, or schools; you're stuck with whatever happens to come up. Even if you /really/ dislike a teacher, you've got almost no redress if there doesn't happen to be room in another class.

I had to spend half a year being taught by a teacher that publicly accused me of telling a friend to commit suicide. I had given him a mix tape that included the song Suicide Solution by Ozzy. The teacher took it as an encouragement (the song is actually the opposite.) The teachers comment was not only in the news paper but on TV. The fucked up part, that teacher became the principle of the school three years later. Thank's teachers union \o/

I had a nasty, nasty bulldyke of a gym teacher for three years who made life misery for me and a number of other girls who weren't her favorites. She was a miserable bitch but I didn't turn against the teaching profession because of it. You ever meet someone nasty and unfair at work? In your local PTA or church group? Some people are like that; they can pop up in a school, as well.
The sad thing is, a lot of teachers agree that the tenure laws allow burnt out teachers to stay too long. The reason for the law, though, isn't to protect lousy teachers. It goes straight back to the salary issue. School boards looking at a tight budget and a loudly protesting group of tax payers would fire any teacher about to go up in the pay scale. Whether someone is a good teacher or not can be very subjective and if you look closely enough with a dark enough pair of glasses, you will find reasons whether they exist or not. Some schools here are famous for hiring new teachers for two years and then when they would receive tenure and get a pay raise, the school doesn't renew and hires some other brand new "cheap" teachers.
I agree with you that firing an incompetent teacher should not be next to impossible. Just keep in mind that "incompetent" can be largely in the mind of the beholder, or a personality issue, as it was with you.

And that is where vouchers come in....under the current system.....bad teachers get paid no matter how bad....and without a block, boards would fire good teachers because they earn a lot...that is the problem with a socialist monopoly on education.....

With vouchers.....schools have an incentive to pay good teachers and keep them...because they want to please the customers.....the parents who choose where to use the voucher...and they have an incentive to get rid of the bad teachers....again, the parents who choose the school........

That is the magic of competition and why vouchers are so important.....we use vouchers for everything we do...it is called money......and if a business wants our money, they have to make us happy....when did the government have to make you happy?

If you don't think schools answer to their communities, their parents and their school board, you are sadly mistaken. It sounds as if "school choice" means the government will be flooding money into private schools that are apparently not beholden to tax payers or parents, except by the traffic through their doors. Maybe that will work as you describe. I don't know. But it raises a lot of questions, starting with where is all this money coming from? Is it just being taken from the public schools that are already gasping for funding in poorer neighborhoods with low tax bases?

 

[aris2chat]

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is rebuking those who literally blocked her plan to visit a public school and begin mending fences with teachers after a highly contentious confirmation battle. DeVos attempted to visit Jefferson Middle School Academy in southwest Washington D.C. this morning but WJLA-TV reports that protestors physically blocked her from entering.

Protesters Physically Block Education Secretary From Entering Public School
---------------------------------------------------------------

Trump haters are the rudest most ignorant low life scums, this is exactly what they do, and have no respect for anybody.................Oh love not hate HYPOCRITES..

where is a paddy wagon or snow plow when you need one?

 

[Penelope]

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- At one of America's fastest-growing school systems, 44% of the teachers come from Bible colleges. Mothers pray in the school buildings. Students learn about Adam and Eve in science class, and are asked not to wear costumes to school on Halloween, in deference to parents who believe the holiday glorifies the devil.

Yet the National Heritage Academies aren't Christian private schools. Instead, they are a chain of state-funded charter schools offering back-to-basics education with a religious tinge -- free of charge.

Based in this Bible Belt stronghold, the for-profit National Heritage has burgeoned from one school with 174 students in 1995 to 22 schools with 8,600 students in two states today -- with a marketing campaign seemingly aimed at evangelical parents.

