Making Fun of the Clown Car of Republican Candidates

Trump may not be first to drop out.

DECISION 2016: Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has stopped paying his 2016 presidential campaign's staff in the key early primary state of South Carolina, amid flagging poling numbers and sluggish fundraising. ‪#‎KPRC2‬
Do you think this is the beginning of the end of Perry's presidential campaign?

“There’s a constant negative … They’re going to take your benefits. They’re going to take your pay,” Kasich told former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, whose advocacy news site “The 74 million” hosted the forum along with the American Federation for Children.

“If I were, not president, if I were king in America, I would abolish all teachers’ lounges where they sit together and worry about ‘woe is us’,” Kasich told Brown.

Kasich, who I once thought was one of the more sane candidates comes out today with a solution to help teachers and education. Do away with teachers' lounges.

Quote:

“There’s a constant negative … They’re going to take your benefits. They’re going to take your pay,” Kasich told former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, whose advocacy news site “The 74 million” hosted the forum along with the American Federation for Children.

“If I were, not president, if I were king in America, I would abolish all teachers’ lounges where they sit together and worry about ‘woe is us’,” Kasich told Brown.

Yeah, force

them to worry in solitude. Whatever you do, don't do something to address their concerns.

I didn't miss the meaning, I just disagree. You describe teachers saying "they pretty well suck at most of the time." That is 180 out from my experience with the public school system. I find that most teachers are excellent with a few less than stellar examples. You say "we pay these people good money". Not around here. Teachers in NC were not given pay raises from 2009-2013. The starting salary for a teacher in NC coming out of school with a four year degree is $30,778. Given that the median household income in the US is $51,939, I really can't see a teacher thinking about graduating and starting a family. I Googled "Sanitation Worker Salary" and got a starting salary of $33,746. Heaven forbid teachers get together to complain that the people who educate our children are paid less than those who take out our trash.

I proved a couple of years ago that the average cost of employment per teacher is around $75,000

Compensation is hardly the same thing as cost.

The rest of us are concerned about the quality of education,

1. Common Core: “End Common Core. Common Core is a disaster.” June 2015.

2. School choice: “Our public schools are capable of providing a more competitive product than they do today. Look at some of the high school tests from earlier in this century and you’ll wonder if they weren’t college-level tests. And we’ve got to bring on the competition—open the schoolhouse doors and let parents choose the best school for their children. Education reformers call this school choice, charter schools, vouchers, even opportunity scholarships. I call it competition—the American way....” 2000.

3. Local control of education: “Education has to be local.” June 2015.

4. The U.S. Department of Education: “You could cut that way, way, way down.” January 2015.

5. American education in an international context: “We're twenty-sixth in the world. Twenty-five countries are better than us at education. And some of them are like third world countries. But we're becoming a third world country.” June 2015.

6. Education spending: “People are tired...of spending more money on education than any nation in the world per capita.” June 2015.

7. Citizenship education: “Public education was never meant to only teach the three R’s, history, and science. It was also meant to teach citizenship. At the lower levels it should cover the basics, help students develop study habits, and prepare those who desire higher education for the tough road ahead. It’s a mandate the public schools have delivered on since their inception. Until now.” 2000.

8. Teachers’ unions and politics: “Our public schools have grown up in a competition-free zone, surrounded by a very high union wall. Why aren’t we shocked at the results? After all, teachers’ unions are motivated by the same desires that move the rest of us. With more than 85% of their soft-money donations going to Democrats, teachers’ unions know they can count on the politician they back to take a strong stand against school choice.” 2000.

9. Education and antitrust: “Defenders of the status quo insist that parental choice means the end of public schools. Let’s look at the facts. Right now, nine of ten children attend public schools. If you look at public education as a business—and with nearly $300 billion spent each year on K-through-twelve education, it’s a very big business indeed—it would set off every antitrust alarm bell at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. When teachers’ unions say even the most minuscule program allowing school choice is a mortal threat, they’re saying: If we aren’t allowed to keep 90% of the market, we can’t survive. When Bell Telephone had 90% of the market, a federal judge broke it up.” 2000.

10. School safety and school learning: “Our schools aren’t safe. On top of that, our kids aren’t learning. Too many are dropping out of school and into the street life—and too many of those who do graduate are getting diplomas that have been devalued into “certificates of attendance” by a dumbed-down curriculum that asks little of teachers and less of students. Schools are crime-ridden and they don’t teach.” 2000.