Jesus, Marychain, and Joseph
The solution to the Wisconsin woes is to just fire the teachers and burn down the schools, at least to according some dipshit (John Terry) from the Media Research Center.
And he’s right, right?
We don’t need no education! We don’t need no stinkin’ teachers! What have they done for me lately? Those rat bastards are doing exactly jack and squat to educate our youth! Our childrens isn’t learning! Just send everyone to Catholic School and teach them about The Lord and stuff:
With the entire nation watching, Wisconsinites are now debating whether the state’s public school teachers ought to be required to pay 5.8 percent of their wages to support their own retirement plans and 12.6 percent of their own health-insurance premiums, and also whether their union ought to be able to negotiate a pay increase on their behalf that exceeds the rate of inflation without letting voters approve or disapprove that raise in a referendum.
What Wisconsin ought to be debating is whether these public school teachers should keep their jobs at all.
Then every state ought to follow Wisconsin in the same debate.
It is time to drive public schools out of business by driving them into an open marketplace where they must directly compete with schools not run by the government or staffed by members of parasitic public employees’ unions.
The well-documented incompetence of America’s public schools — including Wisconsin’s — is damaging our nation. Their educational product is simply not good enough for our children. In some cases, it is toxic.
According to data collected and published by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Wisconsin’s public schools have been consuming more and more tax dollars over the years while doing a consistently miserable job educating children in the basics of reading and math.
…As bad as they are, Wisconsin’s tests scores are slightly better than the national average for public-school students.
In 1998, American public school eighth-graders averaged 261 out of 500 on the NAEP reading test. In 2009, they averaged 262 out of 500. In 1996, they averaged 271 out of 500 on the NAEP math test. In 2009, they averaged 282.
In 2009, only 30 percent of American public school eighth-graders earned a rating of “proficient” or better in reading. Only 32 percent earned a rating of “proficient” or better in math.
This ignorance did not come cheap. Nationwide, according to the NCES, public schools spent $10,297 per pupil in fiscal 2008.
Does anybody do better with less money? Yes.
In 2009, the eighth-graders in Catholic schools averaged 281 out of 500 on the NAEP reading test — 19 points higher than the average American public school eighth-grader and 15 points higher than the average eighth-grader in a Wisconsin public schools. On the math test, eighth-graders in Catholic schools averaged 297 out of 500, compared to an average of 282 for eighth-graders in public schools nationwide and 288 for public school eighth-graders in Wisconsin.
In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, as noted on the archdiocese’s website, Catholic elementary school tuitions range from $900 per child at St. Adalberts in Milwaukee to the $5,105 for a non-parishioner child at St. Alphonsus in Greenhdale.
In addition to being less expensive and better than public schools at teaching math and reading, Catholic schools — like any private schools — can also teach students that there is a God, that the Ten Commandments are true and must be followed, that the Founding Fathers believed in both and that, ultimately, American freedom depends on fidelity to our Judeo-Christian heritage even more than it depends on proficiency in reading and math.
Jesus F. Croutons.
The mind, she bottles.
Looky here: The debate is NOT about whether to teachers should be required to take a pay cut. The union already agreed to that! let me repeat. THE UNION. ALREADY. AGREED. TO. DARTH WALKER’S. CUTS.
This is about union-busting. This is about pitting the private and public sectors against one another. Wisconsinites are holding out for one thing and one thing only – collective bargaining rights. For you assmonkeys out there whining about Johnny Schoolteacher makes this and why don’t I make what Jane Transitworker does, you should fucking ORGANIZE AND FIND A WAY TO GET WHAT JOHN AND JANE HAVE. Why is “race to the bottom” the default Teabilly position? Why are they trying to make us all as stupid as they are?
These free market fuckers are really starting to piss me off with their Galtian logic and idiocracization. How the hell are poor and middle-class folks supposed to afford to send their kids to private school?
Oh yeah, Fuck Them.
I swear to Bieber, I’m about to start setting small fires.
Is this the real life?!
How did I get in this nutshell?!
[via Media Matters]
[cross-posted here at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
Doug Hill
Those test score differences are negligible not to mention the massive self-selection bias that makes the whole comparison worthless in the absence of a finer-grained analysis.
jl
Well, you wouldn’t catch any of this country’s sainted founders advocating for, or establishing freedom destroying public education, spreading communist new fangled self hating ideas, like for example, the Crusades were not perfect examples of Christian charity.
That is why Jefferson went out of his way to make sure the University of Virginia was a private school, only available to the deserving rich, and that jealously preserved traditional curriculum of the Golden Age (known back them as the Regis aureleous Sanctorificus).
Did I get that right? Let me look for a link that will prove it.
Please note that I wrote arksnay atinlay.
