Huh? Since when is $50k in this day and time adequate?
Jon Stewart explains tells it like it is.
The Wisconsin fight continues and Jon points out the sheer hypocrisy of Republicans protecting those making more than $250k while at the same time howling over teachers making $50k. That’s pretty hard to explain, unless you are Jon Stewart.
What part of his skit isn’t true?
classic comparing apples to oranges. unless you’re a communist (from each according to his ability, to each according to his need) it’s none of our business if someone earns 250k, or 250 mil. it’s their money, and it’s immoral for moochers to elect looters to plunder the producers. if i stick a gun in someone’s face and demand he give me a portion of the contents of his wallet, it’s a crime. if i elect a democrat politician to do the dirty work for me, it’s politics as usual.
public school teachers draw their sustenance from the american taxpayer. how much does is education costing the taxpayer per pupil per year? depending on where you live, 14k? 18? 20? the country is broke, the gravy train is over, all ponzi schemes come crashing down sooner or later, out of control entitlements are unsustainable
In PWC, the per pupil spending is under $11k a year. Quite a bargain.
Hmmm…teaching is a ponzi scheme. How about rescuing people from burning buildings and catching criminals? Are those ponzi schemes also?
e, do you think that those making over $250k a year should be exempt from any rise in taxes? How about if some of those are wall street peeps? Should they be exempt? How about the govt. helping those people out? Were you behind that?
Perhaps it is comparing apples to oranges. I will agree with you there. There is simply no comparison in people making $50k a year to those making $250k. Not even close. Shame on Jon Stewart also for making such an unfortunate comparison. My guess is you didn’t listen to the segment.
in regards to rescuing people from burning buildings and catching criminals:
the firemen and police will be riding in horse and buggies to save the babies, because gas is $10 a gallon and purchasing and maintaining motor vehicles will have become prohibitively expensive to purchase and maintain, and if by some miracle the babies arrive at hospital they will be able to expect third world medical care because nobody will be willing to slave through medical school and be treated like dirt as a result of private industry having been chased out of the medical services thanks to obamacare. brave new world indeed
but look at the bright side: with the demise of the combustion engine, our carbon footprint will be drastically reduced, and global warming will subside! the future of cuba and north korea awaits us with open arms
It is VERY curious how the struggling middle class is fine to “tax” but the upper 2% is not, great analogy Moonhowler. I am very curious to hear the difference between taking money from the ones making 50 grand or less as opposed to the ones making more than a quarter of a million. As I recall, the republican mantra was “now is no time to take money from from the pockets of tax paying citizens” what a bunch of baloney. How can people stand to be in their own skin when they display such open hypocrisy.
@Elena, I heard the same thing and Stewart has great examples of that being said from politicians and the foxie roxies. Funny how the $250m club is sacrosanct and some poor second year teacher making $36k is fair game because that person is a dreaded ‘public employee.’
This is a war on public employees with teachers being in the direct line of fire. Perhaps there is a silver lining. In the grand scheme of things, public opinion is not with Walker. Perhaps teachers will walk away being held in higher esteem since this attack has happened. More people will know what their day is really like (and their evenings and their weekends).
Remember–5% of the population controls the world’s wealth. That makes us all serfs.
We’re still in the dark ages. Doesn’t matter what we want to call it. The Barons still rule.
Both Ed Schultz and Jon Stewart have teacher moms. Schultz’s mom taught at Granby in Norfolk. Stewart’s mom was near Trenton. I have a friend who’s mom played bridge with her and taught with her. (Stewart is also a Wm and Mary grad) Both of spoken about how proud they are of their mothers and how hard they worked in the evenings and on weekends.
I believe both men have picked this up as a cause because of the national disrespect we are hearing.
This issue will not fare well for Scott Walker. He will not win by public opinion. He has gone too far. He unintentionally blew some wind in every other teacher’s sails while he was at it.
Jon Stewart is simply genius. It must be frustrating to so many people to refute the obvious. Like I’ve said, if you are looking for the best and brightest to be teachers, some people may want to change their nasty attitudes.
e: “how much does is education costing the taxpayer” — based on that sentence I’d say not enough.
Scott Walker does not have a college education. I learned that on Faux News this morning, perhaps while rewatching O’Reilly’s last night show.
Also, O’Reilly has come out and said perhaps Walker was overdoing it. Of course, O’Reilly is part of the brother and sisterhood. He is a former teacher. Public school I believe.
The only teaching I have ever done was in industry where my students were educated engineers and technicians. I found it a challenge to prepare for each days class. I can not even imagine how difficult it must be teach someone who does not have an educational background! How people can blame teachers for their children not excelling in class should have the opportunity to do it themselves!(wait a minute…that may be an idea) Could parents possibly help their children with their education? Oh say like helping with homework or supervising the amount of work they accomplish at home instead of watching TV or playing video games.That does sound radical and it’s much easier blaming teachers. I have another idea, possibly we should pay teachers MORE to attract the best people to teaching.