"We're like the auto industry in Detroit when the Japanese came in," says Mark Muller, chairman of the Grand Rapids Christian schools, where enrollment has fallen nearly 10% in six years. This drop, which he attributes partly to National Heritage, has prompted layoffs and talk of consolidation with a Christian-school group in another town.

SNIP

Charter schools, which operate independently of local school districts, were intended to create a choice for parents discontented with traditional public schools. Under Michigan law, charter schools get almost as much per capita funding as area public schools -- nearly $6,000 in National Heritage's case.

It didn't occur to many people that tuition-burdened parents at religious schools would also welcome an alternative, particularly one featuring small classes, strict discipline and moral education. But today, charters are taking market share from fundamentalist schools, their predecessors as the hottest phenomenon in American education. And charters' smudging of the separation of church and state has stirred up an unlikely combination of opponents: private religious competitors and civil-liberties advocates.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB937349673185553337What galls the Christian schools' faithful is that National Heritage founder and chairman J.C. Huizenga is one of their own.

 

[dannyboys]

I defy ANYONE to go into ANY inner city school and watch what goes on in EVERY FUCKING classroom.....or rather what doesn't go on ie ANY actual teaching!
...!

That's an ignorant lie.

Fuck you!
I was born in Chagoland. Lived on the S. side.
Don't fuckimg TELL ME!! what does and doesn't happen in inner city schools.
90% of the 'teachers' can't read or write at a university level. Most of them are 'streamed' through a 10 month 'teacher's training course 100% controlled by the teacher's union.
All the union cares about is the color of a teacher's skin and if they have the temperament to stand in front of a class of kids with average IQs in the low eighties and take the shit from the 'kids' who have zero ability/interest to learn basic reading writing and arithmetic in exchange for a guaranteed paycheck.
Beats working at Wendy's.

 

[Vandalshandle]

Now that I know that my public school teaches pro abortion, I am thinking of returning and majoring in it.

 

[OldLady]

Average pay in the state is $50k. Teachers make $70k. Police make $47k. Doctors make $100k. CEO's make $100k.

I understand defending your profession, but you are mistaken when it comes to my local. We give half a trillion dollars to the school district every year - They just told us they have a $15M budget gap right now, despite us giving them an extra $7M in the annual budget. They also over spent last years budget by $8M.

Our state is closing local schools with small numbers of students to reduce overhead and is consolidating districts to eliminate administrative overhead. It's not easy considering how spread out things are--we already have kids traveling 30 miles to school, one way. I'm not necessarily defending my profession, not if it's busily putting tax payers over a barrel and insisting on things the community can't afford. But like I said, that hasn't been my experience.

 

[EverCurious]

As a member of a town that was annexed by Anchorage and /forced/ into this horrid school district, I am extremely irked. Not only do we now get fucked out of the things our city needs, because Anchorage votes no on everything for us, but the school district and teachers union plays politics for votes and doesn't push for the shit we need. It took us 35 years to get a second HS, I spent half my school day in sheds because that's all the district would give us - and the really messed part is we pay some of the highest proportional property taxes in the system because it's a wealthy city. I very much dislike my school district and the teachers union...

 

[TomParks]

Why not use rubber bullets on the protesters?

 

[BlackFlag]

Devos choosing to visit a public school is a slap in the face to the staff and students who work and study there.

 

[Unkotare]

I defy ANYONE to go into ANY inner city school and watch what goes on in EVERY FUCKING classroom.....or rather what doesn't go on ie ANY actual teaching!
...!

That's an ignorant lie.

Fuck you!
I was born in Chagoland. Lived on the S. side.
Don't fuckimg TELL ME!! ....

I AM telling you, so read carefully, shitforbtains. You have no idea what you are talking about, and/or are lying through your tooth for obvious reasons. I am there on the front lines every day, and you are completely full of shit.

