Union members, supporters 'Defend the Dream' at Crown Point rally
I cannot post it here, as it has a copyright...but go ahead and read it and think about the spin of the writer. In what way does the job security of teachers, the high salaries of union high muckety-mucks and the lack of consequences for incompetence on the job "for the children" or a defense of a "dream." What dream? The dream of a collectivist state where all pupils are indoctrinated properly and understand that they are merely allowed to live if they are a positive for The State?
Reading the article, you see that there are many different unions represented, so people drove in and bussed in from all over and even the pro-liberal Times says the "crowd" was 150 people. My friends, 150 people is just a typical bunch of folks leaving a moderately successful movie showing. You want to call the demonstration "grassroots" when it is all driven by unions? Remember the Munster Schools-financed rally "for education" that was organized by the teacher's union? Recall that the unions and Democrats are using Craig's List to offer people $7.50 an hour to stand around with signs and shout 4-6 hours? This is a bunch of rich fat cats trying to keep their paychecks that, guess what, come right from you and me! School choice is good for students, it is good for good teachers and it is even good for mediocre teachers. Only bad teachers and union officials are hurt by school choice. If unions bargain against the state, frankly the people who pay the bills (you and me) are not at the bargaining table. How is that fair? Public sector employees do not have a "right" to have a union. They can choose to have unions. But what we need to stop is the MONOPOLY over schools in the hands of the unions. In states all around the country, the declining level of education proficiency and the failure of so many public schools has caused governors and legislators to decide to fix it. It is broken and it needs fixing!
But the Unions and the AWOL Democrats are crusin' for a bruisin', as Indiana Barrister explains...here is an excerpt:
No More Mr. Nice Speaker
"Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma says his caucus’ patience with absentee Democrats is wearing thin. I frankly don’t blame him. Democrats have been gone since February 21. Their absence has cost the taxpayers of Indiana more than $368,000 in lost productivity. Their list of demands has gone from one to 11 to four to three and if the last exchange of letters between the Speaker and Democratic Leader are to be believed the two sides are now down to two (vouchers and project labor agreements on public projects).
So far, the GOP has only made one major concession, pulling right-to-work legislation off the table. Democrats have conceded everywhere else. Their latest concession seems to be on charter schools and if you take a close look at the Democratic Leader’s letter (I’ve embedded both leaders’ letters in this post), they seem to be agreeing to Republican tinkering with vouchers.
What’s also interesting in all this is that as the GOP works on bills to make it more palatable for its own members; it seems that Democrats are using those changes as reasons to drop their objections. This is a brilliant strategy for a group with no real end game. As Republicans work out their own issues on legislation, slowly take them off the table. And if I were the Republican Speaker, I would not appreciate being played like this and I’d start planning a little retaliation.
I would not bring back right to work legislation, but whatever I could do to politically screw the other guys, I would. And I’d do it by not only going after them, well I would with some redistricting in the six or seven remaining competitive districts, but I’d also make sure to work with friends on the second floor and across the rotunda that there were extra special budget cuts in appropriations that went to the absentee members districts. And that’s just to start. The list of possibilities is endless . I know this because I’ve had plenty of time to think of this stuff as members have been absent..."
The full article here...
Angry White Boy has the scorecard for the AWOL Donkeys. You will have to go read the post to find the clickable links and the rest of the story, this is an excerpt:
House Democrats on the Lam: By the Numbers
"It has been twenty-four days since Indiana’s House Democrats first packed their bags and headed west to Urbana, Illinois. Now in the fourth week of their self-imposed exile, we thought it was time to take a look at the past month…by the numbers.Key Dates in the Legislature
With the absence of Democrats, the General Assembly is losing valuable time to pass crucial legislative items including a balanced budget and education reforms.
