I'm watching the replay of the business meeting, and it is amazing to see just how cocky and arrogant our bully Emperor is. Really. Just watch it. It's a great show in public, but on tape he really gets two thumbs up for most obnoxious performance by an elected official.
Isn't there someone out there who can give him some warm fuzzies? Anyone?
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
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8 comments:
You understand...you understand now people...you understand!
Doesn't seem that he likes to be pushed into a corner, eh? Count how many times he says UNDERSTAND!
Can these things be captured and posted on YouTube?
An interesting front-page article on Pa. teachers salaries is in today's BCCT.
In the table on the right (Average teacher Salaries), Morrisville is conspicuously missing. Why? Maybe the "Hellmann" crowd had it stricken from the record because the figures were too favorable.
Here's what I mean. If you go to the PA Department of Ed site and actually look at the report, Morrisville is ranked 37 out of 727 state districts.
37!!! That's not favorable.
Well it is when you consider Bucks (apart from our three charter schools) is entirely in the top 10%.
Within Bucks, Morrisville's rank of 37 puts us as the second LOWEST average teacher salary (just before Bristol township).
Of course pundits will skew these numbers to their own means. But consider this: Can Morrisville attract top teachers when pay is at the bottom of the heap? Also, if we merge with Pennsbury, we'll suddenly jump to number 4 in the state; farm our kids to Bensalem we jump to number 3; pick up the cost to send them to Council rock and we find ourselves supporting the highest paid teachers in all of the state.
Ask the CPA... how does THAT save us money?
Good question. I do not have the skills, but if anyone did post the Emperor's antics to youtube, I would be happy to publish the link.
Here's the link for the teacher salaries story and the website at http://stopteacherstrikes.org/
Interesting that the avenging Simon Campbell collected all that information and made it (more) public in an effort to Stop!Teacher!Strikes! (by breaking the union, if you read between the lines) and here we are, using it to find out that, once again, the common wisdom regarding our teachers just isn't.
In a new development that you may have missed at the last meeting, it's not the salaries at all that are keeping our district from hiring the best (or even qualified) teachers. In fact, we've got openings that people are canceling their interviews for because they read the papers and have no faith that there will even be jobs to keep in a couple of years.
The mess the new majority has created is spreading.
I'm not an economist (nor a CPA) but when supply side declines (as in teachers not wanting to take jobs in Morrisville), and demand goes up, doesn't that lead to higher costs for the commodity?
Simon Campbell is Pennsbury's Steve Worob. Campbell takes a notion that most people would support -- teacher strikes are bad -- and blows it out of proportion by being nasty, arrogant, single-minded, and demanding. Same with Worob. His idea (as I understand it) -- to look out for the common taxpayer -- is distorted through delusions of impropriety and cries of SHAME ON YOU!!!
As I see it, teachers should have every right to strike. HOWEVER, since they serve the public there should be governing rules and penalties paid for doing so.
The rules (law) should include a requirement that both sides come to the bargaining table every single day, 7 days a week, for 10,12,14 hours a day until an agreement is met. It is ridiculous that a strike can continue with both sides acting like 10-year-olds and refusing to talk. Additionally, substantial fines should be charged TO BOTH SIDES for every day that the strike goes on. This would force them to reconsider their positions every day because eventually it is cheaper to accept a less-than-desired offer than to continue to pay to fight. The fines could help pay for child care that the affected parents would otherwise have to shell out.
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