 

[OldLady]

As a member of a town that was annexed by Anchorage and /forced/ into this horrid school district, I am extremely irked. Not only do we now get fucked out of the things our city needs, because Anchorage votes no on everything for us, but the school district and teachers union plays politics for votes and doesn't push for the shit we need. It took us 35 years to get a second HS, I spent half my school day in sheds because that's all the district would give us - and the really messed part is we pay some of the highest proportional property taxes in the system because it's a wealthy city. I very much dislike my school district and the teachers union...

It's interesting that your senator and mine (I'm from Maine) are the two Republicans who voted against DeVos and don't feel she will shepherd in a better educational system.
Can't your town insist on pulling out? One of our tiny towns did that and is an independent school "system" consisting of one elementary school because they disagreed with the district on certain things. Good luck.

 

[EverCurious]

Murkowski is a moderate dem in sheep's clothing. She figured out that most Alaskan's vote a straight Rep ticket so she flipped party Alaskan's are too busy working 2 on, 2 off, or working 6mo at sea, or digging out their cars to get it.

She's financially beholden to the teachers union, which is why she voted nay on the nomination, yet voted yea in the education subcommittee...

 

[Never3ndr]

As a member of a town that was annexed by Anchorage and /forced/ into this horrid school district, I am extremely irked. Not only do we now get fucked out of the things our city needs, because Anchorage votes no on everything for us, but the school district and teachers union plays politics for votes and doesn't push for the shit we need. It took us 35 years to get a second HS, I spent half my school day in sheds because that's all the district would give us - and the really messed part is we pay some of the highest proportional property taxes in the system because it's a wealthy city. I very much dislike my school district and the teachers union...

It's interesting that your senator and mine (I'm from Maine) are the two Republicans who voted against DeVos and don't feel she will shepherd in a better educational system.
Can't your town insist on pulling out? One of our tiny towns did that and is an independent school "system" consisting of one elementary school because they disagreed with the district on certain things. Good luck.

I'm just going to point towards the ridiculously high amount of politics that went into that vote. Both of those senators were on the Committee that did the confirmation hearing for DeVos, and both were obviously arm-wrung into putting forth a vote in favor of her (since all Republicans on that committee did vote in favor of DeVos). Only when it went to the floor did they change their vote. I'm simply disappointed because a senator from my state voted in favor of her and voted for her on the floor. Then again, he's received a large donation from her / her family so I guess I cannot blame him too much. Trump made sure he put large corporate donors in his cabinet so he can fill Washington with business interest and fill the swamp.

 

[OldLady]

Murkowski is a moderate dem in sheep's clothing. She figured out that most Alaskan's vote a straight Rep ticket so she flipped party Alaskan's are too busy working 2 on, 2 off, or working 6mo at sea, or digging out their cars to get it.

She's financially beholden to the teachers union, which is why she voted nay on the nomination, yet voted yea in the education subcommittee...

OMG! So did my senator--vote yea in the subcommittee. Some say she knew her vote wouldn't matter in the end, and it was all for show. Since our state is split pretty much half and half with a lot of Independents who go either way depending, I don't think she was trying to appease Democrats though. She also refused to vote for Trump and announced it on the front page. It is, imo, because she is one of the last moderates left in Washington and she won't vote for what she feels is wrong. Letting DeVos have a fair hearing in front of the senate, though, is another matter and I don't necessarily think she made a totally fake political decision there.

 

[EverCurious]

Murkowski did the same, said she wasn't voting Trump - Alaskan's dogged the hell out of her until she caved and voted for him (we do that often with her.)

Go look at your senator's NTA donations, I bet there's a big chunk.

 

[aris2chat]

Devos choosing to visit a public school is a slap in the face to the staff and students who work and study there.

she can walk into any school she wants anytime she wants

 

[BlackFlag]

Devos choosing to visit a public school is a slap in the face to the staff and students who work and study there.

she can walk into any school she wants anytime she wants

No lots of private schools, boarding schools, and military schools would require special permission and advance notice.

Her choosing to visit a public school is a slap in the face to the people there. Imagine posing for a photo op with people who's jobs you want to eliminate in a building you want to shutter... What a sick woman.