Suffern ACE
If only my father had taken a vow of celibacy. I’m sure his English Lit students would have been better. My mom would have found someone else to marry. Maybe she would have found someone rich and I would have spent my summers in Europe instead of Wild Rose at summer camp.
One can always dream.
asiangrrlMN
I really only have one thing to say to this. Puerile? You betcha.
Dennis SGMM
Serfs need only learn to love God and obey their masters. Any education beyond that may just as well be spent on the animals of the field.
Pooh
Wisconsin’s failing public schools. I.E. 2nd in the nation in test scores…
Lavocat
Walker’s ham-fisted approach to union busting makes me think that we progressives have somehow infiltrated the Kochian teabaggers (query: aren’t ALL teabaggers Kochian by nature?). How else can one explain the momentum given to the progressive cause?
Anyway, can we stop calling them teabaggers and start calling them Kochsuckers now?
chopper
@Doug Hill:
i also like the comparison of tuition nationwide of all grades to the tuition in elementary school in milwaukee. i’m sure the first example of $900 is cheap because it’s for parishioners who already dump dues into the church anyways.
shit, if i get to choose who comes to my school i can educate kids way cheaper than the public school down the street that has to accept every LD, BD and autistic kid in the neighborhood.
Angry Black Lady
@Lavocat: kochsuckers works. i’ve started referring to them as teabillies thanks to some hilarious person on the twitterz.
Pooh
Seriously though, let’s turn primary and secondary education into profit centers. That seems to have worked out swimmingly for colleges!
Citizen_X
[Muttered from fetal position] Green balloons. Green balloons. Green balloons…
mds
Yeah, ’cause that Judeo- part will thrive once Jewish children are forced to attend Christian schools. What a mendacious little shit.
Teri
The decline of the American Public school is direct proportion to the Christianist who started taking over local school boards to begin advancing their repressive agenda.
Exurban Mom
Riiiiiiight.
Dear FSM, these people are so stupid.
Here’s what that nice $5000 per year at the Catholic school WON’T get you:
–special ed teachers for kids with documented disabilities (in my district, that’s some 5-10% of the total, depending on how you measure it)
–paraprofessionals to assist the special ed kids who need it (kids like those with severe autism or Downs Syndrome)
–buses
–intervention specialists to help the kids who don’t qualify for special education, but are behind in reading or math
–intervention specialists to enrich the education of gifted kids who test very high for their grade level
–school psychologists to help with kids who are bullies, who have divorcing parents, who have emotional problems, etc.
That’s some expensive stuff. The private schools can just refuse to admit kids who need extra help, or just not give it to them (I was a gifted kid who got NOTHING in my 12 years of parochial school).
Beautifully righteous rant, ABL, keep ’em coming.
Omnes Omnibus
Is he referring to Catholic schools that have selective admissions? the one that do not have to take any and all comers? Those Catholic schools?
Let’s play an anecdote game. The 1982 Wausau East High School graduating class had 12 National Merit Semifinalists, eleven of them became Finalists, and seven went on to be National Merit Scholars. The 1982 Wausau Newman High School graduating class, admitted a smaller class, had none.
Svensker
What does that MEAN? Can someone translate? Srsly. Non snark.
Lavocat
@Angry Black Lady: Actually, what we all need to start calling these Kochsuckers is a word that is not only right on point but is too seldom used because people are worried about hurt fee-fees. Folks, when you get government cronies working hand in glove with their corporate overlords, what you have is fascism, pure and simple. Walker is not only a Kocksucker, he’s a fascist Kochsucker. All he’s missing is the brown shirt.
Warren Terra
If you can find someone who thinks the cost of teaching that child is only $900 per year, please put them in touch with me. I have a fantastic investment opportunity for them that involves them purchasing a bridge, slightly used.
Even speaking as a total ignoramus on all the costs involved, If we figure 9 months of school days a year, 40 kids in the class, $900/year means $4000 per month to cover rent, utilities, materials, administration and other overheads. And that list deliberately excludes the teacher’s salary and benefits, because those alone could consume the whole sum and – after benefits and payroll tax are removed – might not get the teacher close to the median annual income.
Citizen_X
@Svensker: It means they intend to toss the establishment and no-religious-tests clauses of the Constitution out the window.
Warren Terra
@Svensker:
Well, “Judeo-Christian” is a word that Christians use to indicate that they have no Jewish friends.