I think Bear has dug up a nugget here. I asked Mrs. W about this issue of disrespect for teachers. She just came back from a not so good day at the local high school, which, in my opinion, is the toughest high school in the county. (I’ve got nothing but respect for this gal. She can teach French or Spanish one day, and advanced algebra the next. She is a genuine designated hitter. I don’t think I could handle that. The phone starts ringing from Sub Central every day about 4 p.m. Drives me nuts and has been doing so for nearly 20 years.)
Anyway, she didn’t feel that there was really as much disrepect in general for the teaching profession as one sees bantered about in this fiscal and budgetary crisis and the surrounding controversy. In her opinion, a more aggravating problem is the one to which Bear alluded: parents who, when their own kids screw up, want to blame the entire thing on the teacher. She talked, for instance, about those parents who are repeatedly warned that their child is not going to survive the course because of, inter alia, a lack of effort. Then, a week or two before the course ends, the parents call up and beg for something to do which will allow the kid to scrape through. Mrs. W says that that is just unbelievable. In the end, these frustrated parents blame the teacher. And that is very hard on the younger, less experienced teachers, who don’t quite know how to handle it yet.
Mrs. W is on to something. Last ditch effort when none was previously applied.
Well, lets bring up that giant 800 pound gorilla in the room. This week an article appeared in the local paper about a preditor who used to teach at a local high school. Last fall another local teacher was arrested for drug sales. (not at school)
I don’t recall reading about things like that back in the day. Are more bad apples going in to the profession? How much do these creeps have to do with bringing the entire profession down, at least in the eyes of the public?
No opinions here?
I don’t remember those sorts of incidences either when I was young. I had an eighth grade science teacher who went on a rant against desegregation in class. The dalliance I knew about was between the football coach and the head (home ec teacher) of the cheerleading squad. There were a couple girls in the French II class who sat in the front row and weren’t careful about how they sat – thus getting the attention of the guy teaching the class. I think no extracurricular activity occurred, just an “A” or two.
Parents for the most part – the exceptions were rare – supported the teachers. There were no brats in class.
I remember stuff though not predator stuff, just abusive stuff. First grade at Robert E Lee elementary in Biloxi 1974… every teacher had a paddle and used it. One day on the way to lunch there was a kid from another first grade classroom in the hall, tied to a chair with tape over his mouth. My first grade teacher, Ms. French, pointed him out as an example as to what happened to children who didn’t stay in their seat. For those who talked out of turn there was always the circle on the chalk board where you placed your nose, or the corner. On to Newport News for the mid 70’s where corporal punishment stilled ruled with parental permission. Will never forget my 4th grade lang arts teacher teacher Ms. Meyer from R.O. Nelson Elementary hauling Timmy to the front of the room, making him bend over and whalloping him with a yardstick a few times because he didn’t do his homework and urging us to laugh at him. Or Ms. Nickerson, my 3rd grade teacher hauling Melanie out of her chair by her hair and spanking her really hard because Melanie talked back. Then on to a DOD school at Yakota AFB in the late 70’s where I had a sixth grade teacher that I thought was the funniest person ever…great stories, very sarcastic, but years later I learned from my mom that the reason Ms. Smith was so funny was because she was drunk the majority of the time she taught. That does explain why she rarely got up from her desk. But, on Ms. Smith’s grumpy days woe to any student that failed to answer questions correctly. That meant you had to sit in the corner with a dunce cap on. Yes, she had a dunce cap and made students wear it. I had the non-pleasure of that ridicule twice. Then back to Newport News and Dozier Middle School and my science teacher Mr. Hill. Mr. Hill who was not only a science teacher but a minister. A minister, science teacher that often made our class cry. I will never forget, for the rest of my life, when science projects were due and we had to present them. There was a boy in our class named Woody and he had NO family support for anything. He presented his project and Mr. Hill went off on Woody because in Mr. Hill’s opinion Woody’s project was inferior. Mr. Hill yelled and screamed at Woody (called him “block head” which he normally called him, even when taking roll) in front of the entire class so badly that not only was Woody sobbing, but the ENTIRE class was in tears. One of the students in our class was blind and taped the entire thing on his tape recorder. When we showed up in homeroom at the end of the day in tears and Chris (the blind student) played the tape for our homeroom teacher she went to the office very upset. Result: principal showed up, took the tape and that was the end of that. Mr. Hill liked to throw things at us, like books and staplers when he thought we were “talking stupid” , his speak for students having the wrong answer. So there are just a snippet of my school memories, and oddly the teacher names I remember are the ones who were mean, and the classmates whose names I remember are the ones who were hurt.
Unfortunately, stories like that are the exception and not the rule. When people read thing like that, I sure wouldn’t count on a raise. In the mind of the public, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch.
No they were not the exception but the rule from the 1950’s until the early 1980’s and the teachers that took part in the abuse whether Catholic, DOD, or public schools retired with their pensions intact. My experiences were no different or less damaging than what thousands of other students country-wide experienced during this time. Does that mean that teachers in the new century should be denied raises because of the acceptable standards of days past? No. What I am saying is that my past experiences taught me how to be a better teacher today. I’m not jaded by my past experiences, but learned from them how to be a better teacher and what NOT to do.