Thank you, labor unions ......

[giblets]

Right. They don't care about the testing per se, they just don't want to be held accountable for how their student's perform. Which is exactly my point.

Remember, if they really were opposed to testing because they oppose testing, they are within their rights to organize, protest, and petition Congress for a redress of their grievances. Hasn't happened though.

Here's what the AFT has to say about NCLB.

And here's the NEA's take on NCLB.

It's almost as though the two biggest teacher's unions in the US didn't really care about standardized testing. What they hate, what they revile, what they refuse to tolerate, is being held accountable for how their students perform.

I have no idea what those links are supposed to prove. If Chicago teachers are unhappy about the federal government, they can expect **** all to happen if they send a petition to Congress.

[giblets]

That's Karen Lewis's pathetic excuse for CPS's widespread failures. I'm not surprised that you mistake an opinion piece for factual journalism.

The opinion piece you cited when making an argument that the opinion piece is completely at odds with. She obviously doesn't think and wasn't claiming that there is a grand conspiracy among the teachers of Chicago to protect lazy teachers who don't care about their students.

[Felch]

I have no idea what those links are supposed to prove. If Chicago teachers are unhappy about the federal government, they can expect **** all to happen if they send a petition to Congress.

They prove that the national teachers unions (which have more pull than you seem to think) are absolutely unconcerned about NCLB. If the NEA and AFT actually opposed standardized testing, wouldn't they say so?

The opinion piece you cited when making an argument that the opinion piece is completely at odds with. She obviously doesn't think and wasn't claiming that there is a grand conspiracy among the teachers of Chicago to protect lazy teachers who don't care about their students.

The opinion piece is written by the head of Chicago's teacher's union. It's what we call a primary source document. Primary source documents like this are useful for understanding the motivations and priorities of important people. Obviously I don't take her horse**** at face value. I don't value her "statistics" because they're clearly fabrications. Her only goal is to keep bad teachers in the classroom. She leads the conspiracy.

[molly bloom]

Why shouldn't it be? I think we should ban unions, because the entire purpose of their existence--creating a labor monopoly--is corrupt.

That is not the 'ENTIRE' purpose of their existence- but do feel free to keep harping on that theme- it's almost as funny as when you constantly refer to my supposed continual use of Google to furnish corrections to your posts.

[molly bloom]

Most things can be improved by the addition of garlic. It's like the bacon of spices.

Mmm hmm. Fond memories of the Stinking Rose restaurant in San Francisco. Their specialite de la maison- a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed (should that be etouffe ?) with 400 cloves of garlic. Yowzah.

[molly bloom]

However, the difference is that literally everything unions do is rent-seeking.

You don't know the meaning of literally, do you ?

[molly bloom]

Do you know how many people out there want more hours and can't get them?

I wonder how many workers in the health services, emergency services, and so forth, are just begging to do double and triple shifts for the sheer joy of being exhausted and not seeing their offspring grow up.

I suspect all of them, as we all know that people work so much harder the less you pay them and the worse their working environment. I can't think why people haven't reintroduced indentured servitude, child labour and chattel slavery- just imagine how happy the workforce would be with their new-found riches and long working hours.

[molly bloom]

Democrats are against it because they fear that poor unionized teachers would be fired if they were actually subject to scrutiny. I teach in the private sector, .

No sheeit, Sherlock !

A supposed history teacher who didn't know who Cromwell was in regard to Henry VIII's suppression of the monasteries. That was so funny, my spleen almost burst when you confused the Earl of Essex with Oliver Cromwell.

[molly bloom]

Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union has turned the schools into glorified soup kitchens.

Probably a healthier diet for the pupils then- beats fizzy crap and Twinkies from vending machines.

[molly bloom]

I'd love to pay high wages to teachers - if you can make job offers and pay contingent on performance, like universities or any other employer.

Are schoolchildren cars, or washing machines ? I'd have thought there is a world of difference between trying to educate a child in a school and making manufacturing goods. And I rather think that by the time someone gets to an American university in most cases it's because they want to learn, or be educated- unless of course they reached that stage in further education because their father went to the same university...

[Jon Miller]

Mmm hmm. Fond memories of the Stinking Rose restaurant in San Francisco. Their specialite de la maison- a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed (should that be etouffe ?) with 400 cloves of garlic. Yowzah.

I enjoyed eating there too, but I think that is the only time I have ever not wanted more garlic.

JM

[molly bloom]

Are you telling me the performance gap between black and white children is a product of lazy teachers?

No, it's because black Americans are inherently racially inferior to white Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans. But not Native Americans, who've never really caught on to the whole capitalist Protestant work ethic thang, and thus deserve everything they get.

Of course what happened in the past is all gone and forgotten not really relevant- that whole slavery business and civil rights marches- shouldn't they have been looking for jobs instead of the right to vote ?

Just think of the pretty maid's uniform Rosa Parks could have been wearing, and wouldn't Medgar Evers have looked dandy in a busboy's outfit ?

[molly bloom]

I enjoyed eating there too, but I think that is the only time I have ever not wanted more garlic.

JM

I even tried the garlic ice cream. Afterwards we went up the Coit Tower, and I must say, I did feel sorry for the folks sharing the lift with us...

[The Mad Monk]

The contract dispute seems legit and I don't understand why so many of our right wing friends are complaining that a couple hundred kids were given a free PBJ sandwich with a glass of milk. It's not like that's a budget buster and if school was in session they'd probably be getting it any way.

It's not you specifically I'm talking about but a lot of other forums have dittoheads all claiming it's horrible poor kids got a PBJ when they should have gotten nothing (in the opinions of the dittoheads).

I have no problem with it since they had a reasonable expectation of being fed, but that's not what the schools are there for. They also have a reasonable expectation of being educated, and the parents have a reasonable expectation of their kids being in a safe place during the day, and schools are expensive for both those reasons, but thanks to the Teachers Union they aren't getting any of that.

[The Mad Monk]

Anybody else find what's going on with Obama's former campaign co-chairman and the Chicago Teachers Union at all ironic?