November 2, 2010 House Democrats lose 52 seat majority and fall to 40 seat minority
November 16, 2010 Members take Oath of Office to do their job
January 15, 2011 Legislators got paid first half their annual salary
February 15, 2011 Legislators got paid second half of their annual salary
February 21, 2011 Indiana House Democrats walked off the job
February 22, 2011 Indiana House Democrats began exile in Urbana, IL, hotel
April 29, 2011 General Assembly scheduled to adjourn
June 30, 2011 End of the fiscal year
July 1, 2011 State government will shut down if Democrats don’t return to pass a budget
Key Numbers on the Democrats
Democrats have cost Hoosier taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars during their exile while some Double-Dipping Democrats have skipped out on two taxpayer funded jobs!
1 Democrat standing up to his party and not participating (Rep. Stemler)
1 Democrat caught visiting the Illinois House of Representatives (Rep. Reardon)
1 Democrat comparing exile to a game of tag (Rep. Reske)
1 Democrat who won’t share her Barbie’s (Rep. Klinker)
1 Hot Tub at the Comfort Suites Urbana (Hotel Site)
2 Democrats visiting the Lincoln Library in Springfield and misleading Hoosiers to validate their flight to Urbana (Link)
7 Editorial pages telling Democrats it’s time to come back
(Indianapolis Star, NWI Times, Evansville Courier & Press, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, South Bend Tribune, Lafayette Journal & Courier, Tribune-Star)
11 Double-Dipping Democrats with two taxpayer funded jobs (and absent from both) (Indiana Transparency Portal)
23 Days public has been cut out of House testimony
24 Days Democrats have been AWOL
37 Democrats holed up in Urbana at any given time
$250.00 Daily fine imposed on AWOL Democrats beginning March 7, 2011 (Link)
$2,400.00 Cost per night to house Democrats in Urbana hotel (Link)
$300,000+ Total Cost of Democrats’ exile to Hoosier taxpayers so far (Link)"
The rest of the story....
Are you tired of greedy, entitled people taking you and your tax dollars for granted? Are you tired of them taking the education of your children for granted? Can you think of one good reason that school vouchers should not be the law of the land? Why shouldn't parents have the right to send their children to the school they believe will be best for their child? If it is the nearest school, so be it. If it is another public school farther away, so be it. If it is a charter school or private school that costs more, the parent that is willing to pay extra money for the benefit of the child should have that right.
Really, we do not stand for a government that tells us what programs to watch or what store to shop at or what car to drive or which doctor or hospital you must use...at least not yet. Why do we tolerate this kind of dictatorial requirement when it comes to our children? Ask yourself why so many parents homeschool their children? Do you think parents really want to also be the daily teacher of their children? Trust me, once you have escaped atomic tables and quadrilateral equations and geometric theorems and gerunds you probably are ready to leave them behind for good. But many parents must homeschool rather than subject their kids to bad education.
How dare they, the teachers that complain that "school vouchers will take money away from the public schools, the public schools will not be able to survive?" Guess what, if that is so it is because the public schools are inferior. Ask yourself, does Barack Obama send his kids to public school, or private school? Yep, that's right! Right now the rich can and do afford to send their kids to private schools so they gladly take kickbacks from the unions and support them...it doesn't hurt THEIR kids! If public schools would fail it would be because the education at the other school is superior. Duh.
How well built would Dell servers be built if there were no alternatives? Suppose that the US government forced all business owners and government and educational clients to purchase only Dell? No competition with IBM or HP or Equus? Guess what, Dell would cost more and be worth less, because they would have no drive or need to improve or even maintain quality. They would make them the way they felt like making them since the needs and satisfaction of the customer would be of no consequence.
This is what we have done with public schools. Right now in the average public school there are good teachers, mediocre teachers and just plain bad ones. In the worst inner-city schools few really good teachers will be found, as it is hard to find students motivated to learn and your peer group is mailing it in.
