Pathological liar John Fund: 'Very Few Teachers Have Been Laid Off'

[Joanne98]

Run time: 00:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOTXcGR5YIg   Posted on YouTube: September 12, 2010 By YouTube Member: ThinkProgress2 Views on YouTube: 7   Posted on DU: September 12, 2010 By DU Member: Joanne98 Views on DU: 609

 

[ThirdChoice]

1. I hope people remember...

...that the Education Department is not an employment agency, they are their to teach kids. I love unions, but they shouldn't protect bad teachers. Let's not forget what the main mission is: to teach children.

[yellowcanine]

2. Teachers are being laid off because of budgets, not because they are "bad teachers".

And it is the young enthusiastic recently hired teachers with lots of idealism and energy who are being laid off. So how does that help teach children?

[HardWorkingDem]

4. I am stunned at the lack of Dem movement on this public employment issue....

I don't know if it is because I'm involved in public employment or what, but nationwide there is a budget crunch issue facing public employees and these people have been forced to either take pay cuts or face lay offs.

In another posting I suggested the Dems need to push a Public Employee Protection Act focused on Fire fighters and police officers, but teachers could be added as well (I do realize there was a measure pushed for teachers recently).

Even more baffling is this war on teachers I keep reading about. Who the heck is for protecting bad teachers? No one I know of.

[1monster]

8. Regarding pay for teachers, My son just graduated this past summer. When he started

kindergarten thirteen years ago, many teachers in our district were on or eligible for food stamps because they made so little in salery.

That problem in pay was corrected in a series of pay raises over several years, but they are still paid less than surrounding counties. And we live in a county that has a higher cost of living than in those same surrouding counties. And our county is the number one in the state.

I really get sick when I hear people talk about "bad" teachers who can't be fired, and the easy paycheck they pick up. Whenever I hear that, I know that the person spouting such nonsense is an ignoramous, at least on the subject of education and teachers.

As for your question: Even more baffling is this war on teachers I keep reading about. Who the heck is for protecting bad teachers? No one I know of. No one is for protcting bad teachers. That's just one of the memes that those who want to do away with public education use to "catapult the propoganda."

[herbm]

12. Because "too many public workers" resonnates with "conservatives" Dems and GOP until they have to

line for public services or a class one of thier kids need to get into another school is filled.

[ThirdChoice]

9. I guess I was referring to DC

You are right, many teachers are losing jobs because of budget crunches, and that sucks. Here in DC, 266 "bad" teachers were fired by our School Chancellor, and the Teachers Union is suing the city, and the Mayor here will probably lose reelection for it, but he was trying to clean up this horrible system here in DC that is failing the kids. One teacher missed 86 days one year, one was banging a student, and the others had very poor evaluations and/or were not certified.

[yellowcanine]

11. Eh - I am familiar with the DC situation and it is not as clear cut as you suggest.

Michelle Rhee has made some major miscues - particularly in the way she described the layoffs - and they were layoffs - not firings. The allegations of misconduct were only made after the fact in response to bad publicity about the layoffs. The original reason given was budgets. What Rhee's "explanations" managed to do was paint all of the teachers who were laid off, supposedly for budgetary reasons, as bad teachers. That was most definitely not true and DC taxpayers will again likely be paying to settle lawsuits as a result of Rhee's slanderous big mouth. The question arises as to why teachers weren't fired in a timely fashion if there was all of this evidence of misconduct instead of laying them off at the end of the school year. Rhee has done some good things but she botched this one, imo.

[EFerrari]

3. Arne Duncan has shown zero interest in teaching anybody.

He also is not an educator himself. He is a hack who brought his Chicago Big Fail to DC.

[1monster]

7. More than 200 teachers were laid off two years ago in my school district. And that was on top of

nearly 200 the year before. (The Stimulus Package and some serious belt tightening, including electric power use, saved more lay offs last year. Some creative uses of "associate teachers" has helped keep the budget down and jobs intact, also.)

None of those teachers were laid off for being poor teachers or malfeasance, misbehavior, or other undesirable actions or traits. Teachers who were let go for being "bad" teachers were fired, not laid off.

I spend a lot of time in a lot of different classrooms in seven schools, middle and high. I can truthfully tell you that in eight years, I have seen only one bad teacher, a very bad case of burnout, because once she was an awesome teacher. She quit of her own accord when it was brought home to her that she was no longer up to her job.

The teachers at her school (all union members), although sympathetic to her and the problems that caused her burnout, thought she madae the right decision to quit and would not have fought to help her keep her job unless she made a dramatic improvement.

The teachers' unions are not like the cops' unions. They do not cover for a bad teacher. A bad teacher makes the already difficult task of teaching our children harder, because they have to cover the material the bad teacher failed to cover or adequately teach as well as their own area of subject matter.

And, beleive it or not, every teacher I've ever met (even the one mentioned above) really cares about their students and wants them to get the most out of their education as possible.

[Hhhnnnggg]

5. Idiocy

The year before Christie became governor, New Jersey received $1.1 billion in stimulus money for education. So, the next year, facing a $1.1 billion funding hole for education, Christie cut overall education spending $820 million. Therefore, he increased STATE funding for education by $280 million.

[OHdem10]

6. Only because Democrats kept sending funds to states to keep

Tachers, Firefighters and Police.

[smuglysmiling]

10. I have a question...

do they call them Fundies because they pay attention to what he says, or is it slang for a Fundamentalist, or are both right and they are interchangeable?

[JDPriestly]

13. I know several teachers who have been laid off.

Wall Street is stealing from everyone.

I even know of a couple of trust fund bums whose trusts have lost half the money in the trust. It's hard to feel sorry for trust fund bums, but the reality is that they should start a union from what I hear.