Crusty Dem
Using tuition as a cost basis is absurd. The catholic schools are generally subsidized 35-70% by parish money and other sources of income. These schools they often have benefits that public schools could never have (nuns = free teachers). Catholic schools often act as a “safety valve” for untrained (or incompetent) teachers to work for a substandard wage to receive experience (or in lieu of unemployment). At least, that was my experience at a horrible Midwestern catholic school…
4tehlulz
Good thing the private schools are subject to the same special ed requirements of public schools or these statistics would be totally invalid.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly Known as Chad N Freude
@Warren Terra: Actually, the official definition is:
Art
Reading BJ this evening, I get the feeling that I am watching batting practice.
ABL is hitting all of them out of the park…with ease.
frankdawg
Minneapolis had a classic example of selection a couple years back. Twins, both straight A scholars, applied to the Academy of Holy Angles but only one was accepted . . . the one that was not confined to a wheel chair because of MD. The other was deemed “too great a burden” on the school.
BTW – when the ADA was passed Congress promised to fund 40% of special ed costs. If they did that the urban district I live in would have a budget surplus.
Exurban Mom
@frankdawg: Bingo! Exactly! People just don’t get it.
There’s a lovely young lady with a severe form of autism at my kid’s school. She requires an aide by her side all day, plus a special ed teacher, an occupational therapist, access to a sensory room when things become too much…just add up the cost of that, for one kid. Probably something like $60,000 per year. We have at least 4 children at our school with those kinds of needs. Plus perhaps two dozen more with developmental disabilities that are not so labor intensive but still require additional help. That is not cheap.
trixie larue
You are so right. My brother-in-law is resentful of his best friend who has a job for the city that gives better benefits than what BIL gets. He votes against himself every chance he gets. He never makes the connection between those who have better protections than others. Race to the bottom, indeed!
mclaren
Small fires?
Why think small?
Burn, baby, burn!
And since we’re on the subject of Galtian libertarianism…
Cacti
You mean schools that get to cherry pick their student body and can completely exclude special needs children tend to be higher performing?
Well knock me over with a feather. What a revelation.
Seitz
They CAN teach that, but that would be lying, since most of the founding fathers didn’t necessarily believe in the ten commandments. Teaching that would be lying, and would therefore be violating one of the commandments, just like Terry did in this column.
buckyblue
Sorry, we galted their ass. We went to school, did well, and by most American standards, that’s better. Therefore, we got better, less physically demanding jobs that you can do until you’re sixty five. You know, if you don’t like it, go to college and pass, you know, shit fucking hard classes. Good luck. Other than that, asshole, shut up and watch DWTS.
RSA
Toward the end of the article:
I don’t have much to say about this beyond the obvious: This guy’s a moron.
Robert M.
Almost everything I wanted to say has been said, but I wanted to stamp it with the imprimatur of authority–see, I’m a grad student in educational assessment!
He’s a moron. Of course the Catholic school system can get better results more efficiently: they get to select their students, and they’re subsidized in a number of critical ways by the church at large.
Moreover, he’s a voucher supporter, which pretty much marks him out immediately as a moron. Smaller schools tend to perform slightly better than large ones, and well funded schools tend to perform better than poorly funded ones. The net effect of vouchers is to make public schools worse by taking away funding, and make private schools worse by taking away the only things that make them look better on paper: small size and selective admissions. You can tell it’s a solution conservatives will like because everyone loses, except the people running the private schools.
Jebediah
@frankdawg:
The Geometer’s Paradise.
TenguPhule
What, the Catholic Church is running low on children to prey on again?
Joe Buck
The chief advantage that Catholic schools have is that every child in every seat has parents who care so much about what kind of education their kids get that they are willing to pay twice. It’s a self-selected group of students. Furthermore, they quickly expel any troublemakers. If they were required to take anyone, the fact that Catholic schools often have fewer resources and less-qualified teachers would start to win out, just as many charter schools started up by profit-making companies are performing worse than the public schools they replaced.
PanurgeATL
@Svensker:
Well, you see, you have to understand what a conservative means by “American freedom”, which essentially boils down to “the conservative tribe’s right to preserve the prelapsarian, Lawrence Welk [1], Walt Disney, Norman [2] Rockwell, Leave It To Beaver, status quo ante world that we were all so happy in until the DFHs ruined everything in the ’60s”. IOW, the ability to enjoy Good Things That They Have (as defined by them) is “freedom”, and Anything besides this is, by defnition, a threat to their “freedom”. Freedom isn’t a state of being, it’s their ability to enjoy a particular socio-cultural dispensation and a sense of being “at home”, and they argue that “our Judeo-Christian heritage” is the foundation of that dispensation. I’m not so sure–ISTM the foundation of that dispensation is male gender traditionalism of the sort Madison Avenue has been ramming down our throats for the last twenty years, which is an odd thing to base an entire society on, but there you go. What they don’t understand is how anything that’s not what they like can belong in the set of Good Things.