We have taken competition out of the equation in schools and our kids have paid the price...and so has our nation. We have raised a generation of kids who have had a fast-food education who have been taught to absorb the dumbed-down pablum of the typical education and without being taught to think critically or to inspect and challenge their own belief systems...with the wisdom and knowledge of the equivalent of thousands of great libraries at their fingertips on the internet by which they could continue to learn, they play video games and talk in unintelligible spurts via their various hand-held devices and home computers. It will not be long until we have a generation that cannot think or spell.
The union wonks believe that the grave danger to the American Dream is to take away their autocratic power to dumb down our children. They have to call for more union wonks to picket and hire mercenary sign wavers to swell the crowds and bus in miscreants from other states to bully and threaten and even attack people. Meanwhile, the public wants charter schools and school vouchers so they can choose the school they believe will be best for their children. Which side do you think is really for the kids? The parents, or the union guys? Indiana-based The Foundation For Education Choice explains that, when the question is asked clearly that parents all around the country are in favor of vouchers!
Read the document, think clearly about what it says. Check out the wealth of information the organization provides for your perusal. Then carefully mark all the Democrats that ran away and be sure they do NOT get your vote next time. That they would run away and abandon their jobs after taking your money in order to ensure substandard education for your children should make you wonder about how we go about impeaching state representatives!
It's after 11 PM, do you know where YOUR legislator is?
Postscript - I should have known ISTA Exposed would have a relevant post:
Demagoguery of charter schools is a disservice to Indiana families
Senate testimony about charter schools full of misinformation
Who would have thought that giving Indiana families more control over their children’s education would be seen as a bad thing?
But that’s how charter school opponents framed yesterday’s discussion about House Bill 1002, legislation that would increase the number of charters schools throughout Indiana.
During testimony given in front of the Senate Education Committee, charter school opponents tried their best to scare Hoosiers about the nontraditional public schools.
Education Action Group believes that the opponents of charter schools, primarily state Democrats, want to kill the bill because it threatens the well-being of their political playmates, the teacher unions.
Since charter schools are typically free of union interference, Indiana Democrats understand that HB 1002 would likely cause a decline in Indiana State Teachers Association’s membership, which would in turn dry up union political contributions to the Democrats’ campaign coffers.
To cover up these tawdry motives, opponents of HB 1002 are resorting to a misinformation campaign against charter schools.
What follows is a brief list of the most common myths surrounding charter schools.
Myth #1: Increasing the number of charter schools will have the effect of lowering academic standards throughout Indiana.
Reality: Before a charter school is allowed to open, school officials must establish academic goals. In order for the school’s charter to be renewed, it must meet those goals. If the school fails to meet its stated academic goals, its charter will not be renewed and it will close.
In comparison, Hoosier residents are very familiar with how difficult it is to close (or change) a lousy traditional public school run by the government. Such schools keep their doors open, even as their students continue to fail.
Myth #2: Charter schools are an “attack” against traditional public schools.
Reality: Charter schools serve as escape hatches for Indiana families that are dissatisfied with the quality of education being offered at the local neighborhood public school.
Charter schools provide Indiana families with more choices so they can determine which education option is best for their children. Quite often they are the best option available for kids stuck in low-performing urban school districts, as new research reveals.
Myth #3: Charter schools unfairly divert precious financial resources away from traditional public schools.
Reality: Charter schools can deliver a quality education to students for significantly less money than a traditional public school requires. A key reason for this is that charter schools are not bogged down with expensive teacher union contracts.
As a result, a quality charter school often provides a better education to students for less money. That sounds like a taxpayer’s dream come true to us.
Indiana families should have the right to choose the best education option for their children. That’s what this debate is really all about.
ISTA and its political surrogates are trying to muddy the waters with all kinds of misinformation about charter schools, but Hoosier taxpayers shouldn’t be fooled. At the end of the day, what’s best for Indiana’s students will trump what’s best for the state’s teacher unions.
See it all at ISTA Exposed!
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UPDATE: Go see We Won In Wisconsin!!! Hoosier Access dot com nails it!