—
[1] I was going to put “Arthur Honegger’s Symphony #4”, but (a) no one knows it and (b) I decided I didn’t want to besmirch its good name by referencing it.
[2] I almost typed “Normal”. Heh.
Gretchen
@26 exurban mom – I think the voucher crowd would just say don’t bother with those high-need kids. Sam Brownback, our new Kansas governor, just closed a home for very disabled people to save money – he figures “the community” will take care of them somehow. They’d hire some babysitters for the autistic kids and call it done.
Caren
Not only will Catholic schools kick out any student who is not compliant and easy-to-teach, but they will tell you to send your learning disabled child to public school because they can’t afford to take care of him/her.
All the while bragging that they are fabulous educative…when all they do is cherry-pick.
Caren
Not only will Catholic schools kick out any student who is not compliant and easy-to-teach, but they will tell you to send your learning disabled child to public school because they can’t afford to take care of him/her.
All the while bragging that they are fabulous educative…when all they do is cherry-pick.
DBrown
Providing high levels of money to public schools does in fact solve the education problems that exist in this country (getting kids up to speed for college)!
Proof?
Look at my State – Maryland.
It has one of the highest spending rates per student and guess what, for three years it has led the nation in number of students who pass one or more AP tests at 42% of all students (credit for college level courses.)
More amazing, 34% of all Black students achieved this same milestone! Even the inner city school average was respectable.
Good teachers that are well paid and given good schools/supplies do in fact get the job done well. These students aren’t just college ready, they even have earned college credit before leaving high school – isn’t that what we all believe public schools are supposed to do?
Sko Hayes
I heard a snippet of a town hall yesterday, some teabagger was embracing his constituency, and one man stood up and suggested he eliminate the Department of Education, all public schools, just get rid of it.
I guess then the guy wants us to take all that money and hand it out in vouchers, so parents can choose whatever school they want (though they’ll find that most private school tuitions are beyond the reach of a $5000 a year voucher).
So what happens to the kids that can’t afford a private school, or even a bargain basement religious school?
Will Catholic schools admit Jewish kids or Muslim (gasp!!) kids? How about Atheist or gay children?
Is the republicans’ answer to abolishing public education to return us to the days when only rich people went to school, and the great unwashed masses were ignorant and couldn’t read or write?
I simply cannot comprehend this assault on public education.
gypsy howell
@Sko Hayes:
Rhetorical question, right? Of course that’s what they want.
Hell, most of the moron teabillies probably hated school anyway, and envision for themselves an idyllic childhood that didn’t include all those hard kweschins about reedin’ and ritin’ and shit.
jcgrim
This BS about public school failure is ginned up so edu-corporation privatizers can funnel public money to their investors. Without getting into the validity of using standardized test scores as a measure of teaching effectiveness, I’ll send you these links for the back story behind this juggernaut against teachers and public schools:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/to-starve-beast-we-must-drown-children.html
jcgrim
This BS about public school failure is ginned up so edu-corporation privatizers can funnel public money to their investors. Without getting into the validity of using standardized test scores as a measure of teaching effectiveness (they are INVALID),this link is the back story behind this juggernaut against teachers and public schools:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/to-starve-beast-we-must-drown-children.html
BlueMonkey
@Angry Black Lady: koch-roaches (safe for work and grandma edition)
gelfling545
@Joe Buck: At the time of my retirement from public school teaching (and I have no reason to believe things have changed)around Jan. new kids would start to arrive in the school – maybe 2 or 3 per class of 30. These were 1. kids tossed out of charter schools (after the schools got the funds for them) and 2. kids tossed out of Catholic schools, usually for a behavior problem. Soon thereafter state tests were administered & guess whose ticket those kids scores went on? We were required to administer the tests to home schooled kids too and their scores were reported as ours. Now this was not a big deal for us as 45% (or possibly more) of our students had IEP’s which in our district meant a minimum of 3 years below grade level so the scores were never going to be soaring. It did mean a lot to the charter/private schools who could get low performing kids off their books and of course certain charters got money for a full year & kept the kids for a half year. The public school they went to got no additional funds.
Hungry Joe
Slightly (but only slightly!) off topic — more of a tangent, really: Angry Black Lady is a shockingly good writer. She’s straight to the sharp point, her prose is frictionless, and she’s funny as hell. Actually, she’s a little funnier than hell. Book? Do I hear calls for a book?
Xenocrates
Just another jackass who has absolutely zero understanding of our system of government. No, asshole, this is not a “Judeo-Christian” nation. Ever read the part of the First Amendment that talks about not “establishing” a religion? Didn’t think so, but then I’m premising my argument based on the assumption that he actually knows how to read and comprehend the English language. Applause for ABL, as well.
Gretchen
@46 – I second “kochroaches”.